Main Hall

prepared by Executive Director-Curator Josh Buck

Over 100 years ago, the Bank of Eureka opened its newly constructed building in an area that was originally homesteaded in the 1860s. In 1871, the locally famous Huff House was built on this site, later known as the Bay Hotel, which was destroyed by a spectacular fire in the late 1880s. The Bank of Eureka and the Savings Bank of Humboldt County opened a two-story brick building on this site which was incorporated October 4, 1889, and opened for business July 1, 1890. In July 1911, the brick building was demolished to make way for this new structure, designed by the San Francisco architect Albert Pissis (1852-1914). In 1954, Bank of Eureka merged with Crocker-Anglo London-Paris National (later Anglo Crocker, then Crocker Citizen), but in 1957 Crocker moved out and the building sat vacant. Cecile Clarke purchased the building in 1959 and on June 8, 1960 the Clarke Memorial Museum opened at this site and was dedicated on August 21, 1960 as a memorial to Ms. Clarke’s parents, Joseph & Annie Clarke, Mendocino County pioneers of the 1860s.

Now in the Main Hall...