The Village of Mendocino was founded in 1852 as a lumber town, after the Frolic wrecked because budget cuts didn’t allow a lighthouse to be built before they needed it. After much of town burned down a long time ago, they built a lot of old buildings in anticipation of the Historic District. The town became a sleepy place for the next hundred years or so, where planting Heritage Roses was the most exciting thing going on. In the Sixties, the hippies went back to Mother Earth, loosely interpreted as here. Over time, those guys all became respectable business people and politicians. Bill Zacha attracted another unsavory sort, flocks of starving artists, when he founded the Art Center. The quaintness attracted Yuppies who started inns, and that’s where we find ourselves today.
