Ford House Museum, Mendocino CA

Category & Type :

Museums

Location :

735 Main Street , Mendocino CA

Phone :

707-937-5397

Information about Ford House Museum...

The location of the local state parks visitor center as well as the home of an 1854 lumber mill house. This musuem includes a scale model of 1890 Mendocino. Special events on sea vegetables, wild mushrooms and more. Open daily from 11-4 Donations gladly excepted.

The mid-19th-century home of Jerome Bursley Ford, the founder of Mendocino, today serves as a visitors center on the region.

A lot of the history in this museum concerns the Ford family, who owned the house and were highly involved in the local lumber industry, starting in the early 1850s. Learn about the early lumbering industry, see lots of artifacts from Mendocino history and the general area. We ran into locals who were reminiscing about working for the lumber company back in the old days. (I'm not calling them elderly, as they were too vital for that!) The model of the town of Mendocino is amazing! Truly a labor of love. There is a suggested donation of $2 per person.

The house serves as a general visitors center for Mendocino and has a large display of brochures and a short video. Another room houses an in-depth, quite beautiful miniature recreation of the town of Mendocino. The last room has a display regarding logging in the community during the 1800's (read the placards, it was more interesting than it sounds). An enthusiastic volunteer was on hand to talk about Mendocino history and could answer any questions I had. All in all, better than expected by far.