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 Flooding in 1945 at the foot of Homestead Valley. |
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For a complete index of articles about the History of Homestead Valley, click here.  Three Groves - December, 2007  Lillian Ferguson at Three Groves in 1922. Click on the image to see a larger version. The above photo of Lillian Ferguson at her home, Three Groves, was taken in 1922. She was at that time a nationally-known Western writer, one of 30 "Literary Lions" honored by Sunset magazine. She had previously been a reporter and Sunday Edition editor of the San Francisco Examiner before becoming an assistant editor at Sunset. In 1904 while living in San Francisco, she purchased three acres at the west end of Montford and built the house shown in the photo. She named her Homestead Valley secondary residence "Three Groves"  for the three groups of trees there: oak, redwood and buckeye. When the 1906 earthquake and fire made her San Francisco home uninhabitable, she moved to Three Groves and commuted to the city.She designed the garden in the buckeye grove as an oriental tribute with meandering brick walks, a Mandarin Chinese bench, a Moon Gate, a fountain and an oriental cooking facility. Electric lanterns hanging from the trees illuminated the garden at night. In 1930, she sold Three Groves to George Sandy. He constructed dams on the creek to create a large swimming pool as well as a lake with a sandy beach. Today, Lillian Ferguson's house and the magnificent garden in the buckeye grove are privately owned. But the redwood and oak groves plus the adjacent Stolte Grove are part of Homestead's park land. Brogan House - November, 2007  295 Molino Avenue in 1926. Click on the image to see a larger version. The above photo was taken in 1926. The dirt road is Molino. The house is on the corner of Janes in Homestead Valley across the street from Molino Park in Mill Valley. It is still recognizable from this view, especially the scalloped shingles near the peak of the roof, although it has been substantially expanded on the Janes side. The house was built in 1904 by the Johnson brothers for State Senator King. The story goes that they built it just before winter, getting the roof and sheathing up as fast as they could without installing the bracing. The wind blew it down, so they had to start over in the spring to build it right. In 1923, James M. Brogan bought the house. He worked in San Francisco as an X-ray technician for the Veterans Administration. To get to work he walked down steps that maps identified as Park Ave., but are now the Seymour steps to Ethel and the Una Way steps to Una Way. He boarded the train to Sausalito at Park Avenue Station, took the ferry to San Francisco and walked to his office at 4th and Mission. Door to door commute was about 60 minutes. James, Jr. was born in 1923. When he was old enough for school, he commuted with his father as far as Sausalito where he attended the Catholic School. Later on, he accompanied his father all the way to the Ferry Building and then went on to St. Ignatius High School on Stanyon Street. Jim recalls how exciting and thrilling it was to ride a bike down the unpaved steep gravel road we now know as Molino. It was then called Janes, and present day Janes was part of Molino. Horses could not manage the steep hill of present day Molino. Hill Ranch - October, 2007  The Dias Garage in 1987. In 1898, tenant dairyman John Dias purchased 420 acres from the Tamalpais Land & Water Company. The Dias ranch house, cow barns and dairy were near the corner of Shoreline Highway and Panoramic Highway. In 1904 he purchased an adjacent 20 acres on Ridgewood Ave. in Homestead Valley where he built a four-bedroom, one-bath house, a bunkhouse for hired hands, a cookhouse and barns for dry cows, calves and bulls. He named the property Hill Ranch. The above photo was taken in 1987. The property owner at the time reports that the building was then very old. It is probably one of the original outbuildings, perhaps the bunkhouse. Hill Ranch was the headquarters for the Dias Ranch, which included several hundred acres of owned and leased land. John Dias and his wife Ida lived in the four-bedroom, one-bath Hill Ranch house with their four sons and four daughters. In 1917, John Dias died after having been kicked by a bull. He had become a wealthy rancher, a director of the Bank of Mill Valley and a prominent leader in Marin's Portuguese community. The eldest son, James, took over management of the ranch. In 1921, Alex and Mary McCurdy rented the Hill Ranch house from Ida Dias. In 1927, the McCurdy's bought the house. Alex was chief of police in Mill Valley from 1926 to 1935. The McCurdys raised two children at Hill Ranch, a son named William and a daughter Mary Baker whose son Bill Baker lived there until 1982. Hill Ranch then sat empty until 1992 when it was demolished and replaced by a Tudor style mansion. The 3.67-acre site which can never be subdivided is adjacent to open space land. Most of the original Dias Ranch is now part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Mt. Tamalpais State Park and Homestead Valley Open Space. Homestead School - September, 2007  Homestead School in 1908, the year it was built. Click on the image to see a larger version. The photo was taken in 1908 from Ridgewood Ave. across the valley. The building is Homestead School which opened in January 1908 with 60 pupils. It was described at the time as "a well built frame structure containing two large, well ventilated class rooms, ante rooms and a big basement." In 1905, the Tamalpais Land & Water Company, which had subdivided Homestead Valley in 1903, donated a half-acre parcel for the school site. In 1907, Mill Valley School District voters approved a school bond tax. William Mahoney was the architect for the $4000 schoolhouse, the second in the district. The road behind the school is present day Janes St. which winds its way gradually up from Montford Ave. to Edgewood Ave.  In 1908, this Janes St. was part of Molino Ave., the main route from Miller Ave. to Edgewood Ave. The steep part of present-day Molino Ave. was Janes St. After automobiles replaced horses which could not go up nor down the steep grade of Janes St., it became Molino, and the old Molino became Janes.In 1920, the Mill Valley School District bought a 1.7-acre parcel nearby on the corner of Montford Ave. and Avery Ave., now called Melrose Ave. A two-room school was constructed on this site. The school opened in November 1921 with Edna Maguire as principal and teacher. Classes were large in the 1920s. Mrs. Keith McClellan taught 52 children in four grades. She lived at 211 Summit Ave. in Mill Valley. Every day she walked the two miles to and from school, probably following Molino all the way from Old Mill Park. In the late 1920s, the original school shown in the photo was cut in half. The left half was moved over and two houses were created out of the old schoolhouse. Although the houses have been expanded and remodeled considerably, the original school building can still be recognized. Eells Plants Eucs - August, 2007  Eells Playhouse on 400 block of Montford in 1910. Click on the image to see a larger version. This photo was taken in 1910 from Reed Creek looking up toward the 400 block of Montford. The land is part of Alexander Eells' eight-acre farm between Montford and LaVerne. Note the eucalyptus trees along Montford, some of which have survived to this day. Here is what he wrote in his diary at home in San Francisco on Monday, Jan. 1st, 1906: "Went to Millwood place on 11 o'clock train Saturday am. [Millwood was the train station on Miller Ave. at Willow St.--ed.]. Spent all Sunday in setting out the Eucalyptus trees I had taken over the week before. Set them out all along Montford Ave. and also along LaVerne Ave. above our building site. Hope they will form a hedge or screen. I had about 60 small Eucalyptus trees which just about finished the belt along Montford Ave. with a clump at a slide." Here is what he wrote in his diary at his Homestead Valley home on Saturday February 10th, 1910: "We have had a little playhouse built just at the far end of the bridge & Carrie & the children spend a good deal of their time there because it is so much warmer than in the large house." Carrie was his wife. The children in order of birth were Margaret, Helen and Harriet. Carrie and Harriet are sitting in front of the playhouse. Harriet was born at 3 am on July 29, 1906 at home in Homestead Valley with Dr. Annie Anderson of Mill Valley attending. Three months earlier, on April 21, the Eells family had fled to Homestead from their home at 1168 Haight St. which had been damaged by the earthquake. Northeast View - 1907 - July, 2007  Northeast View from 328 Ridgewood, 1907. Click on the image to see a larger version. This photo of Homestead Valley was taken in 1907 looking northeast from 328 Ridgewood. Note the two identical cabins near the center of the photo. Later, these two cabins were combined when the space between them was filled in. Still later, the house was raised to make a two-story house with 2500 sq. ft. of living area. The result of this evolution can be seen at 254 Evergreen. The two original cabins are easily recognized. The large house on the right is on the corner of Montford and Lillian Lane. It was built in 1905. Arthur and Mary Dowdell and their five children lived there. Lillian Lane is named for their youngest daughter born in 1902. She and her husband, Charley Mott, lived there for many years. In the 1960s, Charley was well known to Homesteaders for his generosity. Every spring, he placed vegetable seedlings in cut off milk cartons in front of his house with a sign indicating they were free for the taking. The large brown house at the top of the photo is the Robertson house at the end of Robertson Terrace. The white building on the left is the Robertson's barn, now a red house on Molino. In the foreground is Melrose Ave. then called Avery Street. The trees running from left to right in the middle of the photo are along Reed Creek. Note the general lack of trees elsewhere. Memorial Rock - June, 2007   Tony Brabo and crew with rock on flatbed (left), and after placing it at Mill Valley's City Hall in 1953. Click on each image to see a larger version. The brass plaque on the big red rock in front of the Mill Valley City Hall reads, "In memory of those who gave their lives in defense of their country - dedicated by the citizens of Mill Valley - 1953." Following an extended period of rain near the Waldo tunnel, the rock had rolled down the hill and blocked Highway 101. Tony Brabo was hired to remove the rock. Hamilton Air Force Base sent airmen and a crane to the site. The airmen had lifted airplanes, but never a rock. Tony and his crew saved the day and after considerable effort loaded it onto a flat bed truck. Mill Valley City Manager Allen Almcrantz was at the scene. In the left photo he's standing in the shelter. He suggested that Tony take the rock to City Hall. The right photo shows it in place after setting it down in exactly the desired orientation. The city manager observed the job from the doorway - he's slightly obscured by the cable. Tony Brabo has lived in Homestead Valley since he married Mary Bettancourt in 1930. Mary has lived in Homestead longer than any other resident, 97 years. After his military service in World War II, Tony became a construction contractor specializing in concrete work. His name is engraved on many Mill Valley sidewalks, and he owns the Brabo building on Lytton Square. Moving the big rock to city hall was a memorable experience for him. 235 Laverne - May, 2007  235 Laverne Avenue in 1907. Click on the image to see a larger version. The large brown shingle house in the foreground of this 1907 photo was built in 1904 for Alfred Worley and his wife Fannie. In 1909, they subdivided the adjacent property into 68 home sites in the Ferndale/Melrose area. Fannie was the first woman to settle in the Homestead community and the first woman to die there in 1920 at age 54. Alfred moved away. Many years later, in June 1940, Ove Johnson bought the three-story mansion for the bargain price of $7700, reportedly because it was "haunted". Two months later it was completely destroyed by fire. He replaced it with a small stucco house using the same foundation. He founded the Homestead Valley Volunteer Fire Brigade soon thereafter. Ove was a board member of the Homestead Valley Sanitary District in 1948 when Homestead finally installed a sewerage system which had been proposed in the 1920s. During World War II Ove tried to have his family be as self-sufficient as possible by raising vegetables and fruit crops on the fertile soil of his property. His wife did a great deal of canning and otherwise preserving the produce. Their daughter Sonja kept a horse on the property from 1948 to 1959. In the spring of 1984, after Ove had become a widower and Sonja had moved to Michigan with her husband, an electrical fire caused extensive smoke damage to the house. Ove died 8 months later, just shy of his 82nd birthday. In 2000, the house was demolished and replaced with an architecturally modern 4000 sq. ft. house constructed primarily of fire resistant steel. The site had had two entirely different houses: brown shingle in 1907 and stucco in 1940. Tamalpais Camp - April, 2007  Entrance to Tamalpais Camp in the 1930s. Click on the image to see a larger version. This photo shows the entrance to Tamalpais Camp at the end of LaVerne at Montford. A 1920s photo of the same scene has the "Camp" sign mounted above the "Tamalpais" sign in the same wooden framework.  The vehicle appears to be a 1930 Ford Model A which indicates that the photo was taken in the 1930s. The sign on the right says, "Lots, Houses for sale in this tract. See W.V. Stolte at the house." The Stolte family lived in a house to the right of the sign at 568 Montford.In 1908, 11 acres in the redwood canyon were subdivided into 137 very small lots. The creek was dammed for a swimming pool. In 1910, the San Francisco Examiner advertised Camp Tamalpais lots for sale at $75. For an additional $23 the developer would provide a tent platform with a tent, 10 ft. by 12 ft., and a folding cot. San Francisco families escaped summer fog by camping out in Camp Tamalpais. Small cottages soon replaced tents and lots were combined to allow construction of houses. The depression of the 1930s caused the demise of Camp Tamalpais as a summer resort. Year-round residents seeking seclusion and privacy moved in. The result was a colony of artists and writers living in what is now called Tamalpais Canyon. The site of the swimming pool is a now a parking lot. Today, there are 25 houses in the canyon. Most are perched on hillsides accessed by foot paths and as many as 200 steps. A funicular was recently installed to one of the houses. Homestead Hall - March, 2007  Homestead Hall (lower right of photo) c. 1930. Click on the image to see a larger version. This photo with Mount Tamalpais in the background was taken in about 1930 from LaVerne, probably near #100 at the almost 180° turn. The large brown building in the foreground is Homestead Hall at 155 Linden Lane near Evergreen. Above it in the photo, the nearest white house at 207 Evergreen and the two houses across the street at 218 and 220 still exist as does the house on the left at 163 Linden Lane. Homestead Hall was later converted into a residence - parts of the original building are still in evidence. Homestead Hall was built in 1904 as a center of community activities such as scout meetings, dances, movies and political meetings. Mary Brabo, who still lives at Reed and LaVerne where she was born in 1910, went to Homestead Hall with other Homestead children for their catechism lessons taught by nuns from the catholic church. Brown's Hall on Miller Avenue near the 2AM Club was constructed in 1934, and served as Homestead's second community center until it was sold to the Buddhists of Marin in 1972. The present community center next to Homestead School on Montford is on a 1.13-acre parcel that had been the residence of the Hughes Call family. Their horse ring is now a meadow used for recreation and education. Their home was extensively remodeled to facilitate community activities and their swimming pool was replaced. The Volunteer Fire Department - February, 2007  Homestead Valley Volunteer Fire Dept. New Year's Eve Celebration, 12/31/1949. Click on the image to see a larger version. This marvelous photo was taken on New Year's Eve 1950. Members of the Homestead Valley Volunteer Fire Dept. and guests are celebrating the completion of the fire house on the corner of Melrose and Evergreen. In 1940, Ove Johnson's house at 235 LaVerne burned to the ground while County fire fighters stood by to prevent the fire from spreading - they were not authorized to fight structure fires. Ove was furious. He bought an old Hudson truck in a raffle. Five friends helped him convert it into a fire truck. The Homestead Valley Volunteer Fire Brigade was born. That's the truck on the left. Ove is on the right standing on the running board of a newer fire truck. For ten years, the old fire truck was kept in the Johnson's garage. In an emergency, Ove's wife sounded the siren on top of their house, the volunteer fire brigade members arrived and sped off in the fire truck. In 1950, Mrs. White, who owned a lumber yard, gave the firemen lumber to build the fire house and sold them the corner lot for $100. Dirt from excavating for an expansion of Homestead School was used as fill on top of the Reed Creek culvert under the site. In 1962, paid firemen were hired for the Homestead Valley Fire Dept. to replace the volunteers. In 1989, the fire house was demolished after being severely damaged by the Loma Prieta earthquake. The site is now Volunteer Park named to honor the men in the photo and other Homestead residents who have volunteered their services to benefit the community since it was founded in 1903. Van Trip - 1967 - January, 2007  On a 1967 trip from Homestead Valley to Chicago in a hippie van. Click on the image to see a larger version. This photo was taken in 1967 in Maryland. Can this be Homestead Valley history? Yes. These women and children lived in Homestead Valley. They are on a trip. My wife Christina on the left had decided that we should go to Expo-67, the Montreal World's Fair. I asked how. She said in a hippie van which we would make. Our neighbor, Willa (on the right) said she wanted to go along. We bought a used 22 ft. post office van and equipped it with windows, back door, kitchen, toilet, shower, table, dinette, bed and bunks. We painted over its red, white and blue exterior with two shades of beige; Ivan was born. So off they went in a hippie van, two mothers with six kids, ages 1 to 11. They stopped at campgrounds and historic sites as they traveled across the south. Three weeks later in Washington, D.C., Willa and her three kids abandoned Ivan to vacation with her husband Gordon in Michigan. A couple days later, I joined Christina and our three boys in New York. We drove to Montreal and Expo-67. When my two weeks vacation ran out on the way home in Minneapolis, I flew home and left Christina and the boys to go it alone. After three flat tires, she called from Yellowstone asking to be rescued. I complied and drove them home. Ivan had a lot more history facilitating our vacations, ski weekends, etc. In 1980, he left us to provide housing for a hippy family on welfare - their van had burned up. In 1988, Willa was the Socialist Party candidate for President of the United States. She received 3800 votes. Back to index The History of Sunnyside Tract The History of Early Mill Valley The History of Homestead Valley, 2012 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2011 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2010 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2009 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2008 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2006 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2005 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2004 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2003 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2002 Articles The History of Homestead Valley, 2000-2001 Articles |