Making history come alive
Why you should go on the Kelley House Museum walking tour
Come on in!
Our earnest guide shifted his weight to his other leg and leaned his cane up against his hip so he could better gesture with both hands. Our group had just come from the Kelley House Museum, where the walking tour had started, and we were now standing out on the corner of Lansing and Albion in downtown Mendocino, listening intently as volunteer docent Robert Becker continued to sketch out the history of the village for us. At the moment, he was engrossed in telling the story behind the eye-catchingly odd statue on top of the modern day Savings Bank, which was built as the local Masonic lodge shortly after Mendocino itself was founded. Carved out of a single piece of solid redwood, “that statue was never supposed to be shown to the public – it’s full of all these secret symbols that the Masons used – yet here it still stands over a hundred years later, out for everyone to see.” We gazed up at this iconic Mendocino landmark as our guide seamlessly wove the ethos of the statue together with the Puritan work ethic of the village founders, the fierce independence of the loggers, and even the architectural heritage evident in the building on which the statue perched.
Father Time and the Maiden atop the Savings Bank, a little bit later in the day.
As Robert led us around the corner of Main Street and slowly back to where we had started at the Kelley House, he continued to paint a sweeping picture of the history of Mendocino and how it fit into greater scope of California, the United States, and Western civilization as a whole. We tried to imagine it all as he spoke – What would it have been like to be out on this rugged coast during the height of the gold rush? What did the Chinatown off Main Street look like? How noisy were all the windmills powering the town’s 50 watertowers? How lonely was it for those who remained after the lumber mills shut down after World War II? What might it have been like to participate in the revitalization of the area that the artists and back-to-the-landers led in the 50s, 60s, and 70s?
Outside the Kelley House Museum
Telling tales of logging days in the Ford House Visitor Center
The tour over, we wandered away to a quiet lunch at Good Life Café, our brains alight with Mendocino’s history, and we wondered why we had never done this walking tour before. It was so good! We had been through some of the Kelley House’s constantly changing exhibits at different times before, but this tour kind of made it all come alive. There was obviously so much to learn about Mendocino and the hardy, diverse community that has called it home for generations.
Walking down Main Street in Mendocino…
We got a chance to chat with Jane, the head Kelley House docent, the next day, and her readily apparent passion for sharing the incredible stories of Mendocino’s past made us want to come right back and take another tour with her too. What new, fun insights and anecdotes would she tell to make history come alive and connect us more tightly to this place we call home?
We started our tour in the Kelley House in front of this beautiful vintage map of The United State and its assorted territories in the late 1800s - the world was such a different place then.
The Kelley House volunteer docents lead walking tours of Mendocino every Saturday and Sunday at 11:00am. Tours generally run until 12:30 or 1:00. It’s very much worth the donation of $10.
Can’t make it to one of the regularly scheduled walking tours? Schedule a private tour! The docents are happy to tailor the walk to your personal interests. Meet them anywhere in Mendocino just about any day or time. $50 for up to 5 people. Contact them via their website to set it up.
They will be holding special tours during the holidays: every day November 28 – December 1; every day December 21 – January 1; other holiday extended weekends throughout the year (check back for details).
Looking for something a little different for your next stay with us? The Kelley House is hoping to start full moon cemetery walking tours in the spring – stay tuned!
Written by Laura Hockett