Pamela Hudson Real Estate — Justin Packard House
1000 Main Street, Mendocino — An 1882 Victorian built for jeweler Justin Packard, a real estate office since 1985.
Last updated: August 20, 2026
A yellow Victorian at Main and Evergreen Streets turns out to have a much deeper history than its present-day real estate signs suggest. This is the Justin Packard House, built in 1882 and still doing business nearly a century and a half later.
Overview
The building at 1000 Main Street is now home to Pamela Hudson Real Estate. The company continues to list the address as its Mendocino office, and California Department of Real Estate records identify 1000 Main Street as broker Pamela Hudson's main office.
Pamela Hudson's company says she has represented real-estate clients in California since 1988, specializing in property along the Mendocino Coast.
But the yellow Victorian itself is much older.
Location
The house stands on the northeast corner of Main Street and Evergreen Street, at the eastern approach to Mendocino's historic village.
That corner has an interesting detail hidden in its history: Evergreen Street was originally called Packard Avenue, connecting the street name directly with the family for whom the house was built.
History
The Kelley House Museum identifies the building as the Justin Packard House.
Justin E. Packard married Emma Zella Young in 1879. In 1882, builder O. B. Ackerman constructed this nine-room house for the Packard family. Justin Packard was a jeweler and watchmaker who operated a Main Street business with his brother Charles O. Packard, a druggist.
An early photograph preserved by the Kelley House shows Justin and Emma Packard with their young daughter Elsie standing in front of the house. A horse-drawn carriage is in the side yard, and the future Evergreen Street had not yet been laid out. Behind the home stood an enclosed water tower that supplied the house with running water.
The Packards' time here was relatively short. Justin and Emma divorced in 1890.
A year later, businessman L. H. Bither acquired the property through what the Kelley House describes as a complicated three-way property exchange involving Bither, Packard and carpenter and undertaker J. D. Johnson.
Bither added another surviving piece of the property's story. In 1895 he built the barn behind the house.
In 1903, Bither sold the Justin Packard House to Fred Perkins of Little River. Perkins sold it in 1906 to woods superintendent Edward Boyle. After Boyle died in 1929, the property remained in the Boyle-Ferrill family for generations and was not sold out of the family until 2005.
The Building Today
The transition from residence to business came considerably earlier than the 2005 sale.
According to Kelley House Museum research, the house has been used as a real estate office since 1985. That means the Victorian has now spent more than four decades helping sell other Mendocino Coast houses while remaining one of the historic houses itself.
The barn behind it developed its own commercial history. A print shop operated there from 1985 through 1990. Beginning in 1991 it became Evergreen Barn, a veterinary practice and pet-food shop, which remained there until 2017.
Pamela Hudson Real Estate eventually became the familiar name on the Main Street house. A 2011 Mendocino Coast real-estate directory was already listing Pamela Hudson Real Estate at "Main and Evergreen streets," with the same 937-3900 office telephone number associated with the business today.
Why It Matters
That quiet yellow Victorian is not simply an old house converted into an office. It began in 1882 as the home of jeweler Justin Packard and his family, passed through several prominent local owners, stayed with one family line for much of the twentieth century, became a real estate office in 1985, and remains part of Mendocino's working Main Street landscape today.
More than 140 years after O. B. Ackerman built it, the Justin Packard House is still earning its keep.
Timeline
1879 - Justin E. Packard marries Emma Zella Young.
1882 - Builder O. B. Ackerman constructs the nine-room house for the Packard family.
1890 - Justin and Emma Packard divorce.
1891 - L. H. Bither acquires the property in a three-way exchange.
1895 - Bither builds the barn behind the house.
1903 - Bither sells the house to Fred Perkins of Little River.
1906 - Perkins sells to woods superintendent Edward Boyle.
1929 - Boyle dies; the property remains in the Boyle-Ferrill family.
1985 - The house begins use as a real estate office; a print shop opens in the barn.
1991 - Evergreen Barn, a veterinary practice and pet-food shop, opens in the barn.
2005 - The property is sold out of the Boyle-Ferrill family.
2017 - Evergreen Barn closes.
Sources & Original Research: Kelley House Museum - "THEN and NOW Photos: Justin Packard House," including the 1882 construction, Packard family history, Bither ownership, Boyle-Ferrill family, water tower, barn and real-estate-office history; Pamela Hudson Real Estate - company history and current business information; California Department of Real Estate - Pamela Rae Hudson broker record and 1000 Main Street main-office address; Mendocino Coast Real Estate Magazine - 2011 directory listing Pamela Hudson Real Estate at Main and Evergreen Streets; Mendocino Coast Chamber of Commerce and Coastal Mendocino Association of Realtors - current office listing at 1000 Main Street; original post text, photograph and research compilation provided by Gee Bee.