What to See in Mendocino - Top Sights and Attractions

Museum in Mendocino, California. The Kelley House Museum is a house museum in Mendocino, California. It is located at 45007 Albion Street in Mendocino.

It was founded in 1973 and has mission "to collect, preserve, protect and share the rich history of the Mendocino Coast." It interprets Mendocino's logging and shipping industries.

It is the starting point of a popular walking tour of Mendocino.

It has "the only museum-quality storage and research facility open to visitors on the Mendocino California Coast."

It has a cannon salvaged by sport divers in the 1960s, from the ship Frolic which was wrecked in 1850 a few miles north of Mendocino, at Point Cabrillo. Investigation of the wreck by agents of Henry Meiggs sparked the development of the timber industry in the area. Mendocino itself was founded in 1852 as a logging community for what became the Mendocino Lumber Company, and was originally named Meiggsville after Meiggs.^[1]

Temple in Mendocino, California. The Temple of Kwan Tai is a Chinese Taoist temple in Mendocino, California, dedicated to Kwan Tai. It is California Historical Landmark #927.

The temple was constructed from local redwood in the mid-19th century and served what was once a large population of Chinese immigrants who worked in or supported the lumber industry in Mendocino, including survivors from a fleet of Chinese junks that sailed to California for the gold rush and landed instead on the Mendocino coast. The temple's ownership was passed down through Chinese families until, in 1995, a nonprofit organization was formed to restore and maintain the temple.

It continues to be used both as a house of worship and to educate visitors about the history of Chinese Americans. It is one of the oldest continuously used Chinese temples in California, the only remaining joss house on the northern California coast, and the only remaining building from the Chinese community in Mendocino.^[3]

Church building in Mendocino, California. The Mendocino Presbyterian Church is an historic Carpenter Gothic-style Presbyterian church building located at 44831 Main Street, in Mendocino, California. Built of coast redwood, it sits on the Mendocino headlands overlooking the Pacific Ocean; its board and batten exterior walls, tall side-entrance bell tower, steep gabled roof and lancet windows are typical of many Carpenter Gothic churches. Its stained glass windows were made by local stained glass artist Leone McNeil Zimmer.

The church is California Historical Landmark No. 714 and is also a contributing property in the Mendocino and Headlands Historic District which was added on July 14, 1971, to the National Register of Historic Places.^[4]

Historical place in Mendocino, California. The Mendocino and Headlands Historic District is a nationally recognized and locally protected historic district in Mendocino, California. It is bounded roughly by the Pacific Ocean on the west and south, Little Lake Street on the north and California State Route 1 on the east. It is filled with historic late 19th Century buildings built from local redwood, such as the Mendocino Presbyterian Church and the Masonic Hall. Because of its resemblance to coastal villages in New England and the Maritime Provinces of Canada, it has been used often as the location for movies such as Johnny Belinda with Jane Wyman and Lew Ayres, which was set in Prince Edward Island, and TV series such as Murder She Wrote with Angela Lansbury, which was set in Maine.

On July 14, 1971, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It is also protected by historic preservation provisions enacted by the Mendocino County government. A visitor's center and museum are located in the historic Ford House.^[5]