The Studio Mendocino / Jarvis & Nichols Water Tower

This is not a building with a water tower added on top — this is a water tower that somehow became a building, a studio, a shop, and one of Mendocino's most unforgettable landmarks.

Overview

The weathered double-tank tower on Albion Street is historically associated with the Jarvis & Nichols property, the same parcel as the landmark Jarvis & Nichols commercial building at Main and Kasten Streets.

Today the converted space is home to The Studio Mendocino, which describes its location simply as the watertower at 45091 Albion Street. The studio makes and sells hand-thrown ceramics and naturally dyed textiles and also offers private classes overlooking the ocean.

The structure is one of the best surviving examples of something once extremely common in Mendocino: the private wooden water tower. Before a municipal water system served the village, wells, windmills, pumps, elevated tanks and gravity-fed plumbing were part of everyday life. Mendocino once had scores of these towers rising above its rooftops. Most disappeared as their original purpose became unnecessary, but a number survived by being incorporated into homes and businesses.

Location

The Studio Mendocino uses the address 45091 Albion Street, placing its entrance on the Albion Street side of the property.

Historic records, however, tie the tower to APN 119-238-01, the Jarvis-Nichols property whose principal historic building is addressed at 45098 Main Street. That explains why historic records may identify the water tower by the Main Street parcel while the business operating inside it uses an Albion Street address.

The tower rises behind the Jarvis & Nichols Building, today's Gallery Bookshop, near the northeast corner of Main and Kasten Streets.

History

The story begins before the present tower. A remarkable 1907 photograph preserved by the Kelley House Museum shows two water towers behind the Jarvis & Nichols Building. The museum identifies the tower on the left as one constructed for Jarvis & Nichols in 1879. That original tower survived for about 45 years before being replaced in 1924.

According to the Kelley House Museum, Burtt Elliott had the old 1879 tower replaced in 1924. Elliott was an important part of the Jarvis & Nichols story: after Henry Jarvis and James Nichols retired in 1914, they sold their successful mercantile business to Elliott, who had worked for them as a clerk.

The Mendocino County 2026 Updated Inventory of Structures confirms the date and adds another important name. It identifies the structure as Jarvis-Nichols Water Tower No. 2, lists 1924 as its earliest documented year, and states that the tower was constructed by Perley Maxwell, citing the February 16, 1924 Mendocino Beacon. Maxwell was deeply connected with Mendocino's built environment and also left behind an extraordinary photographic record of the village and surrounding coast.

There is another fascinating detail visible in later photographs: the Jarvis-Nichols property developed a distinctive two-tank arrangement. A Kelley House Museum discussion of Mendocino's skyline specifically identifies the two-tank water tower that belongs to the Jarvis-Nichols Building. That configuration helps make this tower instantly recognizable even among Mendocino's surviving water towers.

Like several surviving Mendocino towers, its lower framework was eventually enclosed and adapted for commercial use. Instead of being demolished when its original function became obsolete, the tower became useful real estate.

One of its best-remembered occupants was Wind & Weather. That business has a much bigger history than its little Mendocino storefront might suggest. Wind & Weather says it began on California's North Coast in 1976, originally built around a fascination with weather and meteorological instruments. It eventually grew into a national catalog and retail company selling weather instruments, weathervanes, garden pieces and outdoor decor.

By at least the late 1980s and 1990s, published weather-reference material was directing customers to Wind and Weather, The Albion Street Water Tower, Mendocino, California. A 1998 San Francisco Examiner weather guide likewise described Wind and Weather as both a Mendocino store and catalog company. By 2001, the company had expanded its retail presence to Fort Bragg while continuing its much larger catalog business.

Wind & Weather eventually left the tower and the Mendocino Coast. The company still exists, but its present business address is in Burnsville, Minnesota. Its own history continues to acknowledge that everything began on California's North Coast in 1976.

The Building Today

Today another creative business has taken over the old tower. The Studio Mendocino occupies the space at 45091 Albion Street, making and selling hand-thrown ceramics and naturally dyed textiles and teaching private classes inside one of the village's most unusual historic structures.

Why It Matters

Few Mendocino buildings show the village's ability to reuse its history quite this literally. The tanks are still above your head, but the space underneath them has gone from supporting a water system to supporting shops, artists and generations of people who remember walking through the door.

Community Memories

One reply to the original history simply said, I miss Wind and Weather. Another remembered the building itself.

Timeline

1879 — The first Jarvis & Nichols water tower is constructed.

1914 — Henry Jarvis and James Nichols retire and sell the mercantile business to Burtt Elliott.

1924 — Elliott replaces the old tower; Perley Maxwell builds Jarvis-Nichols Water Tower No. 2, documented in the Mendocino Beacon of February 16, 1924.

1976 — Wind & Weather begins on California's North Coast.

1980s-1990s — Wind & Weather operates from the Albion Street Water Tower.

2001 — The company expands retail to Fort Bragg while continuing its catalog business.

Present — The Studio Mendocino occupies the tower with ceramics, textiles and classes.

Sources & Original Research: Mendocino County 2026 Updated Inventory of Structures, Zone A — APN 119-238-01, Jarvis-Nichols Water Tower No. 2, constructed by Perley Maxwell, earliest documented year 1924, citing the Mendocino Beacon, February 16, 1924; Kelley House Museum, Jarvis & Nichols, 1907; Kelley House Museum, THEN and NOW Photos: Jarvis & Nichols Building; Kelley House Museum, THEN & NOW: View of Main Street from The Point; The Studio Mendocino current business website; Wind & Weather company history; Weather Observation Handbook supplier listing for Wind and Weather, The Albion Street Water Tower; San Francisco Examiner / SFGATE 1998 weather resources article; San Francisco Chronicle / SFGATE 2001 coverage. Community memories contributed by Barbara Torres and J Thomas Cathey. Compilation by Gee Bee.