SG Valley History

2011 History of the San Geronimo Valley

by Brian Dodd and Jean Berensmeier

Settlement and Development

1800’s   “One of the loveliest valleys in California”

Rafael Cacho, a military officer and friend of General Mariano Vallejo, was the first person to hold title to the San Geronimo Valley. On February 12, 1844, he was granted the 8,800 acre Rancho Cañada de San Geronimo (The Valley of Saint Jerome) by the Mexican government, in acknowledgment of his loyal service as a Mexican citizen.  Cacho lived in the Valley with his wife and children, grazing cattle and horses, until his finances forced a sale in 1846 to Lieutenant Joseph Revere, who purchased the rancho for $1,000 and an interest in a very small ranch in Napa.  Revere, a naval officer and grandson of Paul Revere, had served under General Vallejo, and had released the beleaguered general from imprisonment at Sutter’s Fort.  Revere had discovered the Valley while hunting elk, and immediately determined to make it his own. He wrote:

“The Canada of San Geronimo is one of the loveliest valleys in California, shut in by lofty hills, the sides of which are covered with redwood forests, and pines of several kinds, and interspersed with many flowering trees and shrubs peculiar to the Country.  Through it flows a copious stream, fed by the mountain brooks; and the soil in the bottomlands is so prolific, that a hundred bushels of wheat to the acre can be raised with the rudest cultivation and other crops in corresponding abundance.”

Joseph Revere retained ownership of Rancho San Geronimo for only four years, and then sold it to Rodman Price for $7,500.  Price returned to New Jersey, where he was elected Governor, and hired Lorenzo White, a 49er gold miner, to manage Price’s cattle operation on the rancho. For many years the rancho was known as White’s Valley, and White’s Hill still bears his name.

Title to Rancho San Geronimo was then sold several times, finally, in 1857, to Adolph Mailliard, whose father was Louis Mailliard, “natural son” of Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain and Naples, and elder brother of the infamous Napoleon Bonaparte. After the family’s exile from Spain, Louis Mailliard retrieved from Switzerland a strongbox filled with the family’s jewels, and brought the treasure to their new home in New Jersey.  Adolph Mailliard purchased the rancho, to celebrate the birth of his son Joseph, for $50,000, a mighty sum considering it was purchased a mere eight years earlier for $1,000!

In 1868 Adolph Mailliard and his family moved from New Jersey to San Rafael, where Adolph engaged in horse breeding and railroad construction.  In 1873 Adolph and his wife, Annie, set out to establish a grand estate on Rancho San Geronimo, building their home of 18 rooms and 11 fireplaces near Castle Rock, in today’s Woodacre.  Annie’s aunt described it as “… an unremarkable house with a deep veranda all around and small rooms with high ceilings.”  Her sisters pitied her isolation, and visitors from the East “… were to wonder how Annie could put up with straw matting on her floors, awkward servants, and austere furniture, but she did.”  In fact, Annie loved her house and her Valley, and refused to ever leave.  Annie’s sister, Julia Ward Howe, author of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and an active abolitionist and suffragette, would often enjoy relaxing at the Mailliard’s home in the Valley during her travels.

Early in the second half of the nineteenth century Adolph Mailliard transferred title to tracts of 400-600 acres each to James and Thomas Roy in San Geronimo, and to James Dickson and Calvin Dickson in Woodacre.  Little other division of the rancho occurred through the end of the century.

In 1895 Annie Mailliard died of breast cancer in the home she loved so dearly.  Her husband died a year later.  Their home later became the clubhouse of the Woodacre Improvement Club, in 1924.  A swimming pool was built for the membership. The building burned in 1958 and was replaced.  Later, a room was added and used by the Valley Pioneers, an elders group. In 2010, they discontinued their use and it is now a small fitness center. Part of the building is leased for a Montessori pre- school program. During the last decade a children’s playground was built.

EARLY 1900’s The Valley swelled to 30 families

In 1905 and 1906 the Mailliard heirs subdivided much of Lagunitas, and in 1912 they sold their remaining interest in San Geronimo Valley real estate to the Lagunitas Development Company, which subsequently subdivided Forest Knolls, San Geronimo, and Woodacre.  Most of the homes built prior to World War II were used as summer cabins.  In 1925 San Geronimo had 20 families that “swelled to 30” in the summer.  After the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, offering easier access to Marin County, and with the coming of World War II, when Sausalito shipyard workers needed housing, many summer cabins became permanent residences.

MID 1900’S “Can the last place last?”

Following World War II, little changed in the Valley, but in April 1961 the Marin County Board of Supervisors adopted a Master Plan proposal for the Valley that envisioned 20,000 new residents, and 5,000 new homes that would cover the entire Valley Planning Area which, at that time, included the area over the southern ridge encircling Kent Lake.  The land around Spirit Rock was proposed to be the site for a Civic Center, fire station, shopping center, heliport, and multifamily residences.  A freeway was proposed to come from San Anselmo over White’s Hill and through the center of the Valley, with an interchange that would cross on a diagonal across Roys Redwoods, over the northern ridge and into Nicasio Valley.  During the next ten years only the golf course and a sub division of 18 homes adjacent to the golf course, on San Geronimo Valley Drive, were developed as elements of that 1961 Master Plan.

After the Summer of Love in 1968, the Valley became a magnet for “Flower Children” from San Francisco, who set up camps and other unconventional abodes in the hills of San Geronimo Valley, much to the horror of some old timers.

In the early ‘70’s, a CountyWide Plan based on the extraordinary document “Can the Last Place Last?” was proposed for adoption by the Marin County Board of Supervisors.  Prior to its adoption, Lagunitas resident Jean Berensmeier learned of the 1961 Valley Master Plan. She organized a community meeting to review the Plan and the ad hoc Planning Group was born. Gary Giacomini was elected to the Board of Supervisors in 1972 and was the third vote needed to adopt the far reaching CountyWide Plan in 1973. The Planning Group worked from 1972-78 to create the first Community Plan that defined the four villages and preserved the Valley’s rural character, ridges and streams.  20 acre zoning was adopted for the area outside the villages that cut the potential development considerably and preserved open space and land for agricultural use. It was adopted in 1978.

Soon after adoption of the Community Plan a major subdivision was proposed by Hendricks/Horne that included 165 houses on 1,600 acres of land, along the entire south side of the Valley, behind the villages, up to the ridge.  After five years of controversy and community input by Friends of the Valley and the Planning Group, a maximum of 134 homes was approved to be built in four phases.  In 1995, lack of sales provided an opportunity for purchase of the remaining three phases of unbuilt land. The County of Marin Open Space District purchased almost 1,600 acres, leaving a maximum potential development of 37 homes and some remainder parcels.

LATE 1900’s Master Plan amended

In the 1980s a 411 acre agricultural parcel was sold to Insight Meditation West.  The Planning Group worked out an agreement with their board whereby the Planning Group would support a small Buddhist center in lieu of the 20 homes the 20 acre zoning allowed in keeping with the Community Plan.  This was approved by the Board of Supervisors.  IMW dedicated land to the Open Space District, which was added to Roy’s Redwoods, and arranged an agricultural easement with MALT.  The remainder was used by IMW and renamed Spirit Rock Meditation Center.  Spirit Rock Meditation Center is currently proposing a Master Plan amendment expanding their use.

In 1995, after considerable controversy within the community, a final amended Master Plan was approved for 33 houses on the 450-acre French Ranch property, located in the heart of the Valley.  Negotiations resulted in smaller, clustered houses on smaller building envelopes, 380 acres dedicated to the County Open Space District, community trails, private agricultural space, three affordable housing units and a waste treatment facility shared with the Lagunitas School Dist.

Over the years Barnabe Lookout tower has “grown” with additional facilities to serve Marin community residents.  In 2007 Verizon installed a 60’ tower on the ridge for better cell phone reception and emergency use. It is disguised as a giant evergreen tree.

2000’s Protecting our Valley’s People and Environment

In 2008, the county imposed a two year moratorium on construction in the Valley in order to develop a Salmon Enhancement Plan. The Board of Supervisors accepted the Plan in 2010 and the moratorium was lifted. The county, regional agencies and environmental groups are in the process of implementing the Plan and developing appropriate ordinances.

The Millennium finds the Valley with three parcels outside the village boundaries that have potential development.  This includes a 200-acre parcel on the northern ridge above Forest Knolls, the 590 acre Flanders Ranch, located at the east end of the Valley on both sides of SF Drake Blvd, currently an operating cattle ranch by heirs of the family, and the 47 acre parcel owned by the Tamalpais School Dist., formerly a part of the Flanders ranch and condemned for use as a high school under the proposed ’61 Master Plan.

Roads

Nineteenth century West Marin was the political and economic equal of East Marin, reflected in the fact that Nicasio was originally proposed to be the County Seat of Marin County, although San Rafael was ultimately chosen.  White’s Hill was the barrier to be breached, to connect the two halves of the county.  The earliest trail on record was the 1840’s cart trail of Indian and Spanish origin over White’s Hill.  The County replaced the trail with the Olema-to-San Rafael stage road in 1865. The new grade over White’s Hill was described as being “… very easy and of sufficient width to allow teams to pass without any trouble whatever … ”, but many years later motorists would find the road so steep they had to back their Model T Fords uphill in reverse gear!

In 1929, Sir Francis Drake Blvd. was completed through the Valley following the Olema-to-San Rafael stage road route.  After World War II, a building boom occurred in Marin County.  In the ‘50’s part of this road was rebuilt with generous shoulders and rerouted from the bottom of White’s Hill through the Flanders property bypassing downtown Woodacre and San Geronimo. The original SF Drake Blvd. route that went through Woodacre and San Geronimo was renamed San Geronimo Valley Drive.

In the early 1970s another freeway was proposed to be developed, this time along the northern ridge of the Valley, as an extension of what is now Interstate 580, to provide improved tourist access to the newly-created Point Reyes National Seashore, but that proposal also died.

The storm of January 1982 played havoc with logging roads and fire roads located on steep hillsides that had been created without benefit of construction standards.  Liquefaction caused countless slides and enormous amounts of sediment poured down the tributaries into San Geronimo Creek.  Flooding was a serious problem everywhere. The Fire Dept. did a post road  assessment and decided to cutback on the number of fire roads they cleared seasonally.

In the late 1980’s the county expanded the road shoulder from Lagunitas School in San Geronimo to the Inkwells west of Lagunitas to improve safety.  This led to a partnership between MMWD and the County that resulted in the creation of a bridge over a large water pipe that connected SF Drake Blvd. with the trail over the railroad right of way that goes through Taylor Park on the north side of the Lagunitas Creek.  The Dhority family provided an easement over a portion of the property and the bridge was named after them.  The bridge/trail is a popular pedestrian, equestrian, biker route.

In 2008, the county funded the SF Drake Blvd. rehabilitation project.  It will involve repaving SF Drake Blvd. from the Inkwells near Lagunitas to Tocaloma five miles west.  The design will improve what has been a dangerous route for autos and bicyclists for decades and lessen the impact of erosion and sediment on streams that are home to endangered and threatened salmonids.

Railroads

The North Pacific Coast Railroad laid narrow-gauge tracks over White’s Hill and through the Valley in 1873 and 1874, the right-of-way through the Valley having been donated by Adolph Mailliard.  Chinese laborers armed with only pickaxes, shovels, and wheelbarrows did the work.  Two tunnels were bored through White’s Hill.  Each was called “Roy’s Tunnel.”  The first was 370 feet long, but was eventually abandoned because the grade was too steep and spring seepage in the tunnel caused problems of lost traction on the rails.  The second, lower tunnel was 1,250 feet long and opened up to the sweeping vistas of San Geronimo Valley.  At that time, the principal railroad station in the Valley was at San Geronimo, where travelers to Nicasio would detrain and board a stagecoach to reach that community.

The narrow-gauge railway was replaced in 1904 with the more modern broad-gauge, and was renamed the Northwestern Pacific.  A 3,200-foot tunnel was bored through from Bothin, near Fairfax, to the Mailliard ranch in Woodacre, and the old tracks over White’s Hill were abandoned.  The railroad continued to operate until 1933, when Northwestern Pacific shut down the service and removed the tracks.  Travel time by train and ferry from San Francisco was then 1 hour 30 minutes.  There were two morning and evening commute trains, and a mid-day freight with a coach on the rear.

Traces of the original railroad bed can still be seen at the east end of the Valley, on the northern edge of the Valley floor on the Flanders ranch.

The original San Geronimo train station was relocated, restored and is used by the Presbyterian Church.

Commerce

Much of the old-growth redwood forest was felled for lumber, milled at James Shafter’s lumber mill at what is now the bottom of Kent Lake, and at other Valley mills, and then shipped to San Francisco.  In 1874, Adolph Mailliard tried to develop a gold mine, located west of the San Geronimo railroad station, but it proved unsuccessful.  Other early commercial ventures in the Valley included a shingle mill at the foot of Nicasio Hill in 1877, a fur tannery that opened in 1886, and a creamery, located in San Geronimo.

To the west of the Valley many paper mills dotted the creek downstream, producing newsprint from cloth rags and sacks.  Samuel P. Taylor’s mill is probably the best known of these.  Taylor built a hotel as housing for mill workers.  He also built a dam on Paper Mill Creek, to retain water to power his mill. For many years salmon could not get upstream to spawn.  In 1886 the California Fish Commission forced Taylor to build the first fish ladder on the West Coast, perhaps one of the earliest environmental efforts in California to protect Coho salmon and steelhead trout!  Today, creek-side plaques in Taylor Park commemorate the sites of the mill and the dam, west of the main picnic area.

The Pacific Powder Works opened in 1865, just downstream from Taylor’s operations.  It was destroyed by a violent explosion in 1877, was rebuilt, and finally closed in 1880.  In the early 1900’s, as Lagunitas was being subdivided, the first “shopping center” in the county was built. It consisted of the Lagunitas Grocery, a lumber yard and post office.  An ice cream parlor and candy store was added later.

There was little change in commerce until after WW II.  A golf course was built in anticipation of the implementation of the ’61 Master Plan.  Woodacre had a country store. San Geronimo had a restaurant.  Forest Knolls had a country store, beauty shop, ice cream parlor, real estate office, trailer court, gas station, saloon and summer camp.  Lagunitas had a country store, summer camp and Spec McAuliffe’s bar known as Lagunitas Lodge.

The world wide web changed many aspects of life for the average resident beginning in the late 1900’s.  One change in particular is the number of residents who use the internet to operate their business out of their home avoiding store front costs, the expense of signs, publicity and insurance.

Utilities

Alexander Graham Bell, a friend of the Mailliard family, installed the first California telephone system at Rancho San Geronimo.  Using the top strand of barbed wire on the fences to stretch the telephone line, it connected the Mailliard’s home in Woodacre to the cow barn and on to the Middle Ranch, near San Geronimo, and then to the Lower Ranch, at the upper end of Arroyo Road in Lagunitas.  Regular telephone service was started in 1920, using hand-cranked magneto wall phones.  The telephone company serviced the telephone lines only as far west as Oak Manor, near Fairfax, so Valley subscribers had to climb poles and service the local lines themselves.  The magneto telephones continued to be used until dial phones were installed in 1948.  The prefix for all Valley phones at that time was 488.  Due to technological developments large numbers of residents now use cell phones rather than land lines.

In 1868, the Tamalpais Water Company was incorporated by Charles Howard and James Shafter to supply water to San Geronimo Valley from eight springs and from Lagunitas Creek. This water system was later operated by the Mailliard family and was called the Lagunitas Water Company and produced 120,000 gallons of water per day.  After the remaining Mailliard family’s land was sold to the Lagunitas Development Company, the Lagunitas Water Company was renamed the San Geronimo Valley Water Company, and continued as such until 1951, when MMWD absorbed it into its system. The local springs and intakes continued to supply the Valley until 1963, when they were abandoned by MMWD. The Valley’s water supply now comes from the District’s system of lakes.

Tourism and Entertainment

When Samuel P. Taylor built his paper mill on the banks of the creek, he also opened up his land to campers, anglers, and hunters.  In 1884 his son, James I. Taylor, enlarged the Taylor Hotel and renamed it the “Hotel Azalea.”  The tourist business was soon booming.  By 1889, the rush was so great that over 300 reservations were on file, and by the Fourth of July the colony’s population had reached over 800. Including visitors, it was estimated that over 1,000 people were in and about Camp Taylor during the summer.

The camps were wooden frames with shake roofs and wooden floors set 10-12 inches above ground level.  Heavy canvas sides made them into comfortable summer homes.  Guests took their meals at the hotel, although many chose to “rough it” with their own grub, pitching tents on the ground.  Forty years later, with the railroad bringing campers in by the hundreds, Valley residents would complain of “half-naked revelers running through the woods.”

As the Valley grew in the early part of the 20th century, so did nightspots and dance halls. “Chief” Kelly had a dance hall in the hills of Forest Knolls, and then built another one on the highway.  It is reported that “… his place used to be a knock-down, drag-out.  They used to put chicken wire around the band so they wouldn’t get hit by flying bottles.”  The “Pavilion” succeeded Kelly’s place after it burned down, but was much more tame.  Another dance hall opened in Forest Knolls, in a large building that is still there, on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard near the corner of Tamal Road.  Down the road, at the site of the current Lagunitas Post Office, the “Mariposa Pavilion” brought weekend entertainment for Valley adults and teens until it was torn down in 1953.  Adjoining it was the Lagunitas Lodge, which for many years featured Spec McAuliffe’s Irish coffee, until it burned in 1983.

During the 1960s Janis Joplin and members of her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company along with Van Morrison and members of the bands Quicksilver Messenger Service, the Grateful Dead, Sons of Champlin, and Joy of Cooking would all set up housekeeping in the Valley, and offer informal performances of their music here.  Some would stay, and become valued members of the community.

In the 1970’s the Community Center began to have art shows, performing art events, plays, movies and an annual Holiday Festival.  The numbers served were not large.  But that has changed dramatically starting about 2006.

Post Offices

The first post office in the Valley was established at San Geronimo in 1895, followed by Lagunitas in 1906, Forest Knolls in 1916 and Woodacre in 1925. Larger post offices were built in new locations in Woodacre, San Geronimo and Forest Knolls during the 1980’s.

Schools

The first school in the Valley was located at the Roy Ranch, near the duck pond in San Geronimo, organized as the San Geronimo School District in the 1870s.  With the Mailliard’s 1905-06 subdivision of Lagunitas, and the resulting shift in the center of Valley population, a new school was built in Lagunitas, renamed the Lagunitas District School.  Following the development of Valley villages east of Lagunitas, in 1924 a larger, Spanish mission-styled Lagunitas District School was built on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in San Geronimo.  Additional classrooms and other school facilities were constructed nearby in the 1950s, becoming today’s Lagunitas School.  In 1967 San Geronimo School was built, east of Larsen Creek, and the old 1924 school building was to be demolished.  Lagunitas resident Jean Berensmeier prevented that by leasing it for a year as an Art Center for kids after school.  Support for the popular program resulted in the Art Center incorporating as a non-profit.  It is still serving the Valley today as the Community Center.

Anticipating the growth proposed in the 1961 Master Plan, in 1962 the Tamalpais Union High School District acquired 47 acres of the George Flanders Ranch, fronting Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in Woodacre, as a site for a high school for Valley students.  The Lagunitas School District also acquired a site for an elementary school at the corner of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Railroad Avenue in Woodacre. Neither of these schools was ever built.

School programs – The Valley had a traditional program.  An Open Classroom program was introduced in the 1960’s.  It was popular and controversial.   Both programs thrived.  The traditional program named itself the A&E program. In the 1990’s a Montessori program was added.  Due to lack of support the A&E program was cancelled in the ‘90‘s. In 2006, a Waldorf program was added. All of these primary grade programs feed into the Middle School program.

A gymnasium with an upper story teen center was built in 2009 next to Lagunitas School.  It is used by the school for physical education classes and by the community.

The school sold a double portable to the county for use by Wilderness Way for its environmental education program with school children grades K-8.  A lease agreement was signed in 2010.

Library

In 1929, the first Valley library opened in a small building built for that purpose at Lagunitas School.  In 1946 it moved to the Kenny Burt building in Forest Knolls and in the ensuing 60 years moved to Woodacre, back to Forest Knolls, then Lagunitas and back to Lagunitas School. It was closed in 2009 due to budget cuts and non-use.

Churches

San Geronimo Community Presbyterian Church – The San Geronimo Train Station was purchased from the North Pacific Coast Railroad in 1935.  It was then converted into the church sanctuary and served that purpose until 1967.  The “community building” was built by church and community members shortly after the end WWII using reclaimed lumber from Marin Ship, the ship yard in Marin City that build victory ships.  It was later named the social hall and in 1967 was remodeled to be used as the sanctuary.  It was remodeled again in 1997.

St. Cecilia’s in Lagunitas – Was first built in 1912 at a cost of $4000.  It was destroyed by fire in 1934 and rebuilt in 1936.  In the late 1990’s the parish learned that their church might be closed.  They formed a committee and signed an agreement with the San Francisco Archdiocese that set up a pastoral plan to revitalize the church community and remodel the church.  The remodeling was completed in 1998.  In 2010 they installed a fountain, made in China that may be the only Ecumenical fountain in the world with symbols representing the six great faiths of the world.

Parks, Open Space, and Trails

The land of Samuel P. Taylor remained in private ownership until 1948, when the State of California purchased it for a State Park.  Various additions have been made to the park during the intervening years.

Concurrent with the adoption of the Countywide Plan, a bond measure was passed by Marin voters for the purchase and preservation of open space.  In 1978, Roy’s Redwoods, a 309-acre parcel, formerly part of the Roy Ranch in San Geronimo, was purchased by the Marin County Open Space District, and became the first public preserve in the Valley.  Its expansive meadow, flanked by giant redwoods that rival Muir Woods for their size and beauty, is a popular gathering place for picnics, weddings, and celebrations of life.  In the late 1960s, hippies used a few of the larger hollowed-out trees as living spaces.

The 30-acre Maurice Thorner Open Space, on the ridge separating the San Geronimo School from the back nine of the golf course was donated in 1982 and became the second open space parcel.  The Gary Giacomini Open Space Preserve, a 1600-acre parcel that is five miles long and wraps around the southern portion of each village between Taylor Park and White’s Hill was purchased in 1995. The 383-acre French Ranch Open Space Preserve, which includes four trails and a 70-acre parcel designated for agricultural use, was acquired through the development process in 1999.

In 1985, the Trails Element of the Countywide Plan was adopted.  It identified and designated fire roads and trails to be acquired for public use through the development, donation, or acquisition process.  It has been amended several times.

Starting in 2007, the Planning Group began collaborating with the county to upgrade the Forest Knolls playground.  Physical structures, paving, water and a bathroom have been installed to the delight of neighboring families. Phase III, Planting by Community members, will be completed in the Spring of 2011.

In 2008, the County Open Space Dist. approved a Strategic Plan that addressed vegetation and recreational needs for the county’s open space preserves.  In 2010, the Planning Group and interested residents began to meet to provide input to the development of a Vegetation Management Plan to preserve native and endangered plants and determine the best methods to remove invasive plants.  Subsequently, meetings began to be held to develop a Road and Trails Management Plan that will protect our open space, plants and wildlife and provide opportunities for appropriate recreation.

Become a member of the SGV Planning Group to carry on our Valley tradition of caring for our land and people.  By becoming a member you are adding your voice to the Voice of the Valley.