MUIR BEACH | DOWNTOWN MILL VALLEY | STRAWBERRY | DOWNTOWN SAN ANSELMO | LARKSPUR | SUN VALLEY DOWNTOWN SAN RAFAEL | LOCH LOMAND | TERRA LINDA | DOWNTOWN NOVATO | PACHECO VALLE | SAN MARIN
eighborhoods Marin
Winter 2010-2011
A look at the unique nooks that make the county a special place to live
Muir Beach Mill Valley San Anselmo Larkspur San Rafael Novato
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Marin eighborhoods
Winter 2010-2011 3
Muir Beach
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olinas may get all the publicity, but Muir Beach is Marin's great funky secluded oceanside community. It was here that Ken Kesey hosted his second Acid Test, Janis Joplin's ashes were scattered along the sands, Azorean dairymen from the other side of the world settled and prospered, and burned-out Frisco beatniks found a perfect end-of-thecontinent milieu for renewal and contemplation. Migrating monarch butterflies and California red-legged frogs love the place. There's no cable television, cell phones are unpredictable, the bikini's optional at the north end of the beach and every Nov. 5 a bagpiper leads a procession to the ocean's shore for a ritual cremation of Guy Fawkes. What's not to love? This tiny unincorporated settlement is tucked into a cove with dramatic bluffs on three sides and the wide foggy Pacific lapping at its southern shore. It's entirely within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, with Mt. Tamalpais State Park poking at its upper flanks; a mile or so to the north is Muir Woods National Monument, the Bay Area's only remaining grove of ancient redwoods. Back in the good old days the area was dominated by a 25-acre tidal lagoon that attracted bobcats, elk, jackrabbits, bald eagles, grizzly bears and the Huimen tribe, one of 600 Coast Miwok groups that flourished between the Golden Gate and Bodega Bay. Then the Spanish colonials arrived, followed by the Mexicans, who deeded the area and the rest of the massive Rancho Saucelito land grant to pioneer William Richardson. After statehood one immigrant, Constantino Bello, started the Golden Gate Dairy at Throckmorton's T Ranch in 1898; a decade later his brother Antonio purchased the hilly, cove-side parcel and named it Bello Beach. Antonio built a beachside hotel and in 1923 subdivided the hillside into graded parcels for low-cost summer rental cabins. A rustic tavern-restaurant-snack bar was built along the sands and the place was renamed Muir Beach to connect it with the nowworld-famous forest up the road. After the war the town's natural beauty, cheap housing and seductive isolation attracted bohemians disenchanted with the trapPacifi c Sun Hom e & Gard en
pings of civilization. The beatniks added a certain artists' colony mystique to the local mix of dairymen, old-timers and the postwar suburbanites who occupied the new Seascape subdivision above the original settlement. The town really got its name on the map during the 1960s, soon after the old Tavern morphed from a restaurant into a dance hall. Ken Kesey picked the Tavern for his second Acid Test in December 1965, complete with light show, music by the Warlocks (aka the Grateful Dead), LSD aplenty and luminaries like Lenny Bruce, Wavy Gravy and Owsley Stanley. (The evening is chronicled in Tom Wolfe's The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, published a few years later.) Big Brother & The MILL VALLEY Holding Company, Creedence Clearwater Muir Beach Revival, the Outfit (led by Manson Family member Bobby Beausoleil) and less iconic bands like Magenta Raindrop and Ugly Harpies also played the Tavern before California State Parks acquired the property and replaced it and its adjacent beach cottages with a parking lot. The beach itself is only about a thousand feet long, but there's plenty of room for surfing, kayaking, bird-watching, horseback riding, picnicking and sunbathing in the protected cove. (The hippies started a nude-sunbathing tradition that endures at Little Beach, a strip of pebbly sand north of the boulders, but the locals demanded a crackdown last summer; be advised.) Just up Highway One is the Green Gulch Zen Center with its meditation zendo, teahouse, organic garden and regular Buddhist services every Sunday morning at 10. To the west is Slide Ranch, an environmental education center that's been offering fun, hands-on eco-activities since 1970. Back at the cove, the Muir Beach Community Center features classes, workshops, movies, parties, seasonal events and fireside gettogethers as well as coffee and scones every Wednesday morning and beautiful ocean vistas from its decks and verandas. Up Pacific Way is the Pelican Inn (est. 1979), a cozy Tudor-style pub where you can sip a Guinness, sup on shepherd's pie, beef Wellington, fish and chips or afternoon tea, bed down for the night in a canopy bed or enjoy the annual Guy Fawkes, Burns Night and Boxing Day revels. There are no streetlights and only one public pay phone, but the water's potable no the septic tanks are working fine and the bookmobile visits twice now, am month. Getting away from it all was never so magical.
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—MATTHEW STAFFORD
MUIR BEACH AT A GLANCE
photo by Julie Vader
FIRE STATION Throckmorton Ridge Station, 816 Panoramic Highway, Mill Valley; Muir Beach Volunteer Fire Department, at the Golden Gate Dairy Barn LIBRARY Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley PARKS Muir Beach POST OFFICE Sausalito Post Office, 150 Harbor Dr.
in Muir Beach rests entirely with
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reation Area. the Golden Gate National Rec
PUBLIC SCHOOLS Tam Valley School, 350 Bell Lane, Mill Valley; Mill Valley Middle School, 425 Sycamore Ave., Mill Valley; Tamalpais High School, 700 Miller Ave., Mill Valley; Strawberry Point Elementary, 117 East Strawberry Drive, Mill Valley
Downtown Mill Valley
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nly four miles past the Golden Gate Bridge and a seven-minute jaunt west of the Downtown Mill Valley exit rests the heart of the leafy, affluent and politically progressive community of Mill Valley-a city named by the national magazine Money (and the CNN Money website) as the 10th best city in the nation to live. The magazine put it this way: “Dot-com millionaires and power couples in the film and music industries are flocking to what long ago Th was a hangout roc e for artists and k m o r t o n Av reformed hippies.” O ld Despite downMi ll P town’s current high cost k of living and frequently congested traffic conditions, the allure of this charming, mystical little part of town shows no signs of waning. Though the parameters of the downtown are loosely defined, the bulk of the action takes place toward the west end of E. Blithedale Avenue, up along Throckmorton, all the way past Old Mill Park and the city’s well-stocked library. There, within a radius of only a couple of miles, community members and out-of-towners can find everything they need–from sophisticated shops and topnotch restaurants to theater, movies and live music. Among the downtown’s primary draws is the Depot Bookstore and Café (a former Greyhound bus depot), where locals turn for coffee-sipping and people watching in the town’s center, also known as Lytton Square. Amid an eclectic mix of young families, aging hippies and sportily clad cyclists, it is not unusual to spot a rock star now and then. (Mill Valley has been home to the likes of Maria Muldaur, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Weir and Sammy Hagar, among others.) Every October for more than 30 years, the downtown has been transformed by the nationally known Mill Valley Film Festival,, which screens manyy of its movies
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at the historic Sequoia Theatre, at 25 Throckmorton. As if that isn’t enough to put this town of almost 14,000 on the map, downtown Mill Valley is the starting point of the more than 100-year-old Dipsea footrace–a 7.1-mile course that starts along the 671 stairs through picturesque Old Mill Park and finishes at the bottom of steep trails in Stinson Beach. High-end clothing boutiques, pet and baby stores flank the town square and the perennially packed Mill Valley Market is a favorite for its upscale gourmet offerings and well-prepared deli items. Many of the neighborhood’s old-timers long for the days when downtown Mill Valley was a funky, artsy community sought out by folks who loved nature and wanted to be away from the hustle and bustle of urban living. With the influx of boomers and commuters, the town has become more suburban–yet it’s suburbia with a lingering bohemian sentiment still evident. Whether it’s a good, strong cup of coffee, a grueling footrace uup Tam or the opportunity to simply curl up in a comfortaable chair at the library and take in some of the area’s most sspectacular vistas-you’ll find it all in this quintessential Marin neighborhood.—TANYA HENRY n
& Ga rde n photo by Ken Pie knyy
DOWNTOWN MILL VALLEY AT A GLANCE FIRE STATION Mill Valley Fire Department, 1 Hamilton Ln.; Southern Marin Fire Protection District, 308 Reed Blvd. LIBRARY Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave. PARKS Boyle Park, 50 Thalia St.; Old Mill Park, 300 Throckmorton Ave. POST OFFICE Mill Valley Post Office, 751 E. Blithedale Ave.
lley is perhaps Downtown Mill Va ood. Marin neighborh
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essential the county’s quint
PUBLIC SCHOOLS Tamalpais High School, 700 Miller Ave.; Mill Valley Middle School, 425 Sycamore Ave.; Old Mill School, 352 Throckmorton Ave.
Some of the Änest real estate pickings in Marin
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erhaps one of the reasons Strawberry isn’t on the radar for many of us is that it’s one of Marin’s toniest neighborhoods. Homes still regularly sell for well over $1 million. OK, you might find a few priced under a million behind the Strawberry Village Shopping Center, but by and large, real estate sales are fixed in the seven-figure range. A county-generated document for the Countywide Plan described Strawberry as a “community on the upper end of the housing price range of the county with severe limitations on housing for those of modest means.” This unincorporated area near the city of Mill Valley is outlined by Highway 101 to the west and Tiburon Boulevard to the north, with waterfront property on Richardson Bay to the east and south. Most governmental functions rest with the county, although the Strawberry Recreation District maintains the parks, trails and public docks. It seems an ongoing struggle has been raging among neighbors in this small enclave (made up of a fair amount of waterfront property) who can’t agree whether to become an incorporated part of Tiburon, or remain associated with Mill Valley. Despite sometimes vocal Tiburon proponents, the neighborhood remains untethered from its sharky neighbor. Maybe it’s the spectacular views that have attracted harbor seals to the quiet and unspoiled coves the community offers. There was a time when the seals thrived and fished along the shores near Strawberry Point, but in the late ’80s their numbers dwindled. Still, a number of Eastern Pacific harbor seals have made the northeastern tip of the Strawberry Peninsula a regular spot to lounge beachside. In an effort to protect the seals–along with other wildlife, including herons and egrets–strict building codes have been enforced. Fortunately for them, kayakers are permitted to share the area with these frolicking sea-goers. If we didn’t mention Strawberry Village Shopping Center– which seems to be the hub/meeting place for most residents–we would be remiss. Just as its developers-the Shelter Bay Retail Group-intended, “it is more than a shopping center–it’s a destination.” As many as 60 merchants survived more than a year of construction time spent renovating the nearly half-century-old center. The 18-acre mall reopened in the fall of 2006 with several spiff y new restaurants, rent increases for the tenants and newly tree-
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lined pedestrian walkways. San Francisco restaurauteur Gordon Drysdale brought his Pizza Antica to Strawberry, and the upscale Woodland’s Pet Food and Treats caters to the neighborhood’s wealthy demographic. Even Harmony, a Chinese restaurant that offers city-caliber dim sum, has set up shop in the center. If ever the county begins to feel small, head east from Highway 101 out on to Tiburon Boulevard, and make a right on to Strawberry Drive. Discover (if only from your car) how the folks in Marin’s 3rd Supervisorial District live.—TANYA HENRY
photo by Ken Piek ny
STRAWBERRY AT A GLANCE F FIRE STATION Mill Valley Fire Department, 1 Hamilton Ln.; Southern Marin Fire Protection District, 308 Reed Blvd. S LLIBRARY Mill Valley Public Library, 375 Throckmorton Ave. PARKS Brickyard Park, Great Circle Dr./Seminary Dr.; P Reggie Park, 118 E. Strawberry; Strawberry Cove Park/ R Belloc Lagoon, Seminary Dr. B POST OFFICE Mill Valley Post Office, 751 E. Blithedale Ave. P
ks, trails and public docks— Strawberry’s littered with par t? wan what more could a Marinite
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P PUBLIC SCHOOLS Tamalpais High School, 700 Miller Ave.; M Mill Valley Middle School, 425 Sycamore Ave.; S Strawberry Point School, 117 E. Strawberry Dr.
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Marin eighborhoods
DRE#01308538
Winter 2010-2011 9
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The antiques capital of the West
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estled between wild and quirky Fairfax to the west and bustling, centrally located San Rafael to the east, perched beneath the rolling hills of the Ross Valley and the majestic slopes of Mt. Tamalpais, San Anselmo is truly a place unto itself. With a slow-paced small-town vibe, well-groomed parks and quaint eateries and boutiques lining its stately downtown streets, it appears at first glance to be a relatively easy-to-peg town. But that sublime exterior belies a rich, colorful history and more than a few hidden corners. The area that would one day be known as San Anselmo has always been blessed with breathtaking natural beauty. Before the arrival of European settlers, Coast Miwok inhabited the region. The Miwok, whose territory stretched as far north as Bodega Bay and covered all of Marin and part of Sonoma, no doubt favored the area because of the creek with its abundance of fish and the rolling oak-covered hills that provided both shade and acorns. The arrival of the Spanish and the establishment of the missions spelled the end of the Miwok era and paved the way for what is now downtown San Anselmo to be included in a vast land grant to wealthy friends of the Mexican government in the mid-1800s. More than two decades after California was added to the Union, the North Pacific Coast Railroad rolled through and shook things up in the mid-1870s, adding a line that ran from Sausalito to Tomales via San Anselmo, which for a few years appeared on maps simply as Junction. By the 1880s, the town had adopted its less utilitarian moniker, inspired by Juan Bautista Cooper’s original Punta de Quintin land grant, which marked the area as Canada del Anselmo. The arrival of the railroad-as well as the construction of the San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1892-predictably brought growth, development and expansion. Today San Anselmo is among Marin’s most popular and beloved burgs. In addition to the myriad restaurants and shops that make the town a topnotch Bay Area shopping and dining destination-some call it the antiques capital of the Northern California-San Anselmo also boasts a handsome, well-stocked library, several fine schools and some of the county’s best parks and outdoor
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ve i attractions, all set S e m linas Ao Ave Bo selm to the backdrop of An San the still-pristine, meandering creek. The town holds a number of special events, highlighted by the annual downtown antiques fair. Lovely and secluded Creek Park plays host each year to a number of al fresco Film Night in the Park screenings. With high-class commerce juxtaposed against natural beauty, a diverse citizenry composed of artists and professionals of every stripe, a rich history and a boundless future, it’s easy to see why San Anselmo shines as one of the brightest jewels in Marin’s decidedly ornate crown. —JACOB SHAFER
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SAN ANSELMO AT A GLANCE
photo by Ken Piek ny
FI STATION Ross Valley Fire Department, Station 19, 777 FIRE San Anselmo Ave.; Station 20, 150 Butterfield Rd., San Anselmo Sa LI LIBRARY San Anselmo Public Library, 110 Tunstead Ave. PA PARKS Lansdale Park, corner of Center Blvd. and Lansdale; Creek Pa Park, downtown San Anselmo; Memorial Park, Veterans Pl. off Sa San Francisco Blvd.; Robson-Harrington Park, 237 Crescent Rd.; So Sorich Ranch Park, end of San Francisco Blvd.; Faude Park, top of Br Broadmoor Ave. between Indian Rock Rd. and Tomahawk Dr. PO POST OFFICE 121 San Anselmo Ave.
d its name from the utilitarianIn the 1880s the town change elmo. ‘Junction’ to Canada del Ans
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sounding
PU PUBLIC SCHOOLS Brookside Elementary, 116 Butterfield Rd., San An Anselmo; Wade Thomas Elementary, 150 Ross Ave., San Anselmo; Si Sir Francis Drake High, 1327 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., San Anselmo
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Marin eighborhoods
Winter 2010-2011 11
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he Larkspur waterfront is the perfect place to press pause. Windsurfers with their bouncing boards and colorful sails battle the bay winds, ferries pull in and out with passengers going to work or off to enjoy a day shopping in the city, and friends gather to hear music, taste microbrews and drink coffee at the Marin Country Mart (formerly Larkspur Landing Shopping Center). This area of land is part of the San Quentin Peninsula, named for the Miwok Indian warrior Quintin, who was a follower of Indian Chief Marin. In the late 1960s, the city of Larkspur annexed the area originally part of the Mexican land grant Rancho Punta de Quentin, which had been awarded to Juan B.R. Cooper in 1840. The area’s history is long past, but the small slice of Marin County is considered a gem by many residents who find themselves meeting friends and family there on a regular basis for sports, entertainment and shopping. Those who’d rather not ride a surfboard while on the water can catch a ferry! The Golden Gate Larkspur Ferry delivers some 1.4 million people between Larkspur and the San Francisco Ferry Building each year. The ferry service was launched after a recommendation from a 1970 transportation plan to add the Larkspur terminal. Between 1972 and 1977 the Golden Gate Bridge District constructed three new ferry vessels. The first of the new Spaulding ferries, the GT Marin, went into service in 1976. The second vessel, the GT Sonoma, was put into service in 1977. In 1978, the San Francisco Ferry Terminal was dedicated. The third ferry was used as an alternate. To save fuel, all three ferries were converted to diesel power and by late 1985 all were in use. The commute and weekend schedules were expanded and ridership increased more than 34 percent. In 1998, services were again expanded with a high-speed catamaran-MV Del Norte. It offered more frequent trips, better departure times and faster crossings. It nearly doubled the number of daily
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round-trips from 26 to 40. A second highspeed ferry was added in 2001. All of these vessels have been maintained with regular refurbishments and repairs. While waiting for a ferry, many cross a footbridge over the highway to the shopping center. This area used to be the Hutchinson’s Rock Quarry. Now the bustling Marin Country Mart is a pleasant place to work out, eat, drink and shop. It is surrounded by a myriad of office buildings, offering a great place to take a lunch break or stroll during the workday or after. Central to Larkspur Landing is the live music performed every Friday evening in the summertime, bringing some of the best local bands to play for free. The early music sets offer a great way to relax after a long workweek. Folks flock from all over Marin to drink microbrews at Marin Brewing Company or sip wine at Tam Cellars. East of the landing is Remillard’s Brickyard Kiln, the last remaining building of the brickyard built in 1889. It was declared a state historical landmark and now houses The Melting Pot restaurant. The Larkspur waterfront is definitely a place to visit...and stay a while.—SHELLEY SHEPHERD KLANER
photo by Ken Piek ny
THE LANDING AT A GLANCE FFIRE STATION 400 Magnolia Ave. LLIBRARY 400 Magnolia Ave. PARKS Neighborhood Park, north side of Marin County Mart P POST OFFICE 120 Ward St. P
has it all. Magnolia Avenue quite truly
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P PUBLIC SCHOOLS Neil Cummins Elementary School, 2200 Doherty Dr.; Hall Middle School, 58 Mohawk (grades 5-8)
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Downtown San Rafael
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Positively Fourth Street!
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ver the years, cattle drives, paMemorial rades, hangings and shootouts, cardsharps, low-riders, toreadors Park and Franciscan friars have Mission Mission made Fourth Street Marin’s most urbane 5th gathering spot. Av. San Rafael Av. It’s been all of that since Marin’s first 4th inhabitants, the Coast Miwok, settled in an area between today’s Fourth Street S t. and Fifth Avenue at the base of the 3rd region’s northern hills. A few centuries of fun, fishing and foraging later, soldiers, priests and 2nd P.O. S t. “converted” Indians from Mission San Francisco de Asís across the bay arrived at what is now the corner of Fifth Avenue and A Street in December of 1817 and established Mission San Rafael Arcangel, the 20th and next-to-last mission in the chain from San Diego to Sonoma. In 1834 the missions were secularized and converted into pueblos Fourth was the log jail where hangings were conducted 101 by edict of the new Mexican government. San Rafael pueblo and its from a nearby oak tree. The main business of San Rafael, environs were granted to Tim Murphy, a genial Irishman who acted however, was livestock. The surrounding hills were home as both Indian agent (he spoke Miwok with a brogue) and alcalde of to thousands of head of cattle, and it was common to see the herds the pueblo. Murphy’s most famous contribution to the local history, driven up Fourth to the slaughterhouse on San Rafael Creek. however, was his inauguration of Oct. 24 as San Rafael Day, which The town of San Rafael was incorporated in 1874. An elaborate started as a feast to honor St. Rafael Arcangel and over the decades (it new Greek Revival county courthouse was erected with cupola, lasted 52 years) turned Fourth Street into a riotous scene of dancing, columned portico and, just inside the front door, a gallows. All of San gorging, all-night drinking, horse racing, blackjack, bullfighting and Quentin’s executions were carried out here, including that of murderer every other sort of revelry indulged in by ranchers, prospectors and Lee Doon; convivial onlookers nearly rioted in their mad scramble scum from the Barbary Coast out for a killing. over the body for souvenirs after the hanging, and thereafter execuAfter California joined the union in 1850, forty-eight 300-squaretions were performed at San Quentin instead. foot city lots were laid out along numbered and lettered streets The 1906 earthquake and fire shot San Rafael’s population up from projecting from the mission, which also acted as Marin’s 4,000 to 6,500 as refugees from San Francisco raced for the suburbs. first county courthouse. Just up Eleven years later, thousands of onlookers lined Fourth Street to cheer Company D of the Fifth Infantry as they marched down to the Union Depot to head overseas and whip the Kaiser. Fourth Street suffered a blow in 1957 when fire destroyed a block of businesses between D and E streets, but downtown has undergone other, more positive changes in the past several decades. The old train depot was lovingly restored in 1971 and now houses the Whistlestop organization. There were merchant-sponsored redevelopment projects in 1963 and again in the ’70s, and Fourth Street’s been repaved at least twice by Ghilotti Brothers, a company with a San Rafael pedigree dating back to 1914. The street itself gained international fame in 1973 as the lowriders’ main drag in George Lucas’s American Graffiti. Smack in the middle of all this multicultural urbanity rises the gorgeously restored Rafael movie palace, a city landmark for much of this century. Fourth Street, in other words, remains Marin’s main drag.—MATTHEW STAFFORD Pacifi c Sun Hom e & Gard en
photo by Ken Piek ny
DOWNTOWN SAN RAFAEL AT A GLANCE FIRE Station 1, 1039 C St.; Station 2, 210 Third St. LIBRARY San Rafael Public Library, 1100 E. St. PARKS Albert Park, Boyd Memorial Park
become the focal poi The Rafael Film Center has San Rafael nightlife.
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Winter 2010-2011 15
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5t h Forbes The neighborJ Hill Res. hood has its own shopping center/community gath4t h ering spot at the S t. corner of Fifth and California; included is a laundromat, a needlepoint shop, computer services center and a hair and nails salon. Just past Scenic Avenue on Fifth is the West End Nursery, a family-owned shop that provides the area’s gardening and landscape supplies. At the opposite end of Fifth Avenue is the Marin Monument Company-a monument itself since the early 1920s-which outfits granite and bronze memorials for next door’s full-service, 130-year-old Mt. Tamalpais Mortuary & Cemetery. Sun Valley Park, on Solano Street between California Avenue and K Street, is a 2-acre recreation area with a playground and jungle gym, basketball court, sheltered picnic tables and–although signs calling for leashes are prevalent–a moderately sized open plot of grass just perfect for playing catch with your dog. Another prized amenity is the Rafael Racquet and Swim Club, found up Racquet Club Drive, where members can still have lunch and enjoy the beatific views of Sun Valley with a backdrop of Mt. Tamalpais and the surrounding East Bay hills. Strolling through the neighborhood today, it’s easy to see why turn-of-the-century residents originally flocked to Sun Valley. It’s the kind of place where the local market displays two public bulletin boards, mostly touting dog-walking services and job postings. It’s where residents will argue over the loss of a hiking trail or debate whether the cemetery should restructure its borders. Where a momma deer and her two offspring can silently trot across the street, impervious to residents mowing their lawns or children scooting by on their bikes.—SAMANTHA CAMPOS H
he northwest neighborhood of central San Rafael known as “Sun Valley”–unimaginatively called Neighborhood 13 in the San Rafael General Plan–includes most of Fifth Avenue, from H Street to the end. From there it meets Mount Tamalpais Cemetery, as well as K Street and the residential area extending west and including the streets of Humboldt and Solano. But Sun Valley carries the kind of “location cache” that will spur folks from the outlying Rafael Highlands, Fairhills, Forbes and Racquet Club communities to claim Sun Valley as their place of residence as well. And why not? The oldest section of Sun Valley was built up between 1882 and 1900; the San Francisco earthquake brought another wave of settlers north in ’06. In 1914, the area became Marin’s own mini-Hollywood, as the California Motion Picture Corporation set up shop at the end of K Street. Under the auspices of San Francisco entrepreneur George Middleton and his would-be-It-Girl, wife Beatriz Michelena, the CMPC utilized the rustic Sun Valley hills to produce a series of country melodramas; one of its more sophisticated productions, an opera-inspired silent called Mignon, was filmed at what is now the playground of the Sun Valley Elementary School, at Fifth and Happy Lane. Alas, Marin was not Tinsel Town North and by the early ’20s CMPC had gone bankrupt; its Sun Valley studios sitting vacant until burning down in the early 1930s. The area remained relatively unchanged until the post-World War II baby boom birthed with it a need for more housing, with hillside development occurring steadily throughout the 1960s and ’70s, leading to the neighborhood’s much-discussed architectural diversity. (Though in general, Sun Valley is comprised primarily of large, single-family homes, with a smattering of some duplexes and small apartments.) While friendly, the idyllic residential community of Sun Valley is not quiet about issues concerning its peaceful habitat, and the active neighborhood association regularly holds meetings to discuss changes to the cemetery and nearby school, traffic flow, park renovations, market updates and the like.
Ha
Sun Valley
SUN VALLEY AT A GLANCE FFIRE Station 1, 1039 C St. LLIBRARY San Rafael Public Library, 1100 E St. PARKS Sun Valley Park, Boyd Memorial Park P
ly 20th acted Marinites since the ear Sun Valley’s charms have attr Rafael. San of hub tling bus a was od century, when the neighborho
16 Pacific Sun
P POST OFFICE 910 D St. P PUBLIC SCHOOLS Sun Valley Elementary, 75 Happy Lane
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Loch Lomond Marin’s port in a storm
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oating has been in Marin’s lifeblood ever since the Miwok piloted their tule canoes across the region’s marshes, bays and inlets. Bolinas, Sausalito and Tiburon were built on waterfront commerce and the fringe benefits of aquatic panoramas and handy ferryboats. Yachting and pleasure sailing has had a local presence for over a century, and for decades San Rafael was as defined by its navigable creek as by its warm weather and quaint mission. So it was only a matter of time before the irresistible stretch of sheltered waterfront between the creek’s mouth and Point San Pedro would be transformed into a nifty little marina where yachtsmen, sailors, fisherfolk and the like could find safe harbor on the shores of San Rafael Bay. San Rafael’s Loch Lomond district is dominated by that strip of San Pedro Peninsula bayfront. Here a popular marina offers residents and visitors a place to stroll, relax, picnic, berth a yacht, charter a fishing boat or simply behold the beauties of the bay, the mountain, the Richmond Bridge and Marin Islands National Wildlife Refuge. North of the marina and Point San Pedro Road are the neighborhood’s low-slung mid-century hillside homes; they nestle against the southern edge of China Camp State Park and its meadows, forests, footpaths and wildlife. With the Glenwood neighborhood to the east and the Country Club neighborhood to the west, it’s a tranquil place to enjoy the beauties of Marin without giving up the nightlife of Fourth Street a few miles away. Loch Lomond was just a sliver out of the original Mexican land grant known as Rancho San Pedro. In 1844 it was acquired by one Timothy Murphy, a large, genial Irishman who made his name as an Indian agent, San Rafael alcalde and all-around party animal. (He also raised thoroughbred horses, owned 50 greyhounds and Irish setters and once reputedly wrassled a bear in the hills above San Anselmo.) Despite a sharp eye for any lucrative opportunity, he pretty much left his San Pedro shoreline alone, and for the next 120 years the future site of Bobby’s Fo’c’s’le Cafe remained undeveloped. Then, as the post-WWII baby boom burgeoned, almost all of the Bay Area’s salt marshes east of 101 and west of the Nimitz were filled and covered with housing and shopping centers, and in the end, 95 percent of our wetlands had vanished. Pacifi c Sun Hom e & Gard en photo by Julie Vader
Construction on the Loch Lomond development began in the late ’50s as the marshes near the mouth of San Rafael Canal were filled with hydraulic dredge and dirt from the hillsides to the north. Bruno’s SAN RAFAEL shopping center was Loch Lomand up and running by 1962, the marina by 1964, and that same year the Loch Lomond Yacht Club opened its doors. In keeping with the new community’s (rather inapt) moniker, streets in the residential area uphill were named Inverness, Kinross, Lochinvar, Bonnie Banks and other heather-fragrant appellations. In the late ’90s the marina was thoroughly spruced up with a new 6-foot dredge and a vista-friendly boardwalk. Today’s Loch Lomond has a population of 700 or so scattered across half a square mile of winding streets, hills and bayfront. Most residents are on the well-to-do side (the neighborhood’s median income is almost twice San Rafael’s average, and one-third of the locals send their kids to private schools). The center of the action is Loch Lomond Marina, home of the yacht club, boat repair and storage facilities, marine supplies, a bait shop and sport-fishing charters as well as a market and deli, beauty salon and dry cleaners. (Tragically, Bobby’s, a beloved local hangout, burned down in 2007.) The marina has a fueling station and public launch ramp plus 10 docks with 517 berths for small boats, 52 of them live-aboards; a long jetty runs the length of the marina and serves as its breakwater. To the east are two acres of undeveloped seasonal wetlands ideal for bird-watching. A high-profile redevelopment project, the Village at Loch Lomond Marina, has been in the works for much of the past decade. The plan involves a new waterfront plaza, a top-shelf grocery store operated by Woodlands Market, a 600-foot-long marina green, a widened boardwalk, a children’s play area, improved strolling, fishing, bird-watching and an picnicking opportunities, an expansion of the east side’s natural wetlands and 81 new residential units (17 of them affordable housing) we ma made up of cottages, townhouses and flats above mixed-use buildings. The economic downturn and six years of factious hearings ing have ha stalled construction, but Woodlands, Bobby’s and Bruno’s no notwithstanding, we’ll always have the lap of the waves and those gorgeous views. —MATTHEW STAFFORD go
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LOCH LOMOND AT A GLANCE FIRE STATION San Rafael Fire Station 5, 955 Point San Pedro Road, San Rafael LIBRARY San Rafael Public Library, 1100 E. St., San Rafael PARKS China Camp State Park, McNear’s Beach, Peacock Park POST OFFICE San Rafael Post Office, 910 D. St., San Rafael
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SCHOOLS Glenwood Elemtary School, 25 West Castlewood Drive, San Rafael. San Pedro School, 498 Pt. San Pedro Road, San Rafael; Davidson Middle School, 280 Woodland Ave., San Rafael; San Rafael High School, 185 Mission Ave., San Rafael
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Terra Linda
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Where Marin met the modern world...
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r. Ce ith one of the Terra Linda Sleepy Hollow Divide Sk Bay y Area’s earliest built outdoor Las Rap shopping malls, a set of 1960s De l Gan ranch-style homes that became a L as postwar architecture classics and the Jetsons-like Frank Lloyd Wright Civic Colindas R d. Center across the highway, Terra Linda is Post Marin’s most fully realized contribution to the 101 Office Oleander Rd. modern era. Park T. Located in the Las Gallinas Valley area of the Fre el M it a nu s county, with about 10,000 residents, Terra Linda was Ma Hillview Pk w developed on the former land of Manuel T. Frietas, one of Park y. the original immigrant Portuguese-Spanish land-grant owners. Ga Maria B. Freitas lli n a Freitas, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1896 and made his fortune s Memorial Park Av. in banking, ran the area-about 6,000 acres-as a dairy farm. Freitas’s former ranch house is currently the location of St. Isabella’s Catholic Church and School on Trinity Way. As the Freitas land Kaiser E sm Medical e ye r was subdivided following World War II, the Terra Linda neighCenter borhood emerged and became one of the county’s busiest areas of development throughout the 1950s and ’60s. No One of its most renowned developments in the area was the va A lb i proliferation of what became known as Eichler homes, the on D ev . on courtyard-centered, naturally lit style popularized by architect neighbors vd e Bl Dr. H in d Joseph Eichler from 1955 through the following decade. Terra market goods, Linda boasts about 900 Eichlers. lunch destinaLocated beyond the parkway that bears the Freitas name, the tions and muchMall at Northgate has been a shopping destination for Terra needed infusions of Linda residents–as well as the entire county and beyond–since takeout coffee. opening in 1965. One of the state’s earliest built outdoor malls, To the east of Terra Linda, Northgate has often been ahead of the mall game design-wise; it across Highway 101, is the landmark converted to an enclosed building in 1987 when the then-new Vil- Marin Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; its spacelage in Corte Madera brought a bit of outdoor-mall competition age modern architecture-intended from a design standpoint to Marin. Nearby is Northgate One Shopping Center, which is to blend in with the rolling Marin hills-brings many Wright closer in design to a strip mall, offering devotees to the area to tour the structure. The Civic Center’s futuristic persona has been put to great effect in such sci-fi fi lms as 1994’s Gattaca and George Lucas’s debut 1970 feature THX 1138. Still unincorporated into the 1960s, Terra Linda founded its own Community Services District to serve the neighborhood, but in the early 1970s the area was annexed by the city of San Rafael. Despite their decades-long status as San Rafaelites, when asked the place they call home, residents are still almost certain to reply, “Terra Linda.”—SHELLEY SHEPHERD KLANER
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FFIRE Station 6, 650 Del Ganado Road LLIBRARY Civic Center Library, 3501 Civic Center Drive, #427 P PARKS Maria B. Freitas Memorial Park P POST OFFICE 603 Del Ganado Road
n space. nded by timeless trails of ope Modern Terra Linda is surrou
20 Pacific Sun
P PUBLIC SCHOOLS Terra Linda High, 320 Nova Albion Way; V Vallecito Elementary School, 50 Nova Albion Way
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TERRA LINDA AT A GLANCE
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Winter 2010-2011 21
Downtown Novato
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Near the old red church is Novato’s busiest street and the hub of downtown-Grant Avenue. The eastern end of Grant is known as Old Town, and was the bustling town center through the 19th century and into the 20th (when it was referred to as “new town,” ironically enough)-featuring a railroad depot, hotel, general store, post office, blacksmith and small school. The city’s nostalgialaden charm even made it to the big screen in 1992’s Radio Flyer, which was set in early 1970s Novato and featured Tom Hanks. The fi lm utilized much of Grant Avenue, as well as locations such as Novato High School and the Novato movie theater. The single-screen theater was designed by architect William Kelly and opened to the public in 1948. The theater closed in 1991, shortly before Radio Flyer came out, and has sat unused since. A local nonprofit purchased the theater in the autumn of 2010 and plans to turn it into a multipurpose theater-performance venue. While the theater has yet to make a comeback, the downtown went ahead and upgraded anyway. In the late 1990s the city repaved much of Grant Avenue, reconfigured sidewalks, parking spaces and planted new trees. Taking advantage of the city’s new look are the many long-running festivals and events that Novato puts on for community members. Event highlights include a Fourth of July parade, the Av. annual Festival of Art, Wine and Music, oldtime car shows, a “salsa festival” and a seasonal Av. g n Lo farmers market.
Blvd.
lthough Novato is a cluster of diverse neighborhoods–such as Ignacio, Hamilton and San Marin–when one thinks of Marin’s most northern outpost, what springs to mind is often the growing city’s quaint and charming downtown. While the city’s population is about 50,000, the downtown area gives Novato a small-town feel. And for many Novato residents, a walk downtown is like a stroll into Marin’s past. The city hall is housed in a stately former Presbyterian church on Sherman Avenue. The iconic red church, built in 1896, was the longtime home of city offices; a safety retrofitting project is currently under way. It is this building that can be found on most of the city post cards and promotional brochures; you can even find birdhouses built to look like it.
Pa cifi c Sun Home & Ga rde n photos Pie kny by Ken Pi
Noovato’s Old To w when the railr n grew like gangbusters in oad came thro the late 19th ce ugh. ntury
DOWNTOWN AT A GLANCE FFIRE Station 1, 7025 Redwood Blvd. LLIBRARY Novato Library, 1720 Novato Blvd. PARKS Miwok Park, located off Novato Blvd.; P Pioneer Park, located on Simmons Boulevard P P POST OFFICE 1537 South Novato Blvd. . toric Grant Avenue hind Novato’s his be rs we to ell rd Stately Mount Bu
22 Pacific Sun
P PUBLIC SCHOOLS Lu Sutton Elementary, 1800 Center Road; O Olive Elementary, 629 Plum St.; Hill Middle, 720 Diablo Ave.; N Novato High, 625 Arthur St.
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Marin eighborhoods
Winter 2010-2011 23
Pacheco Valle
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Out of the past and into the present
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Pacifi c Sun Hom e & Gard en photos by Julie Vader
d in with homes were designed to blen Many of the Pacheco Valle ngs. plethora of natural surroundi
the
uring the time that California was under Mexican rule, early pioneers to the state petitioned the government for land grants. These settlers, known as Californios, discovered Marin County and by the 1830s were grabbing big chunks of the fertile ranch land for cattle and farming. Swashbuckler Ignacio Pacheco obtained one such land grant encompassing over 6,600 acres. The rancho, named San Jose after the city of Pacheco’s birth, ranged from present-day Hamilton Field, across Highway 101 and deep into the hills to the west. It was prime grazing land for the cattle and horses Pacheco raised. Ignacio Pacheco also raised a pack of kids, nine total, with three different wives. It was a hard life for women-folk back then. The first two wives died relatively young in childbirth or from illness, but not before producing three children between them. His third wife, Maria Loreto, gave birth to six more. They were housed in an elegant adobe hacienda, which was added onto room by room to accommodate the growing brood. After Pacheco’s death, the grant was divided among the family’s survivors: Widow Maria received one-third and the remaining acreage was split equally among the eight living children. The original adobe burned to the ground in May of 1923; however, descendants of the Pacheco family still live in a large house along 101 south that was built by Pacheco’s son Gumesindo in the early 1880s. Today, Pacheco Valle is a verdant stretch of rolling hills carpeted with oaks and grassy fields. Bordered by Ignacio Road to the north and Highway 101 to the east, open space and hiking paths abound within the confines of this peaceful land. Loma Verde, Ignacio Valley and Pacheco Valle preserves, as well as Marinwood and Lucas Valley Open Space, comprise acres of hiking, biking and equestrian trails. Lucky residents of this sunny area have lots of options for getting out in the fresh air. Tucked back in the folds of a canyon sits the sprawling Indian Valley campus of College of Marin, accessed through the Ignacio neighborhood to the north, also named for the Pacheco family patriarch. Indian Valley College merged with COM in 1985 and now the campus provides an academic curriculum to a portion of the 9,000 students 24 Pacific Sun
wh enroll annuwho ally all at COM. The 333-acre site has a 5.833 acre organic garden acr that was just awarded th (2009) a “Project (20 NOVATO of the Year” for its Pathways to Pacheco Achievement Ac Valle Program, and a Pr state-of-the-art sta swimming facility used by many sw groups in the county for training gro and competition purposes. an Besides academic pursuits, outdoor activities and history, Pacheco Valle is an easy act place to call home. Great weather, close proxpla imity to transportation, retail and restaurant im outlets nearby and easy access to the freeway combine to make a wonou derfully hospitable neighborhood. In recent years, the area has seen an der increase in housing construction and an influx of new residents. Ignacio Pacheco would probably be surprised at what has happened to his original land grant, although not altogether unhappy. The foundations he laid for valuing the land and exploring its potential while protecting it have played out nicely in his valley. —BROOKE JACKSON
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PACHECO VALLE AT A GLANCE FIRE STATION Station 4, 319 Enfrente Drive LIBRARY Novato Library, 1720 Novato Blvd.; Hamilton branch, Hangar 6, suite 140A PARKS Palmisano Community Park, Caliente Real at Burma Road, Hamilton POST OFFICE 1537 South Novato Blvd. PUBLIC SCHOOLS Loma Verde Elementary, 399 Alameda de la Loma; Hamilton Elementary, 1 Main Gate Road, Hamilton; San Jose Middle School, 1000 Sunset Parkway; Novato High, 625 Arthur St.
The Valle is named for original
land-grant owner Ignacio Pac
heco.
H
aving worked with home buyers and sellers in Pacheco Valle for over 22 years, I could think of no better place to call home then this marvelous “Hidden” Marin County neighborhood. While Pacheco Valle is revered for its serene atmosphere and breathtaking views of open space reserve, residents truly enjoy Marin living at its best surrounded by nature and yet conveniently located to transportation, restaurants and easy access to the 101 corridor. Nestled amongst the trees with lush surroundings graced by families of deer and wild turkeys this quiet hidden paradise feels like coming home to your own personal resort. With endless miles of hiking & biking trails, community pools, spas and tennis courts this neighborhood has it all. Call me for a personal tour of lovely Pacheco Valle and available properties and see for yourself why Pacheco Valle is considered one of Marin County’s treasured hidden jewels!
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ONLI BEST
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11 Raccoon Drive, 4BR 2.5 BA 7 Buckeye Court, 3BR 2.5BA 5 Eagle Gap Road, 4BR 2.5BA 1 Hawk Ridge Court, 3BR 2BA 11 Velasco Court, 3BR 2BA 15 Josefa Court, 3BR 2.5BA 190 Sandpiper Court, 3BR 2BA 7 Maria Loretto Court, 3BR 1.5BA 28 California Condor Way, 2BR 1.5BA
$1,160,000 $920,000 $535,000 $450,000 $450,000 $445,000 $370,000 Pending Pending
Carol Courtney www.MarinHomesForSale.com
/FlCE s #ELL DRE #00995136
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A paradise to the north of the ol’ Mill stream...
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t the base of Mount Burdell in Novato is the town’s lengthy thoroughfare of San Marin Drive, the main drag of the northwest area of town, known simply Nov ato as San Marin. Being more than a stone’s throw from Neil O’Hair Park the downtown has given San Marin its own identity within Novato–a bit more rural and out of the way. Sort of a suburb of the Novato suburb. The area plays host to its own mini-parades and other community activities staged by its own neighborhood association. The San Marin area is largely thought of in terms of the triangle of streets within San Marin Drive, Simmons Lane and Novato Boulevard, but its hazily defined borders are often stretched further into neighboring streets that were built up at the same time San Marin Drive was developing in the mid-1960s. San Marin Drive rests at the foot of one of the most picturesque claims of the Marin Open Space District-Mount Burdell. Long known as Rancho Olompali, the name was changed when the area came under the thumb of a San Francisco dentist named Galen Burdell in the mid-1800s. Lured by the promise of Gold Rush riches, Burdell worked as a doctor on the Duxbury, a ship which ran aground off the coast of Bolinas, stranding scores of sea-legged passengers in Marin (and giving name to Duxbury Reef). Dr. Burdell liked what he saw of Marin and set up a practice in the big city to the south. Like many a “forty-niner,” gold dust would not lead to future riches–but dental powder sure did. With a fortune earned from the invention and marketing of his own tooth cleaner, Burdell sparked the interest of Mary Black, the daughter of Nicasio land baron James Black. The couple was married in 1863 and, as a gift from the bride’s father, Galen and Mary were soon the proud owners of Rancho Olompali and nearly a thousand head of cattle.
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Blv Familial bliss didn’t d. last long between the Burdells and the Blacks, Maria, James’s wife, died the following year–while under anesthetic, sitting in the dentist’s chair of Burdell. Black never forgave the young doctor, disinheriting his own daughter out of spite (the will was eventually overturned). Today, the former Burdell-owned land looks much like it did in the 19th century. Purchased by the open space district in the 1970s, the parkland is now known as the Mount Burdell Open Space Preserve and includes a vernal pool, oak trees, wildflowers and several species of rare plants. Range animals from nearby dairy farms are allowed to graze on the land. It is a common place to hike, bike and play. The area is mostly residential–though the San Marin Plaza and the Square shopping centers San Marin remains the flag-bea rer of Novato’s provide the com- rural roots. munity with its markets, coffee shops, a smattering of restaurants and other small businesses. —SHELLEY SHEPHERD KLANER
SAN MARIN AT A GLANCE FIRE STATION Station 3, 65 San Ramon Way LIBRARY Novato Library, 1720 Novato Blvd. PARKS Pioneer Park, located on Simmons Boulevard; Miwok Park, located off Novato Boulevard POST OFFICE 1537 South Novato Blvd.
S n Marin Drive is the main San delll.. Mount Burdel
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the base of drag of the quiet enclave at
PUBLIC SCHOOLS San Ramon Elementary, 45 San Ramon Way; Pleasant Valley Elementary, 755 Sutro Ave.; Sinaloa Middle, 2045 Vineyard; San Marin High, 15 San Marin Drive
Ann Taylor Loft Bank of America ATM Bath & Body Works Ben Franklin Crafts BevMo! Burger King Chevys Fresh Mex Claire’s Cellular World Costco Eddie Bauer Outlet Extreme Pizza Fresh Choice GameStop GNC Gymboree H&R Block IHOP Jennie Low’s Chinese Cuisine Justice — NOW OPEN! Leslie’s Pool Supplies Macy’s Furniture Marin Beauty Co. Marshalls Men’s Wearhouse Miracle Ear NH2 Salon Old Navy Clothing Co. Panda Room Party City Pasta Pomodoro
Patelco Credit Union Payless ShoeSource Petco Pet Food & Supplies Pier 1 Imports Ross Dress for Less See’s Candies Sephora Site for Sore Eyes Sleep Train Sports Authority Sprint PCS Starbucks Coffee Subway — Coming Soon! Supercuts SushiHolic Target Tilly’s Tuttimelon Vintage Nails Vintage Oaks Dental Group
Marin eighborhoods
Winter 2010-2011 27
We are...Home Grown in Marin! Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been family-owned and operated since 1955 /UR COMMUNITY IS IMPORTANT TO US AND THEREFORE WE WORK MANY EXTRA HOURS EVERY WEEK TO BRING YOU THE LOWEST OVERALL PRICES OUTSTANDING CUSTOMER SERVICE FRESH ORGANIC PRODUCE l NE MEATS SEAFOOD AND POULTRY OVER VARIETIES OF WINES AN ON SITE BAKERY A %UROPEAN 3TYLE DELI AND A FRESH SUSHI BAR )F YOU DON T SEE YOUR FAVORITE ITEM LET US KNOW 7E WILL DO OUR BEST TO BRING IT IN FOR YOU
7E ALSO SUPPORT FUTURE GENERATIONS OF 5NITED -ARKETS CUSTOMERS THROUGH OUR #OMMUNITY #ARD 0ROGRAM 7E OFFER AN ALTERNATIVE TO E SCRIP BY GIVING A FULL OF YOUR SHOPPING DOLLARS TO THE SCHOOL OF YOUR CHOICE
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