A Hundred Years on the Central Coast: The Melby's Story

In the 1870s, a tailor named Stefanus Melby left Bergen, Norway, and sailed to America on a ship called the America. He settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, and on March 18, 1894, his first child was born: a son named Arnold.

In 1906, a flu epidemic took Stefanus and one of his children. Arnold, the oldest survivor, helped his mother support the rest of the family. They moved to Crookston, Minnesota, and it was there, still a schoolboy, that Arnold became an apprentice watchmaker.

A motorcycle, a jeweler, and lumberjacks

Around 1916, Arnold left for Klamath Falls, Oregon, to work for a jeweler repairing watches. Part of that job had him selling pocket watches to Norwegian lumberjacks straight off a motorcycle, riding out to wherever the work camps were rather than waiting for customers to come to him. In 1919, he sent for Jennie Fylling, back home, to come marry him.

In 1922, their son Donald was born the same year Arnold moved to Santa Maria to work for a Mr. Denton. Later that year, at the invitation of Walter Zieche, Arnold moved again, to Lompoc, to open his own store: Arnold M. Melby Jeweler. That's the year we count from. A hundred and four years, this year.

Ten dollars and an empty store

The Depression hit hard, and in 1936 Arnold moved the business to Santa Maria, buying a defunct jewelry store for ten dollars at 116 North Broadway. It had showcases but no inventory, so he started with nothing. He built his clientele the same way he'd started, first as a watchmaker people trusted, then as a jeweler they came back to.

In 1943 he bought H.C. Corey's store and the building at 109 West Main. If you've been in our showroom, you've probably noticed a gold-leaf glass sign that just reads 109. That's the original sign from that building, still hanging on our wall today next to photographs of two earlier generations.

Donald comes home, and the store grows

Donald joined the business in 1945, after two and a half years in the Air Corps flying C-47s. He married Joyce Jensen the following year. In 1946, the family sold the original 116 North Broadway location to Bob Mollica, the watchmaker who'd worked there. Two stores a block apart didn't make good sense.

The store kept growing where it stood. In 1950, it expanded into a neighboring paint store, doubling its footprint and adding what became the Sterling Silver Room, carrying fine china and crystal alongside jewelry. Ad Jensen, a retired J.C. Penney manager, came on to handle office duties in 1959. In 1960, another expansion, this time into a neighboring fabric store, became The Gift Shop.

Mark, and the move to Orcutt

Mark Melby started with the business in 1975 and later became president. Joyce retired in 1988. In 2000, Mark, by then president and CEO, moved both the store and its clock to Orcutt, to the location on Clark Ave where we still stand today.

That clock is the same one you can still see standing outside our storefront. It's the same clock in our logo. It's kept time through two moves and four generations of one family, and it's still keeping time now.

Tony Guzman has worked at our bench as master goldsmith since 1978. Aaron Sturges-Melby has managed the shop since 1988. Alex Melby joined in 2012. Between the four of us, there's close to a century of experience standing behind every repair, appraisal and custom piece that comes out of this shop, on top of the century the shop itself has already put in.

If you'd like to see the 109 sign in person, or just want to talk jewelry with people who've been doing this a long time, we're at 1140 E Clark Ave in Orcutt, Tuesday through Saturday, 10 to 3. Call or text (805) 925-1678.