Ford House Museum & Visitor Center in Mendocino, Mendocino County, United States | Museum

Jerome B. Ford, superintendent of the town's first sawmill and one of the founders of Mendocino, had the house built for his bride, Martha, in 1854. The Ford House offers both historic and current information about the area, with a broad selection of brochures, books, and cards. A number of videos are available upon request, with topics ranging from the steam whistle logging era of the early Twentieth Century to the amazing story of gray whale migration.
Permanent exhibits at the Ford House reflect Mendocino's early settlement era. There is a small display of Native American implements, and a scale model of the town as it was in 1890, created by local craftsman, Len Peterson. Throughout the house, old photographs, tools and relics relate the saga of the felling of the redwoods to the shipping of the lumber aboard the legendary doghole schooners. Changing seasonal exhibits showcase the local flora and fauna, and Heritage Days in the May recall the skills and history of Jerome and Martha Ford's time and lives.