McNear: Mendocino’s local prohibition prompted the opening of Mendosa’s General Merchandise

The Mendosas are one of the many Portuguese families that made their way to Mendocino from the Azores Islands in the late nineteenth century. The family patriarch, Francisco Jose Mendonca, was born March 15, 1851 and became a whaler as a young man, sailing around Cape Horn several times before landing in Boston, where he worked as a longshoreman. He soon made his way to California.

Frank Mendosa, as he came to be known, first worked in Caspar and then in Mendocino as a lumberman. He began saving up money, enough to purchase passage to California for his father and three sisters. In 1882, Frank and Joseph Lopps jointly purchased land on Little Lake Road in East Mendocino, splitting the property and building their homes there.

Shortly after, Frank married Isabel Jacinto Lopes, who was born on the Island of Sao Jorge in the Azores. His middle sister Maria Jacinta married Joseph Lopps and moved in next door.

Frank and Isabel welcomed eight children over the next ten years, seven sons and one daughter.

In June 1902, Frank had a tragic accident at the Mendocino Lumber Mill. He stepped into the loop of an overdraw rope and was thrown from his feet. As the rope was drawn up and tightened, it caught on his right arm and severed the limb. He recovered at home, but with a large family to care for, Frank opened a “Chop House” and saloon on Lansing Street, serving chowder, oysters and tamales. All the Mendosa children, except for seven-year-old Alexander, left school to work.

Mendocino voted for local prohibition in 1909, forcing Frank to close the saloon and chop house. He converted the business into a grocery and dry goods store named “Mendosa’s General Merchandise.” Little did he know how long the store would continue.

In 1916, the store was enlarged to carry general merchandise, hardware, and paint. Four years later, the store was rebuilt and expanded with a 40-foot-long storefront constructed along Lansing Street. The eldest sons took over the store for their father, who was struggling with his health and passed away in 1924.

The Mendosa brothers kept up their father’s business. In 2006, Mendosa descendants sold the store to Harvest Market. It was rebranded to “Harvest at Mendosa’s,” which still operates on Lansing Street today.

Averee McNear is the curator at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino, Calif.