The Kelley House Museum is an historic house museum in the heart of Mendocino, California, a picturesque town of 1,000 people. The home was built in 1861 by William Kelly (sp), one of Mendocino’s founding fathers, and now contains 19th Century furniture. The ocean-view home sits on an acre of gardens, with a pond and three resident geese. William had the pond built and stocked so that the neighborhood children could fish.

Did You Know?
We offer Walking Tours of the Mendocino National Historic Preservation District. Tours leave from the Kelley House Museum every Saturday at 11 am, and last for an hour and a half.

The Kelley House Museum is an ocean-view, historic house museum in the heart of the historic district of Mendocino, California, a picturesque town of 1,000 people.

The Kelley House Museum’s mission is to collect, preserve and share the rich history of the Mendocino Coast, and it serves its mission in two ways. Founded in 1972, it now houses the coast’s only museum-quality storage and research facility. The facility is open to visitors four days a week, and provides Web access to thousands of artifacts, photographs and documents. Genealogy and photograph requests come from all parts of the world.

The Kelley House Museum was the home of William Kelly (sp), an influential businessman in early Mendocino. Kelly was a key player in the Mendocino Lumber Company in the late 1800s, and he built this house for his family in 1861. William had the pond built and stocked so that the neighborhood children could fish.

The ocean-view home sits on an acre of gardens, with a pond and three resident geese, and serves as a historic house museum.  The house, pond and water tower are listed as Category I structures within the guidelines of the Mendocino Historical Review District. The Museum is also the caretaker of façade easements for seven other historic buildings within the district.