Ocean Quilts Mendocino

Some Mendocino buildings seem built for the view, but this one also knows how to hold a storefront.

Ocean Quilts Mendocino sits at 45270 Main Street, in one of those village properties that looks commercial and residential at the same time. Facing Main Street and Mendocino Bay, the building has long combined shops, gallery space, living quarters and some of the best ocean views in the village.

Overview

Ocean Quilts Mendocino is listed at 45270 Main Street and specializes in handmade quilts, including work using antique fabrics and quilts associated with American quilt artists and Amish traditions. Visit Mendocino continues to list the shop at this address.

But quilts are only one part of the building's commercial story.

For years, 45270 Main Street was also associated with the Artists' Co-op of Mendocino, an important local gallery representing Mendocino Coast artists. Period Mendocino Art Center material from 2007 lists the Artists' Co-op at this exact address, and later listings continued to identify the gallery here.

Location

The property stands along Main Street near the eastern end of Mendocino's historic commercial district, facing toward Mendocino Bay and the headlands.

The unusual arrangement of the property helps explain its varied history. A real-estate description of 45270 Main Street characterized it as a combination of commercial space in front and residential space behind, separated by a garden. At the time of that listing, the first floor had a long-term commercial tenant, an art gallery occupied the second floor, and the third floor was being used for storage.

That mixture of business and residential space is still visible in the building's appearance, with its storefront character toward Main Street and a more domestic feeling elsewhere on the property.

History

The earliest history of the building remains an open part of the story. A confirmed construction date and original owner have not yet surfaced in the readily available historical material.

What is clear is that by the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, 45270 Main Street had become part of Mendocino's active arts and specialty-shopping scene.

The Artists' Co-op of Mendocino occupied upstairs space here for many years. A Mendocino travel guide specifically described the cooperative as being "upstairs" at 45270 Main Street, while Mendocino Art Center publications from 2007 and later continued to list the gallery at the address. Archived Artists' Cooperative announcements also give 45270 Main Street as the gallery's address, showing that this was not simply a brief listing but an established home for the cooperative.

Ocean Quilts became another recognizable part of the property. Current and historical visitor listings describe the shop as specializing in high-quality handmade quilts, including distinctive pieces incorporating antique fabrics and work connected with individual American quilt artists.

A 2010-era real-estate offering provides an especially useful snapshot of how the property functioned. It described a commercial building facing Main Street with a residence toward Albion Street, a garden between the two portions, a long-term first-floor tenant, an art gallery upstairs and storage above that. The property later sold in October 2013 for $1 million according to recorded real-estate transaction data.

The building also has an unexpected television connection. A detailed location study of Murder, She Wrote identifies 45270 Main Street as one of the Mendocino buildings used to represent fictional Cabot Cove. In the Season 4 episode "Indian Giver," the building was shown as Mayor Booth's office.

The Building Today

Today Ocean Quilts fits naturally into that long artistic use of the property. Quilting sits somewhere between practical craft and fine art, so a shop devoted to handmade textiles seems especially appropriate in a building that spent years associated with the Artists' Co-op of Mendocino.

The earlier story — who originally built the property, when it was constructed and what occupied it before the gallery years — remains an open part of the history. Old photographs, Kelley House files, tax records, city directories, property documents and community memories may eventually fill in those missing chapters.

Why It Matters

This is another Mendocino property with two histories running at once: the real history of artists, galleries, shops and residences, and the television history created when Mendocino briefly became Cabot Cove.

Timeline

Season 4 of Murder, She Wrote - The building appears as Mayor Booth's office in the episode "Indian Giver."

2007 - Mendocino Art Center publications list the Artists' Co-op of Mendocino at 45270 Main Street.

c. 2010 - A real-estate offering describes commercial space in front, a residence behind, a gallery upstairs and storage above.

October 2013 - The property sells for $1 million according to recorded transaction data.

Present - Ocean Quilts Mendocino operates at the address.

Sources & Original Research: Visit Mendocino; Mendocino Art Center publications; Artists' Cooperative of Mendocino archived announcements; historical Mendocino visitor guides; property and transaction information for 45270 Main Street; Murder, She Wrote location research identifying the building's appearance as Mayor Booth's office; original post text, photograph and research compilation provided by Gee Bee.