NCMA Internal & Family Medicine Mendocino

Not every Mendocino building tells its story through tourism, art, or ocean views. Some tell it through everyday care — and this one turns out to have a much older Mendocino story hiding behind the medical office door.

Overview

The building at 45081 Little Lake Street is home to NCMA Internal & Family Medicine Mendocino, a medical practice associated with internal medicine, family medicine and primary care. Current medical directories continue to list the practice at this Little Lake Street address.

The medical use of the property is not a recent conversion. Dr. Jeffrey A. Berenson has been associated with this address for decades, and federal provider records continue to list his internal-medicine practice at 45081 Little Lake Street.

But the little building facing Little Lake Street began life with an entirely different purpose.

Location

45081 Little Lake Street sits in Mendocino village among a neighborhood of older residences, cottages and outbuildings that developed during the community's nineteenth-century lumber era.

The medical office is actually connected historically to an older residential property behind it. Kelley House Museum research identifies the structure facing Little Lake Street as the former carriage house or barn belonging to the historic S. J. "Jesse" Chalfant property.

History

The larger property was originally the home of Samuel J. "Jesse" Chalfant, an important figure in early Mendocino County history who served in public office and worked in the lumber industry. Chalfant and his wife eventually sold the Mendocino property to Byron Clark in 1886.

The building now used as the medical office was originally an outbuilding associated with that residence — described by Kelley House Museum as both a barn and carriage house.

And it has one particularly unusual chapter in its history.

In 1914, when the property was associated with Simon and Mrs. Boos, an armadillo reportedly escaped from a traveling side-show connected with a local Apple Fair. The animal apparently took shelter underneath the Boos barn and began digging through Mrs. Boos' garden. A contemporary Mendocino Beacon account described strange tracks, a trap being set, and children reporting that they had seen the armored animal. It apparently was never recaptured.

That "Boos barn" is the same structure that Kelley House Museum identifies today as the medical office on Little Lake Street.

The Building Today

Nearly a century after the Chalfant family had lived on the property, Dr. Jeffrey Berenson and Mina Cohen purchased it. Kelley House Museum records say they renovated the historic house and barn, with the carriage house fronting Little Lake Street restored for use as Dr. Berenson's medical office.

Today NCMA Internal & Family Medicine Mendocino continues that medical chapter. Current listings identify physicians and practitioners associated with family medicine, internal medicine and nurse-practitioner care at the address.

Why It Matters

It is a good example of something Mendocino does particularly well. Instead of tearing an old working building down when its original purpose disappeared, the structure was adapted. A carriage house that once served a village household now serves another basic community need — medical care.

That gives 45081 Little Lake Street an unusually clear line between Mendocino's past and present: a nineteenth-century carriage house, an armadillo hiding beneath the barn in 1914, restoration generations later, and eventually a neighborhood medical office caring for Mendocino Coast residents.

Timeline

1886 - S. J. "Jesse" Chalfant and his wife sell the Mendocino property to Byron Clark.

1914 - An armadillo escapes a traveling side-show and shelters under the Boos barn, the building now used as the medical office.

Late twentieth century - Dr. Jeffrey Berenson and Mina Cohen purchase the property and restore the house and carriage house.

Present - NCMA Internal & Family Medicine Mendocino operates at 45081 Little Lake Street.

Sources & Original Research: Kelley House Museum history of S. J. "Jesse" Chalfant and its account of the Boos barn and the escaped armadillo; federal National Provider Identifier records for Dr. Jeffrey A. Berenson; current NCMA Internal & Family Medicine Mendocino medical-directory listings; original post text and research compilation provided by Gee Bee.