The Ford House is a historic home and visitor center for the Mendocino Headlands State Park. It was built in 1854 for Jerome Ford, the village of Mendocino's aknowledged founder. Being located on Mendocino's main street it serves as a visitor center for the town as well as the Park. One of our main focuses at present is the need for restoration. Due to recurring California State budget cuts, the maintenance of the house has been neglected. The non profit organization that operates the visitor center, Mendocino Area Parks Association, has taken on the task of fundraising in order to help state parks restore and maintain the building.
The Mendocino Area parks Association (MAPA)was founded in 1984 to support our local State parks educational efforts. MAPA operates six visitor centers and funds two seasonal naturalist positions in our local state Parks.
In our permanent exhibits we have a few Native American baskets (Pomo),Logging tools, several Emmy Lou Pacakard origina block prints, a hand carved scale model of Mendocino as it was in 1890.
Mendocino Headlands State Park, visitor center operated by the Mendocino Area Parks Association.
Year round: