Mendocino and it’s Victorian-style wooden houses
This little town of 1,000 inhabitants was originally a lumbering settlement. In their search for seclusion and inspiration, painters, sculptors and writers discovered this tranquil refuge in the 1950s. The idyllic setting with its Victorian-style wooden houses and the surrounding lush forests has often served as a motif for painters.
Examples can be found at the Mendocino Art Center (45200 Little Lake Street, http://www.mendocinoartcenter.org), where exhibitions and theater performances are held. Old photographs and drawings at the Historical Museum document the town’s history (http://www.mendocinohistory.org). However, the beautiful wooden buildings can also be seen in person: the magnificent Mendocino Hotel (http://www.mendocinohotel.com) and the Ford House on Main Street, dating from 1854, are examples of what artists transposed onto canvas. The adjacent Mendocino Headlands State Park not only protects the village from urbanization, it also provides vacationers with scenic trails through natural forests untouched by tourism (http://www.parks.ca.gov).