History of Homestead Valley, 2012 Articles

Homestead Terrace soon after its completion in 1969.

For a complete index of articles about the History of Homestead Valley, click here.

Mary Greyerbiehl (1921 - 2007) - June, 2012

In 1988, reporter Bruce Coleman wrote an article for the Marin Independent Journal entitled, "She's the Mayor of Montford Avenue" referring to Mary Greyerbiehl. Her parents had immigrated from Lucca, Italy. They first lived in an apartment in the rear of a dry goods store at 23 Montford Ave. Mary was born in 1921 and grew up around the corner in a house on Ethel Ave.

Her father, Giacomo Galeotti and his brother-in-law, Pasquale Pieri raised vegetables on La Goma along the creek. Mary's father died when she was 4 years old. When he was delivering vegetables on the mountain, the brakes on his model T Ford failed and the car backed over him. Mary's mother was left with five kids aged 2 to 12. They lived on $75 per month welfare from the state. Her father's life insurance policy had paid off the mortgage on the house.

In 1937, during her junior year at Tam High, she hiked from Sausalito across the Golden Gate bridge on Pedestrian Day. She repeated the fete in 1987 at the 50th anniversary celebration.

In March 1939. Pete Starr and Nick Stanich, owners of The Brown Jug, a historic saloon on the corner of Montford and Miller, changed its name to The 2 AM Club. Recent photo of the 2am Club

In 1940, Mary's future husband Wilbur "Bill" Greyerbiehl (1914-1990) and his brother Breslin "Bres" (1918-1976) bought the 2 AM Club. They had lived across the street at 16 Montford since 1937. When both of them were called up for military service in 1942, management of the 2 AM Club fell to their father, Louis. Shortly thereafter, Louis and his wife were in an automobile accident. Louis died and his wife who was severely injured arranged for someone else to manage the bar until Bill and Bres returned from the war. Meanwhile, Mary had married a sailor, Ken Milkey, and lived with his aunt and uncle back east for a year after which she obtained a divorce and returned to Mill Valley.

In 1946, she married Bill Greyerbiehl. Although a teetotaler, she tended bar on Sundays when Bill and Bres played baseball where the Safeway is today.

Homesteaders who had known Mary for decades said that she was a difficult person to deal with. Ray Miller, an operating engineer who lived in Homestead from 1945 to 1957 frequently met his buddies at the 2 AM Club for a beer after work-regulars knew it as "The Deuce." Ray knew Mary, Bill and Bres very well. According to Ray, "Mary was a tough cookie who probably had the first nickel she ever earned." Ray told me that I wouldn't believe some of the stories about what went on at the 2AM Club. But he never told me those stories. In 2006, the Mill Valley Historical Society took Mary's oral history. One of her 2 AM Club stories was that at age 50 she somersaulted the length of the bar.

Bill Greyerbiehl sold the 2 AM Club in 1979.

Homestead's Role in Light Opera - May, 2012

The Mill Valley Light Opera Company performs The Mikado in 1954

"Mikado," Marin Art and Garden Center, July 1954.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
In 1952, several musicians met in Mill Valley and decided to form a local light opera company. Barry Mineah gathered people from vocal groups around Marin. He soon had a chorus of some 35 voices. His own church choir from the Episcopal Church of Our Savior in Mill Valley formed the nucleus. He also lined up a 16 piece orchestra.

The Mill Valley Light Opera Company's first performance was Gilbert and Sullivan's "Trial by Jury" in May 1953. Encouraged by its success, the company expanded for a November 1953 performance at Tam High of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance" which ran for two nights.

In July 1954, the company performed Gilbert and Sullivan's "Mikado" at the Marin Art and Garden Center amphitheater in Ross. There were 41 singers and an orchestra of 27 musicians. All four performances received standing ovations for musical excellence. There followed three more Gilbert and Sullivan works: "Iolanthe," "Gondoliers" and finally, "Princess Ida" performed at San Rafael High School in June 1957. All concerts were benefits for the Episcopal Church in Mill Valley.

The Mill Valley Record reported that Hughes Call of Homestead Valley gave an excellent performance as "Pooh-Bah" in "Mikado". His debut performance as "Sergeant of Police" in "Pirates of Penzance" had also been excellent. Hughes Call was on the board of directors of the Mill Valley Light Opera Company, and his wife, Volinda, was in the Ladies chorus. Both also served all productions in other ways.

Their son, Alex Call, who was a boy at the time recently recalled those days: "The gals had a Monday sewing circle for years during which they made the costumes and drank sherry and gossiped endlessly. They had great cast parties, with many guests at 315 Montford — the house and deck would be packed to the rafters with glamorous people, some of whom would be found sleeping it off the next morning on couches throughout the house. We had three grand pianos, so there was never any lack of music."

In 1976, the Homestead Valley Community Association purchased the Call home at 315 Montford. It is now the Homestead Valley Community Center.

The Oldest House - April, 2012

The Homestead, c. 1888. Click on the image to see a larger version.
In 1866, Samuel Throckmorton, owner of Rancho Sausalito, built a hunting lodge which also served as ranch headquarters. It was located on the corner of today's Montford Ave. and Ethel Ave. He named it "The Homestead."

In 1880, Jacob Gardner and his family moved to "The Homestead"—he was the ranch superintendent. Ten years later, the family moved to "The Maples" a new house on Miller which prospective land buyers at the May 31, 1890 land auction would see as they passed by on the newly constructed railroad. In about 1900, a fire destroyed "The Homestead" house and adjacent out-buildings.

Cora Elizabeth Gardner was born in 1876 and lived at "The Homestead" from 1880 until 1890. In 1914, she had her 14-year old daughter Elinor prepare floor plans of the house and out-buildings as they existed prior to 1890.

The house had a living room, dining room, kitchen, butler's pantry, servants quarters and two bedrooms. The floor plan shows the locations of built-in shelves and closets as well as tables, chairs, beds, a crib, dressers, wash stand, medicine cabinet, and a square piano. A room on the corner of the house is identified as a "milk house." A "milk house" on a dairy ranch is normally a special building where fresh milk from the twice daily milking is cooled before loading into large cans.

The out-buildings were located about 30 feet back from the house. They included a turkey house, a chicken house, a tool shed, a wood shed, a jelly house, a pig pen, a hay barn, a stable with five horse stalls and room for three carriages, a sulky, and two buggies. The plan showed the locations of a well, a stock water trough, a water tank, a flower garden, a vegetable garden, an orchard (plums and crab apples for the jelly house), and fences. Surprisingly, there is no evidence of a privy.

In 1904, Herman Heckman bought the property and built a 13-room home for his family of eight children. The eldest child, Pearl, was 18 years old at the time. Her oral history states: "My father bought a three-cornered block bounded by Montford, Ethel and Evergreen. It had been the old Throckmorton place. His house had burned down, but the barn was still there. My father built our house right on the place where the burned down Throckmorton house had been."

Pearl Heckman was likely referring to a barn where milking the cows took place, now 550 Ethel Ave. It is about 150 feet from the house and did not burn down. Herman Heckman had two cows that were likely milked in that barn. Assessor's records list the construction year at 1885, long before the next oldest house, 543 Ethel, was built in 1903, the year that Homestead Valley was subdivided.

Early Morning in Homestead - March, 2012

Eells Playhouse on 400 block of Montford c. 1911.
Click on the image to see a larger version.
The Woody Allen film "Midnight in Paris" is about a screenwriter who is wandering around Paris at night and somehow is transported back to the Paris of the 1920s. He goes to a party and meets Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso. Cole Porter is playing the piano. The screenwriter had slipped through a wrinkle in time.

Carl Nolte's July 17, 2011 article in the SF Chronicle "Midnight in Paris of the West" described his being transported back to North Beach in the 1960s where he met beatnik era poets and writers.

I was recently transported back to the Homestead Valley of 1911. Starting my daily early morning walk at the end of Montford and heading down La Verne, I suddenly became aware that I was on a dirt road. Beyond the redwoods there were hardly any trees and very few houses. Then I saw gentleman farmer Alex Eels crossing the road. He told me that he had just received a shipment of pecan trees from Georgia and was going to plant them, but first he had to clean out the screen on the water tank up the hill. Down the road a bit, Agnes Phillips was sweeping the front porch of her new house. Her husband George had just left to catch the train. At Scott Street, I saw Florence Ezekiel on her way to her position as post mistress. At Hawthorne, I caught a glimpse of William Veale emerging from the outhouse. At the Bettencourt farm on Reed, the oldest son, was tethering a goat in the yard. In answer to my question he said that his baby sister Mary was doing just fine.

I went down Reed and stopped at the corner of Ethel to check out activity at the pound. There were three lost horses and a goat there. When a surrey passed by I recognized the Eells' handy man who was driving Margaret and two of her friends to Summit School. I turned left on Miller just as an outbound train went by. Frogs were croaking in the marsh. In Doherty's Lumber Yard at Evergreen, workers were loading a wagon with lumber. I went into The Brown Jug on the next corner and was surprised to see George Phillips and William Veale having a drink. George said, "Don't tell Agnes." They had missed their train, and had a half hour wait for the next one.

I turned up Richardson. At the Heckman house on the corner of Ethel, Herman was about to depart for his cabinet shop uptown. He told me that his oldest son was in the barn milking cows. Herman said that two cows were cheaper than buying milk for his eight kids. Down the street at the La Verne post office in Cooper's store, I bumped into Florence Ezekiel, who was headed for Locust Station with a bag of mail for the train. She would also pick up the morning mail bag from Sausalito.

I turned up Evergreen. At Hawthorne, John Bone and Henry Morton were making plans to replace rotten planks in the wooden sidewalk. Henry told me that Doherty would deliver the lumber and John would come home from work on an early train. At Montford I saw kids entering the La Verne School. Then I saw Tony Perry returning from the 4 am milking at the Dias ranch. Almost at the end of Montford I entered the Three Groves estate. Lillian Ferguson was in the garden admiring her newly laid brick paths. Up on the road, Fred Stolte was headed down Montford on his bicycle to catch the train. When I crossed the road, I heard "Come quick, I can't turn the garbage disposer off." Back to reality.

Fire Departments Merge - February, 2012

Homestead Valley Fire Department in 1950, left, and 1962. Click on each image to see a larger version.
The Homestead Valley Volunteer Fire Brigade was born in 1940. Ove Johnson bought an old Hudson truck which he and his friends converted into a fire truck. He housed it in his garage until a firehouse could be built. The photo on the left was taken on New Year's Eve 1950. Volunteer firemen and guests were celebrating the completion of the firehouse. A second fire truck had been acquired.

The photo on the right was likely taken in 1962 in conjunction with the merger of Homestead and Tam Valley fire districts. The fire engine on the left is a Van Pelt fire truck on an International Harvester truck chassis. The middle fire engine is the one shown in the 1950 photo. The vehicle on the right is a Studebaker pickup truck.

The January 10, 1962 issue of the Mill Valley Record ran an editorial entitled, "...on fire in Homestead" which urged Homestead and Tam Valley residents to vote for merging the two fire districts in the January 23 election. It pointed out that Tam Valley already had a staff of full-time professional fire fighters. In contrast, Homestead residents depended entirely on their volunteer organization.

"The area is especially vulnerable during the daylight hours when most volunteers are away from the valley at their regular, bread-winning jobs. The volunteers are GOOD, but what can they do if they are not there. On July 21, 1961, only one 16-year old auxiliary volunteer answered the call to combat. Fortunately it turned out to be a false alarm. But it could have been catastrophic.

"Going into the final two weeks of the campaign it is indicated that Tamalpais Valley folks are all for the merger. There is no opposition. Good for them! In Homestead Valley, however, where the largest benefits will accrue, there is a small groundswell of opposition. A few individuals have ignited a small backfire to confuse the issue. This is regrettable."

An article in the January 31, 1962 issue of the Mill Valley Record had the headline, "Fire merger Okayed by Tam, Homestead Valleys." "Our new Fire District will be called 'Tamalpais Fire Protection District' and will cover Tamalpais Valley, Almonte and Homestead areas. This merger, which will become effective February 1, was the result of the election last Tuesday. Bud Owen will be Fire Chief of the district."

Druid Heights - January, 2012

Zen Buddhist popularizer Alan Watts lived at 310 Laverne from 1956 to 1963. Beat generation poet Gary Snyder lived at 370 Montford for a few months in the spring of 1956-his roommate was Jack Kerouac. Both Watts and Snyder became part of the Druid Heights scene. Druid Heights? Where's that?

On the west side of the ridge west of Homestead Valley, there used to be a five-acre development called Camp Monte Vista Sub One at the end of a dirt road off Muir Woods Road. In 1954, Elsa Gidlow, an unusual, fiercely independent Greenwich Village poet, anarchist and lesbian moved to this rural hillside patch with its few tumble-down frame houses and barns. She named it Druid Heights. It soon became a "beatnik" enclave years before the term was born, and later a party spot for famous freaks. Scores of sculptors, sex rebels, stars and seekers lived or visited there including Gary Snyder, Dizzy Gillespie, John Handy, Alan Watts, Neil Young, Tom Robbins, Catherine McKinnon and the colorful prostitute activist Margo St. James. Too anarchic and happenstance to count as a commune, Druid Heights became what Gidlow jokingly called "an unintentional community:" a vortex of social and artistic energy that bloomed out of nowhere, did its wild and sometimes destructive thing, and, for the most part, moved on.

Gidlow initially shared the property with Roger Somers and his wife Mary, the couple who had actually found the place. A visionary house builder and jazz musician, Somers moved to Marin in 1950. In his woodwork and design, Somers developed a flamboyant, organic, deeply Californian style influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright, Japanese architecture, and the twists and turns of living things.

Several Druid Heights homes and structures were built or converted by Somers and Ed Stiles. A custom furniture maker from the East coast, Stiles first tracked down Somers in the early 1960s after seeing a photograph of him and a bare-breasted Mary in a sensationalist article on the California scene in Esquire. Somers invited the young artist to live at Druid Heights and install his shop in a building there in exchange for giving Somers access to his woodworking tools. Stiles built a library for Alan Watts who divided his time between Druid Heights and the Vallejo ferryboat in Sausalito which he shared with artist Jean (Yanko) Varda.

In the 1970s, the U.S. Forest Service upset Druid Heights' natural social balance, i.e., shared bohemian poverty, by buying out various property owners. What was called Druid Heights is now part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. All the buildings have been abandoned and are boarded up with one exception. Ed Stiles and his wife have a house and a woodworking shop-they have a life time lease.

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Last updated: 5/14/12