Marine Artist Willam Coulter

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

William A. Coulter was considered one of the foremost artists on San Francisco Bay. He was born in 1849 in what is today Northern Ireland, where his father was captain in the Coast Guard. According to the website for Christopher Queen Galleries, which has an extensive collection of Early California paintings:

“At age 13 Coulter went to sea and learned every detail of the ships on which he sailed. He had a natural gift for drawing and color and during his off-duty hours aboard ship he sketched and painted. After arriving in San Francisco in 1869, he worked as a sailmaker while continuing to paint in his leisure and by 1874 was regularly exhibiting with the San Francisco Art Association. By 1890 he was living in Sausalito in a house that was just a few feet from the water.”

In 1980, this paper ran a series of sketches by Coulter from the Historical Society collection, along with a plea from SHS founder Jack Tracy, for more information on him. Nine readers replied, and one sent along a biographical sketch from the New York Times almost 45 years previously, at the time of his death. Here is an excerpt from that biography:

“While living in California, Coulter made two trips to Europe and four to the Hawaiian Islands. The rest of his time was spent in the Bay area, usually on the sunporch of his Sausalito home where he often watched the ships come in and out of the harbor. Coulter painted more than 5000 ocean scenes on canvas during his 60 year career. He always worked from memory except when special details were needed. “

During the course of his life, his paintings chronicled the history of shipping and navigation in the San Francisco and San Pablo bays. In the late 1870s, he went to Europe to study with marine artists. In 1896, he joined the art staff of the San Francisco Call as their waterfront artist. His pen-and-ink drawings appeared daily until the disaster of 1906.

COURTESY PHOTO

William A. Coulter at his easel

Between 1909 and 1920, he spent two years on scaffolding while painting five 16-by-18-foot murals for the Assembly Room of the Merchants Exchange Building. His painting of the Golden Gate was reproduced on a U.S. postage stamp in 1923.

In 1935, a year before his death and five years after his retirement at age 80, Coulter held a one-man exhibit in San Francisco showing the 100 pictures he had completed since his retirement. Among that final collection was a modern scene of the Golden Gate Bridge as it stretched from near his home to San Francisco.

Coulter resided in Sausalito until his death on March 13, 1936, at the age of 87.

In November 1943, the 144th Liberty ship launched at the Permanente Metals Corporation shipyard in Richmond was christened the "S.S. William A. Coulter,” after the famous marine artist who his most productive years in Sausalito. His daughter Helen was sponsor at the launching.

Portrayer of Old Sausalito

Leonard Sutton Wood and his wife Edith were key figures in our town’s cultural scene, beginning in the 1930’s. He was an architect and artist famous for his historic etchings of old Sausalito. She was an actress.

The website askart.com carries a brief profile of the couple, written shortly before his death in 1971: “This is the story of Mrs. Leonard S. Wood of Sausalito, but it is impossible to write about her without including her husband, for they do everything together. They celebrated their golden wedding four years ago and have lived in Sausalito 41 years. He is 82 and she is 80 years young, in spirit and activities. … [She was an actress.] Her husband is interested in dramatics, too, and is famous for his recitation of the Stanley Holloway specialty, ‘Albert and the Lion.’ Some time ago he wrote a ‘The Drunkard’-type melodrama for the Sausalito Woman’s club, which he entitled ‘Love Triumphant, or the Secret of Bloodstone Towers’.”

The Historical Society is the proud possessor of a hundred of his works: beautiful little sketches of his family and friends, scraps of preliminary drawings for the finished works. His etchings of Sausalito in the 1930's are most unique. In later years his watercolors and antique brass rubbings became collectors’ items. A friend who was taught the technique of brass rubbing by Wood describes him as a "darling man... so generous with his time...a sweet disposition."

Leonard was known locally as Sutton Wood, perhaps to differentiate him from Major General Leonard Wood, a distinguished American soldier who was the Army's Chief of Staff from 1910 to 1914 and the namesake of Fort Leonard Wood in the Missouri Ozarks. Our Sutton Wood became a Sausalito resident and co-edited the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday rotogravure magazine section from 1919-1941.

The Society has exhibited Sutton Woods’ work a number of times over the years.  In 1978, shortly after the SHS was founded, we lent 20 of his historic etchings to a Bridgeway gallery. The Sausalito News reported: “They describe Sausalito scenery and daily life in the 1920’s and 1930's in a pleasing easy going style. Leonard Sutton Wood lived from 1882 to 1971. He was born in England and came with his wife to Sausalito before 1920.”

More recently we staged another showing in 2013, this time in the Society’s exhibition room on the top floor of City Hall. One of the works on display was a pen-and-ink illustration of Excelsior Lane, which was known as “Limejuice Alley” because so many Englishmen came up and down the lane, a main thoroughfare before automobiles took over. They were known as Limeys or Limejuicers, because English law required vessels to carry lime juice to prevent scurvy among sailors. The lower part of Excelsior Lane had wooden steps, but from there up to the top, until the 90's was only steep, red clay with triangular rocks sticking up.

Peggy and the Tin Angel

Artist/poet/raconteur/entrepreneur Peggy Tolk-Watkins moved to the Bay Area in 1950 and opened The Tin Angel on Sausalito's waterfront. She acquired the building from Matt Lange, who had converted it to a crab restaurant after twenty-nine years in his launch business. According to her son Ragland, Peggy took the name from a roof ornament her family “rescued” from Georgian-style church building she had lived next to in New York.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Peggy Told-Watkins, a figure in the human landscape of Sausalito

The Tin Angel quickly became a gathering place for noted jazz musicians and folk singers. Peggy sold the business in 1952 and spent a year traveling in Europe with young Ragland. Scoma’s Restaurant has occupied the property since 1969.

Ever the flamboyant entrepreneur, Peggy returned from Europe and opened her second “Tin Angel" on the Embarcadero. The club hosted folk singers like Odetta but was best known for presenting first-class Traditional Jazz, including groups like Bob Scobey and his Frisco Jazz Band, Turk Murphy, Kid Ory, Muggsy Spanier and others.

In 1954 she partnered with Sally Stanford to open the Fallen Angel at 1144 Pine Street, the site of Sally’s one-time brothel.  San Francisco columnist Ralph J. Gleason wrote that Peggy had the knack of “getting interesting people to come to the club regardless of the entertainment of the moment. She was stimulating to talk to herself and that drew interesting people.”

Peggy Tolk-Watkins was also a self-trained artist. Her style has been described as primitive with highly imaginative depiction of animals and flowers. The Historical Society has a copy of one of her paintings, “The Red Reindeer,” in its collection. It is inscribed to Ruth and Albert, i.e., Bay Area artist Ruth Asawa and her husband, Albert Lanier.

A profile in a 2021 Historical Society newsletter states: “Her style has been described as primitive with highly imaginative depiction of animals and flowers.” The Historical Society is honored to own a copy of one of her paintings, “The Red Reindeer.” It is inscribed to Ruth and Albert, i.e., Bay Area artist Ruth Asawa and her husband, Albert Lanier.

In another profile, the Sausalito News wrote in 1960:

“Peggy Tolk-Watkins. a Sausalito artist, who is completely self taught, is currently exhibiting primitive oils at the de Young Museum. Though it is her first public exhibition of works done during the past 14 years, she has gained considerable recognition among local and southern California collectors. Until quite recently painting has been only one of several hobbies sandwiched in between a busy career as a social worker, teacher, writer of children’s books, business woman and housewife.

“She was born and brought up in New York City where she studied photography with Arnold Eagle under a National Youth Administration project winning a third prize for a health poster that was subsequently used by the City of New York. Though she had had no formal art training she began working with underprivileged children as an arts and crafts supervisor primarily in New York’s lower East Side settlement houses. There she directed the children in the construction of stage sets, various craft subjects and painting. During World War II she taught children in all eight war housing projects in Richmond, Calif., under the supervision of Hazel Salmi, former director of the Richmond Art Center. At the end of the war she received a year's work scholarship from Black Mountain College in North Carolina where she studied not art but literature though she conducted painting classes for faculty members' children and organized a children's class at the Negro Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.”

According to foundsf.org, “The and versatile Tolk-Watkins hit the Bay Area like a comet but flamed out in 1973 at the age of 51 after living life full speed. With a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other she loved to discuss (read debate) issues with customers and friends.”

Ragland recalls: “She was prodigiously talented and appreciative of other people’s talent, creative, generous to a fault, funny in an absurdist way, vulnerable, anti-bourgeois, egalitarian. She was an artist (a painting show at the de Young Museum), a poet, and an entrepreneur. She was a figure in the human landscape of Sausalito in her time.”

The Making of a Sausalito Bohemian

By Betty Bullimore and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

While doing research on renowned Western painter and sometime Sausalitan Maynard Dixon, I came across a charming profile of avant-garde painter Enid Foster’s early days here. Foster was a childhood contemporary of Dixon. Here are excerpts from a 1953 Sausalito News profile by Betty Bullimore:

IMAGE FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Self-portrait, c. 1960s.

Four years before the death of David O'Connell, the Irish Poet, who lived and died in Sausalito, a future Bohemian moved into the town. A colorful personality whose fringe of white hair peeping out from under a head scarf and faded blue jeans have become as well known in Sausalito as her drawings and her anecdotes of the past.

Enid Foster, who lives in a picturesque two room cottage on Fourth street, with her two dogs, a duck called Emily and a sparrow she found as an abandoned fledgling, remembers back to the days of Judge Bellrude. The Judge was also the local cab driver who met the ferry boat at the public dock and took passengers home at night in his brightly polished “surrey with the fringe on top" drawn by a pair of high stepping brown horses. The judge was often called from his cab to perform a marriage ceremony or sign important papers and was never known to neglect any of his varied duties.

Enid, who was the younger of two sisters, was born at her grandmother’s home in San Francisco, in 1895, but Sausalito had been her parents’ home for some time. Seven years before she was born, Enid’s father had a bachelor apartment at the foot of Princess Street, now occupied by business buildings. Charles Jay Foster enlarged his place when he married and the Fosters lived there for many years. The house was burned down some years later.

As a small girl, Enid spent most of her time drawing and painting, and her parents, realizing that there was a great deal of talent in her small hands, built her a studio. She was only 21 when she was asked to model the memorial to Sarah B. Cooper, the founder of kindergartens in San Francisco. The memorial is in the Golden Gate Park. Before she was five, her drawings had attracted the attention of Julien Rix, the Sausalito painter. As a joke he pinned them to the wall of his studio and told skeptical friends that they were his own drawings. Said Enid, “They thought he had gone raving mad.” She recalled the days of the old ferryboats and told me about the little harpist who entertained the passengers and of his wife who collected pennies in an abalone shell.

INDIAN PONY

Shortly after Enid was presented with a small Indian pony, she met Maynard Dixon, who later became famous for his paintings of Arizona. “Horrible small boy he was then, a few years older than I. He once threw a cantaloupe at me and my pony became frightened and galloped off. I nearly died of fright,” she said.

Then there was the time when Enid became an active citizen. She spotted a fire and called out the manual fire engine. When the panting firemen arrived at the scene, the “fire” turned out to be a steaming manure heap. Five year old Enid was very upset.

She told me the story of her early attempt to study anatomy. “My parents were very good and were fortunately progressive intelligent people; they also believed in letting me study art in the ways I chose and I managed to persuade them to buy me a corpse. “I had decided to study at Stanford hospital and duly reported there for my first lesson. The doctor and instructors were very amused and didn’t think for one moment I’d stick it out — how right they were. “I shall never forget it. They told me to pick my corpse; I shuddered and asked them to fish any one out of the solution and cover it up. I went into the corridor while they heaved out the body.

“I began with the hand, that seemed impersonal enough. I think I managed to stick that lesson out, but when I fled from the building that after noon, I never returned.” she laughed. “I never did see what my corpse looked like”.

She spent a year with architect Charles Peter Weeks, who designed the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco. Enid executed sculpture work for him. There have been exhibitions of Enid's painted drawings in the De Young Museum, the Legion of Honor and the San Francisco Museum of Art, as well as many in Sausalito. The most recent was at the Alta Mira Hotel. Enid is a delightful mixture of the old and the new. She is one of the few bohemians who belong to Sausalito by birth as well as by choice, and is one of the best known figures in the town.

Enid Foster has recently been the subject of an Historical Society exhibition at City Hall, and of a sumptuously-illustrated book by the Society’s Allan and Carol Hayes which is available online or at Sausalito Books by the Bay.

Fond Memories of Peter Arnott

Peter Arnott, who passed away last month at age 90, left an indelible stamp on Sausalito. A native of Palo Alto, Peter met his wife Ann while both were employed in Tokyo. After they married and had a son, David, they relocated to Sausalito, a move that benefitted them and this town enormously.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO WOMAN’S CLUB

Peter and Ann celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Sausalito Players.

As Steefenie Wicks wrote in a 2017 profile of the couple: “they have been involved in just about every event that has taken place here. They are totally community orientated, have been members of or on the Board of just about every organization here in town.  When asked why neither has ever run for political office, Peter is the first to answer, ‘Because it just did not look like fun’.”

Peter worked in advertising and produced original musicals for corporate events. But that was only his day gig. With three pals, he formed a regional jug band called the Goodtime Washboard Three. Featuring Peter on banjo, they performed on national TV, local radio, in concerts, and night clubs; they even recorded some sides at Berkeley’s famous Fantasy Records in 1964. Their biggest hit was a playful paean to the undersung city of Oakland (“Where did all the people go when Frisco burned? They all went to Oakland and never returned.”) The song achieved a kind of cult status and can be heard on Spotify. They also performed a tender ballad called “Under the Dock in Sausalito.”

The band's quirky style and fame resulted in invitations to the Bohemian Grove, and Peter became a Bohemian mainstay, writing and directing many productions and mentoring many talented Bohemians.

Meanwhile, back at the Rancho, Ann served as secretary for the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, president of the Sausalito Woman’s Club and president of the Art Festival Foundation. Together, she and Peter ran the gate at the Art Festival for three decades.

In 1977, Peter and Ann founded The Sausalito Players, a play-reading group, as a way for amateur actors to get some stage time and perform without having to endure a lot of meetings and rehearsals. In an article Peter wrote for the Historical Society newsletter, he recalled: “This all happened in 1977 because that was the year that Ann Arnott was President of the Sausalito Woman’s Club (SWC).  She raised the idea that perhaps the Club might share the small stage in its famed Julia Morgan-designed clubhouse. Over the years, the SWC had used it for a variety of club-related theatrical and musical functions and generously agreed to share its facilities with the newborn play-reading group and to have all performances free and open to the public.” The Sausalito Players still perform free-to-the-public plays at the club.

On a personal note, I met Peter in the 80s through a rogue advertising group called the Milline Club. Each holiday season we produced a Christmas show, which was basically an off-color parody of a Broadway musical, with an advertising focus. In our version of West Side Story, the Washboard appeared as advertising salesmen and stopped the show when they sang: “Buy some space from us — some time or space from us.”

We spent some happy hours reminiscing about those days over dinners at the Sausalito Yacht Club.

Of all the tributes I’ve written to past Sausalitans, this one has been the most fun. Call it a labor of love.

The Battle for the Golden Gate Bridge

ILLUSTRATION FROM SAUSALITO NEWS

Maynard Dixon’s depiction of the dangers of ferry travel on foggy San Francisco Bay.

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

It’s hard to imagine that the Golden Gate Bridge, considered one of the Wonders of the Modern World, was once the center of a long, ferocious controversy. Opponents argued that the bridge would be unsafe, and far too expensive for a Depression-era economy. In his book Moments in Time, historian Jack Tracy recounted the contentious atmosphere:

“As the propaganda wars were being waged over the Golden Gate Bridge, the main activity of bridge planners in the 1920s was in the courtroom. Litigation brought by individuals and groups opposed to the bridge dragged on for years. After the California legislature passed the Golden Gate Bridge Highway Act in 1923 that authorized creation of a special bridge district with power to levy taxes, the legal battle began. Joseph Strauss, still an unpaid engineering consultant [who became the chief engineer of the bridge], refuted the arguments that a Golden Gate span would be unsafe. Sausalito attorney George H. Harlan, also an unpaid consultant, successfully battled in the courts on behalf of the bridge. At last, on December 4, 1928, the Golden Gate Bridge District was incorporated. Incorporation led to a new wave of litigation.

“The propaganda campaign supporting a bridge over the Golden Gate took a vicious turn after it was revealed that Southern Pacific-Golden Gate Ferries, Ltd., was party to a lawsuit attempting to block the bridge project.”

Southern Pacific warned that a bridge would be an enormous cost to taxpayers. Some Sausalitans were concerned that the “only undiscovered suburb of San Francisco” would be ruined by the hordes of visitors the Bridge would bring into town.

The development-minded Sausalito News backed the idea and editors expressed the more popular sentiment of the time: "Let's help San Francisco to discover Sausalito. Sausalito is the most accessible of any residential suburb to the city of San Francisco...the cream suburb of the Bay region. It is time to tell the world about Sausalito."

An October 1930 editorial took Southern Pacific to task for its opposition to the project with a bit of rancorous doggerel, perhaps inspired by the 1901 ferry collision Jack London fictionalized three years later in his novel The Sea-Wolf:

"Look, ye who cringe when the transportation

giant speaks! Look, ye —and remember!

When the transportation giant cracks his whip there are

puppets who scuttle to do his bidding —to prostitute

their heritage of manhood.

"The transportation giant and his puppets would hide the

fact that under the present system LIVES and not Gold will be forfeit that the people may be called upon to pay.

SOME DAY—THE FOG — —!

"Just four words, but what tragedy they spell. Until now the fathers and mothers crossing the bay each day have been fortunate. Only occasionally have there been

sorrowing dependents left at home.

SOME DAY—THE FOG--!

"If the transportation giant and his puppets have their way that day might be expected.

Until now a kindly Providence has protected against the horror pictured above.

But, ye who cringe when the transportation giant speaks —

Look, ye and remember—

SOME DAY—THE FOG — —!"

The newspaper even hired Sausalitan Maynard Dixon to draw editorial cartoons depicting Southern Pacific as a villain. Dixon, one of the finest artists specializing in southwestern culture, grew up in California and during his illustrious career his works were exhibited at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, and he contributed to murals at the Mark Hopkins Hotel, including one of Califia, the ancient warrior queen of a fictional island called California which gave our state its name. But he was willing to set aside his paints and sketch the accompanying political cartoon.

She Sang in Our Sunshine

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

COURTESY PHOTO

Cover of Gale Garnett’s album, Sausalito Heliport

Vocalist, writer and actress Gale Garnett was born in New Zealand, but became a local fixture in Sausalito’s hippie heyday. In 1964, Gale scored a Top Five pop hit with her original composition "We'll Sing in the Sunshine," which won her a Grammy for Best Folk Recording.

Five years later she released an album titled Sausalito Heliport with a backing band called Gentle Reign. One of the sidemen on that record date was drummer Michael Aragon, who had a 36-year gig at the No Name before retiring in 2019.

Sausalito Heliport wasn’t a critical success. The website allmusic.com notes: “the songs here aren't much to rave about, sometimes seeming like awkward attempts to get in on the California psychedelic rock action, with occasional downright embarrassing improvised-sounding lyrics on some of the more ambitious numbers.” But that didn’t stop Gale from enjoying the bohemian pleasures of our town.

Historical Society mainstay Rick Seymour, who grew up here, offered some fond memories of Gale, who was a regular on the Sausalito scene and dated novelist Evan S. Connell. Here’s one of Rick’s fondest memories:

“I met Gail when she was appearing as the female lead understudy in a SF production of Flower Drum Song shortly after I returned from the Air Force.  We were both hanging out at the No Name and got to be good friends.  Elizabeth Taylor's ex, Michael Wilder was the lead in the play and was throwing a party on his boat moored at Sam's in Tiburon.  Gail found out that I had access to an 18-foot day sailer (Bidet) and asked if we would sail over to Sam's the day of the party.  Sure.  We got as far as the harbor entrance, the wind died and the two-horse outboard motor wouldn't start.  I took the bow line, dove in and towed the boat past Wilder's party with Gail posed in front of the mast in a very brief bikini.  We were really good friends after that.  Gale was one fine lady and person.”

Gale recorded through the rest of the 1960s with her backing band the Gentle Reign. Her follow-up to "We'll Sing in the Sunshine", "Lovin' Place", was her only other single to chart in America. She appeared twice on ABC's Shindig! and The Lloyd Thaxton Show at the height of her singing fame in the mid-1960s.

Toward the end of the 60s, Gale began appearing in feature films and on television shows, usually in supporting roles. She also branched out into journalism, writing essays, columns, and book reviews for various newspapers and magazines. Additionally, she wrote and performed two one-person theater pieces, Gale Garnett & Company and Life After Latex.

According to Wikipedia, “Garnett delivered a notable performance in the Rankin-Bass feature Mad Monster Party in the late 1960s, with the memorable tunes Our Time to Shine and Never Was a Love Like Mine.

“In 1975, Garnett participated in an Off-Off Broadway theater production of "Starfollowers in an Ancient Land," written and directed by H. M. Koutoukas, at the La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York City's East Village. Garnett performed in the cast, and also co-wrote the music for the production with Tom O'Horgan.”

Since then, Gale has worked primarily as a writer, and is now 80 years old.

She Sang in Our Sunshine

Seagoing Sermonizer

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Last month Episcopalian parishioners honored a priest who used to ferry from Sausalito to Belvedere to deliver sermons almost 100 years ago.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Christ Church in 1887.

A rower representing the Rev. Harrold St. George Buttrum staged a reenactment of Buttrum’s bay crossings while church members from Christ Episcopal Church in Sausalito and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Belvedere cheered him on from the USS Potomac, the former yacht of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was an Episcopalian.

Buttrum –– originally from England, and later the University of Manitoba –– was given the title of vicar for St. Stephen’s while rector at Christ Church and served for 28 years in Marin.

According to a St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church history pamphlet, “Rev. Buttrum would hold 7:00 a.m. Eucharist at Christ Church, take the ferry to St. Stephen’s for a 9:00 a.m. Sunday Service and 10:00 a.m. Sunday School before using the ferry to return to Sausalito for the 11:00 a.m. Sunday Service.”

St. Stephen’s was founded in 1878, and Christ Church was founded in 1882. Buttrum was born

at Suffolk, United Kingdom in 1875. After graduating from St. John’s College around 1901 he was named Rector of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church (1901-1905). He and his wife Bertha had three children. His next assignment brough him out West for his next pastoral appointmen, in British Columbia.

In 1915, the family resettled to the Bay Area.

According to Historical Society founder Jack Tracy, Christ Church, at Santa Rosa and San Carlos Avenues, is the oldest surviving church structure in Sausalito.

After serving as rector in Sausalito and Belvedere, Buttrum took a brief retirement before answering the call to return as the Rector Emeritus of Trinity Episcopal Church in Sonoma (1945-1956). He also attained a Doctorate of Divinity, taught at Church Divinity School at Berkeley, and was Dean of Convocation (Ministerial Association) in San Francisco for 20 years.

Buttrum died of pneumonia at a rest home in Sonoma in 1971 and was buried at Chapel of the Chimes in Santa Rosa. But his memory lives on through the efforts of parishioners on either side of Richardson’s Bay.

Julia Morgan — Pioneering Architect

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

America’s first independent female architect, Julia Morgan, was best known in these parts for designing the Sausalito Woman’s Club and Hearst Castle at San Simeon. But those are only a couple of chapters in her impressive biography. Born in San Francisco in 1872 and raised in Oakland, she launched her unconventional career path early, enrolling to study civil engineering at U.C. Berkeley. One of her Berkeley instructors, Bernard Maybeck, encouraged her to pursue architectural studies in Paris.

COURTESY PHOTO

W.R. Hearst and Julia Morgan at San Simeon

She was initially refused admission to Ecole des Beaux-Arts because the Ecole had never admitted a woman. After a two-year wait, Julia gained entrance to the prestigious program and became the first woman to receive a certificate in architecture.

Here’s how Los Angeles Herald editor Florence Collins Porter described Julia’s tenure at the Ecole:

"When it was decided, four years ago, that women should be admitted at rue Bonaparte (L'Ecole des Beaux Arts), it was far from being thought that they would come there to seek other instruction than that of painting and sculpture. One was counting then without America, from whence the unexpected so often comes to us, for a charming young girl of San Francisco, Miss Julia Morgan, presented herself, with her diagram board under her arm and her square in her hand, and one was obliged to teach her to construct palaces. She excels in it today, and some days ago Miss Morgan was graduated from the section of architecture of L'Ecole des Beaux Arts. Woman's rights gather continually new laurels."

After graduation, Julia returned to the Bay Area and began working for architect John Galen Howard, contributing to the University of California’s Master Plan, on a commission from Cal benefactor Phoebe Apperson Hearst. She drew the elevations and designed decorative details for the Mining Building erected in memory of George Hearst, Phoebe’s late husband. She also designed the Hearst Greek Theater on the Berkeley campus.

Julia opened her own architectural firm in 1904 and one of her first residential commissions was to remodel and complete Phoebe Hearst’s Hacienda del Pozo de Verona in Pleasanton. Morgan’s style was characterized by her use of the California vernacular with distinctive elements of the Arts and Crafts movement, including exposed support beams, horizontal lines that blended with the landscape and extensive use of shingles, California redwood and earth tones.

In a 1904 essay on the Arts and Crafts movement, the San Francisco Call praised one of Julia’s early projects, the bell tower on the campus of Oakland’s Mills College:

“Designed in the style of the old Spanish missions, the tower is built of rough faced gray concrete. Red terra cotta tiles cover its roof and corner buttresses and California redwood furnishes the ornamental work. It rises in three sections to a height of seventy-five feet. At the base its dimensions are 12x25 feet, but at the top it is but half that size. The walls are pierced, mission-like, on side and gable with arched bell niches and panel windows. On the front gable alone appears the bronze face of the clock, which marks the quarters and at hourly intervals gives the full Westminster chime.”

The newly formed Sausalito Woman’s Club hired Julia in 1918 to design their clubhouse, impressed by her work on the Asilomar Conference Center in Pacific Grove for Phoebe Hearst, as well as a massive foundation for a Hearst residence above the Sausalito waterfront. The Woman’s Club became Sausalito’s first historic city landmark, and in 1979 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The foundation in the Sausalito hills was planned for a castle for Phoebe’s son William Randolph Hearst, who moved in and out of Sausalito like the tides in Richardson’s Bay. As Jack Tracy points out in his Sausalito history Moments in Time, “In 1910 Hearst returned briefly to Sausalito. With a wife, two children and a New York architect in tow, he announced plans for an elaborate Spanish-style home on his Sausalito property. Again he was distracted, and nothing was built.”

Instead, Hearst hired Julia Morgan in 1919 to design a main building and guest houses for his ranch in San Simeon. Phoebe had recently died in the influenza epidemic, and Hearst had finally inherited this land as well as other Hearst property. Julia’s classical training in Paris, her engineering background, and her use of reinforced concrete suited her well for the project.

As described on the website hearstcastle.org: “Over the course of the next 28 years, Morgan supervised nearly every aspect of construction at Hearst Castle including the purchase of everything from Spanish antiquities to Icelandic moss to reindeer for the Castle’s zoo. She personally designed most of the structures, grounds, pools, animal shelters and workers’ camp down to the minutest detail. Additionally, Morgan worked closely with Hearst to integrate his vast art collection into the structures and grounds at San Simeon.”

Today, there’s a special Julia Morgan tour at the castle, a fitting memorial to a woman of monumental talents.

Varda and the Vallejo

By Betsy Stroman and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO FROM VARDA FAMILY ARCHIVE

“Yanko” Varda sits in front of one of his collages c. 1950.

We’ve heard numerous stories about legendary artist and bon vivant Jean Varda aboard the ferryboat Vallejo. But I recently came across some fresh perspectives in Betsy Stroman’s 2015 book, “The Art and Life of Jean Varda” Here are some lightly edited excerpts from the book:

While visiting Henry Miller in 1947, at Big Sur, Jean Varda met British-born artist Gordon Onslow Ford.

The Onslow Fords had rented an apartment in San Francisco, but Gordon Onslow Ford was looking for studio space outside of the city, and both Varda and Onslow Ford wanted to be closer to the water, so the two began talking about finding a place together.

In 1947, while he was wandering through the Arques shipyard, Varda met upon a 120-foot-long iron-hull ferryboat, called the Vallejo, which dated back to the early 1870s. The ship had carried horse-drawn carriages between Contra Costa and Solano counties, and transported shipyard workers and military personnel between Mare Island and Vallejo during World War II; after that, it was sold for scrap

[by Gardiner Steel Mills] and delivered to the Arques shipyard to be broken up.

Varda, who, by one report, was already squatting in the Vallejo, showed the old ferryboat to Onslow Ford. Varda recounted that they were roaming about and inspecting ... [the Vallejo] when a voice of suspicion called from the shore, 'Hey, you guys, what are you doing there?' There was only one way out of an embarrassing situation. We answered: Is this boat for sale?' When we learned that it was, we looked at each other struck by the same idea. What a magnificent studio it would make! ... Two days later we were wedlocked to her for good or for worse."

Many years later, Onslow Ford described the transaction that led to its purchase: "We hurried over to the Gardiner office in Oakland, arrived rather disheveled, and said we wanted to acquire the ferry. He asked how much money we had. Varda had none. I had $500. So he took that as a down payment and we agreed to pay $60 a month."

Varda arranged to have the boat towed to a berth at the northern edge of Sausalito city limits, next to the Marinship. Onslow Ford purchased a strip of land next to the Argues shipyard, along with an underwater lot that they used for berthing space. The new owners of the Vallejo helped themselves to the building materials that were readily available in the Marinship as they began to remodel the ferryboat to serve as their respective quarters.

"There was a waterfront tradition that no one paid their bills," according to Onslow Ford, who, in an interview many years later, added that "Varda was an instigator of that custom." They recycled old engines and turned steam pipes into chimney flues and kitchen parts. They used wood from the paddle wheels for additions and partitions. Varda enclosed the open stern and built an addition that almost immediately caused the boat to tilt. They closed up some of the original windows and added new ones. They built walls across passenger decks and painted the stack yellow. For nearly a decade, the additions continued. Tenants moved into the pilot houses, which expanded into more rooms, and they built lean-tos on the upper deck.

The original plan was for Varda to have the side of the ferryboat next to the land. But after he complained that he couldn't stay at this end because there was no sun, they threw a party for 60 people and tried to turn the boat around. The wind was too strong, but the next day they managed to turn the ship with the aid of three men and a rowboat. From then on, Varda was at the end of the boat that faced the water, which he reached via a long rickety gangway, lined with sculptures created out of discarded wooden industrial molds. In an especially high tide, the gangway was underwater, and visitors could only reach Varda's quarters by rowboat.

 Varda's guests seated themselves on benches at an 18-foot table Varda built out of the original benches on the old ferryboat. Surrounding the table were alcoves, counters, beds, and a backlit bottle and concrete fireplace he built from salvaged materials. Light came into the area from huge skylights and windows. Colored bottles, stacked several feet up against gently sloping windows, substituted for stained glass.

Maya Angelou, who sang and danced at the Purple Onion during those days, became friendly with Varda. This is how she described the entry to the Vallejo: “Gaily colored pennants floated on posts attached to the boat. Cut-glass windows, oddly shaped, broke the monotony of weathered wood. Large pieces of sculpture stood sentinel in the area leading to the bridge in the sunlight. The boat looked like a happy child's dream castle.”

Betsy’s book is available at the Sausalito public library, and on Amazon. In its review, Amazon states: “Elizabeth Leavy [Betsy] Stroman has vividly brought this piece of previously hidden history back to light.”

Discovery of San Francisco Bay

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

COURTESY ILLUSTRATION

Portrait of Gaspar Portola

We’ve written extensively about the first Europeans to sail into San Francisco Bay, in 1775 aboard the Spanish supply ship San Carlos, captained by Juan Manuel de Ayala. But the Bay was actually discovered six years earlier by one of Ayala’s countrymen, Gaspar de Portola y Rovira.

Portola, as he has come to be known, was a soldier in the Spanish army and was serving as governor of Baja California when the Spanish Visitor General began to organize an expedition to explore Alta California. They had heard stories of a great bay lying north of Monterey and were determined to find and colonize it.

Portola was deemed "Governor of the Californias" and given overall command. Junípero Serra, leader of the expedition's Franciscan missionaries, took command of spiritual matters. Portola and Serra decided on a joint expedition by land and sea.

In 1909 the San Francisco Call ran a voluminous report on the discovery of personal letters to and from Portola which provide his personal accounts of his expedition. Here are some excerpts from those letters:

“July 4, '69. Most Excellent Sir — Sir: On the 21st of May I set out from the Place called San Juan de Dios, which is twenty-four leagues from the Mission of Santa Maria, the northernmost one in the [Baja] Peninsula, accompanied by ten Soldiers of my Presidio, and with one hundred and seventy mules loaded with provisions sufficient for my Expedition. After thirty-nine days I arrived without mishap at this Port of San Diego, the day being June 28. In this Camp I found the Men of my first detachment as healthy and strong as those whom I brought in my Company: the maritime expedition, however, I found little less than out of commission, and in such an unhappy and deplorable state that I was moved to the greatest pity. All, without exception, Soldiers, Sailors and officers, are afflicted with scurvy; some completely prostrated, some half paralyzed, and others still on their feet, but without strength.”

Portola decided to proceed on foot, with a small compliment of men, in hopes that a supply ship would be able to meet them at San Diego. He wrote to his commander, “I well know, Most Excellent Sir, that this plan is somewhat venturesome, but since there is no other recourse, I perceive that this is no time to look for safe measures. The present season is the only one of the year in which to traverse those lands, and even in this season one suffers a good deal from the cold, which makes the nights tedious and uncomfortable.”

He and a party of 65 set out from San Diego for Monterey July 14. He carried reports that had been handed down from Sebastian Vizcaino and other early explorers, particularly Cabrera Bueno, a pilot of the Manila fleet, in his 1734 "Navegacion Especulativa" which contained information about the California coast drawn from early accounts.

The marchers actually missed Monterey in poor visibility, pressing on north to the present-day town of Pacifica on October 31.

On November 4, having crossed a low coastal mountain range, the party caught a stunning a glimpse of an enormous bay previously unknown to the Spanish. It was protected from rough ocean currents by land on all sides except the mouth, which we know today as the Golden Gate.

Portola wrote: “Upon looking beyond to 38 degrees and somewhat further and seeing the Farallones which according to the signs of Cabrera, and finding ourselves in such an uncalled for latitude, the Expedition halted. Fearing that the Port of Monterrey must have been passed on account of the continuous mist which had been experienced, it was resolved unanimously that the Expedition should go back, and that exploration should be made with the greatest diligence and care.”

Salesian monk Father Juan Crespi was with Portola on this expedition, and recorded his impressions of the bay in his diary:

“The Senor Commandant ordered that It should be explored and passage beyond It made. They explored seven days, and in that time the explorers were not able to go around the whole estuary, which enters at least ten leagues into the land, and which might be called a great arm of the Sea. It is wholly surrounded by very high Sierras and amounts to a lake protected on all sides. At its narrowest part this estuary must be three leagues wide and it has in it three islands. From the point where Its latitude was observed we went forward for three days' march. We pitched camp on the bank of a good Arroyo of Water which runs through this plain. In this place we remained four days, which were the last ones in which they went out to explore. This Port of San Francisco, according to what we saw and according to the Opinion of all the experts, is very large; and without doubt the Port would contain not only all the Armadas of Our Catholic Monarch but all those of Europe.”

Today you we can visit the site of Portola’s discovery at Sweeney Ridge in Pacifica, marked by two permanent monuments. From San Bruno, trails to the ridge start from the west end of Sneath Lane off Highway 35 (Skyline Blvd.), and from Skyline College Parking Lot #2.

Shelter Cove from Boom to Boneyard

By Christopher VerPlanck and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

On September 20 the Sausalito city council approved a refined citywide historic context statement, a survey of the city’s history underpinning its development. The statement was prepared by Christopher VerPlanck, principal of VerPlanck Historic Preservation Consulting. The following excerpts tell the story of one of the town’s earliest assets:

During the Gold Rush, Richardson’s Rancho de Saucelito continued to supply fresh water, firewood, and lumber to residents of San Francisco (its name was changed from Yerba Buena in 1847). Meanwhile, Shelter Cove, which was still part of Richardson’s rancho, became an important rendezvous point for New England whalers, approximately 650 of whom were active in the Pacific by 1855. Located just inside the Golden Gate with plenty of deep water, Shelter Cove also became an important area for ad hoc ship repairs. Because of its wide, sandy beach, ship captains could safely run their vessels ashore, making hull repairs much easier.

Such activity soon attracted the attention of the U.S. Navy, which was then in search of a place to build a naval repair facility on the Pacific Coast.

Facilitated by the demands of the U.S. Navy and independent ship captains, Sausalito got its own saw mill in 1848. Originally shipped to San Francisco, the mill was inexplicably redirected to Shelter Cove, perhaps with the encouragement of the increasingly cash-strapped William Richardson.

The saw mill was erected near the present-day intersection of 3rd and Main streets in Old Town. Under the terms of his contract, Robert Parker, the operator of the saw mill, was obliged to supply one-third of his output to the Navy, whereas the remainder could be sold on the open market. In addition to the saw mill, the facility at Shelter Cove included a Navy storehouse, sheds, and several shanties for the saw mill workers. Around the same time, the Navy built a dry dock on Shelter Cove to maintain its Pacific-based steamship fleet. For a short time, Shelter Cove was the only place in California where a modern maritime repair facility was available, and it marks the beginning of Sausalito’s long-lived boatbuilding and marine repair industry.

As Shelter Cove developed into the Navy’s main West Coast repair facility, Navy Lt. George F. Emmons surveyed and laid out a small town site surrounding the saw mill and the dry docks. Several Navy officers purchased lots and built houses, including Captain Leonard Story, who built a house near the intersection of 2nd and Richardson streets.

The community also had a boarding house, a hotel, and a saloon called the Fountain House. Established by Lt. James McCormick on Main Street, between 2nd and 3rd streets, the Fountain House was named for a productive artesian well in its vicinity. Another hotel, built in 1849, was called Saucelito House.

In spite of its alliances with the Navy and continuing commerce with visiting whalers and merchant ships, Sausalito was soon overshadowed by San Francisco, which retained its role as the gateway to California.

Although well-used, the saw mill at Shelter Cove never reached its full potential, partly because of the

expense of transporting logs from West Marin to Sausalito following the depletion of redwood groves on the east side of the Marin Peninsula.

In 1852, the Navy purchased Mare Island from General Mariano Vallejo and moved its dry dock facilities to what is now Vallejo. Following the departure of the Navy, a fire in Sacramento prompted property owners in the town site at Shelter Cove to dismantle their buildings and ship them to Sacramento. Sausalito instantly became a ghost town and Shelter Cove became known as “The Boneyard,” on account of the derelict vessels that littered the mud flats.

The Historical Society is proud to have assisted Christopher VerPlanck in researching his historic context statement.

PHOTO FROM SASUALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Old Town and Shelter Cove, ca. 1850 during the earliest period of American settlement.

A legend looks back — and ahead

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

PHOTO FROM JAN WAHL

Jan with a fraction of her fabulous hat collection.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Jan Wahl, Sausalito’s favorite film reviewer and historian, for a Historical Society oral history. Our meeting gave me the chance to turn the tables on Jan, who has conducted many oral histories for the Society, including two that can be heard on the SHS website: https://www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com.

Jan began by telling how a show biz maven from West L.A. found her way to Sausalito. The following has been edited for brevity and continuity:

“I met a man on a plane and fell in love with him, but he only wanted to live in the Bay Area. And we’re still in love 42 years later, so something worked. We had this long-distance relationship when I was working in L.A. and New York, but one day I was visiting him in San Francisco when we came to Sausalito on a date. Coming down Alexander, Sausalito looked like Portofino, and we said, ‘This is the place.’

Jan and her husband Russ met Herb Madden and bought a 41-foot Hatteras power cruiser which they lived on for seven years in the Sausalito Yacht Harbor. “Then,” she says, “we found a place in the hills, and we’ve lived there ever since.”

When they first moved here Jan opened a shop on Bridgeway called Bridgeway to Hollywood. “A lot of people remember it,” she notes. “I had it for two years and it was a big hit. That led to radio and television. When you hit you hit, so I took advantage of that and closed the shop.”

Jan has a never-ending fascination with Sausalito’s history. “This is not normal,” she maintains. “It’s famous people, it’s eccentric people, it’s water and land, it’s economics, it’s politics, it’s Jack London, just everything. I dearly love that the sea people are still here.”

However, she misses the town’s bygone eccentrics. “We had Alan Watts, one of the great thinkers of our time; I studied Alan Watts in college. And we had Sterling Hayden here, one of the great personalities of Hollywood, ever. And we had Sally Stanford; I kiss the ground she walks on. She was a real original character, and when I first moved to Sausalito I made a point to go in there, and there she was, and she was so nice to me. She said, ‘You’re going to do fine here,’ and was very encouraging to me.”

Jan has retained some of that old time eccentricity with her mad hatter fetish. She explained how she got started wearing her iconic, ornate headgear: “I’m nuts for musicals, and there’s this number in the show Gypsy called ‘You Gotta Have a Gimmick’ and these strippers are showing Gypsy how to strip. And I thought, you know, hats are a good gimmick. I had always loved hats; when I was a little girl, I thought Hedda Hopper was cool with the hat thing, even though I hated her right-wing politics. I love hats on women because it shows they have courage. It takes guts to wear a hat, it really does.  People look at you like you’re crazy, and the crazier the better as far as I’m concerned. When I got on television many years ago, that was my gimmick. The news director at the time said, ‘You’ll be taken off the air, no one will take you seriously.’ I said I wanted to try it so I did, and it was a big hit.”

We agreed that her gimmick, instead of taking things off, was to put something on. That, and her disarming frankness: “I think all that matters is that I plant my feet and tell my truth. That’s what makes me different as a critic.”

Although she fears the Internet keeps people from experiencing life these days, Jan still finds Sausalito enchanting. “Somehow, she sighs, “we’ve kept this town magic. We love it here and we’ll still be loving it in our 90s – or 100s, hopefully.”

As our interview drew to a close, I told Jan I look forward to celebrating our 100th birthdays here in Sausalito together.

PHOTO FROM JAN WAHL

The Crown Jewel of Sausalito

By Scott Fletcher and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Scott Fletcher has lived and worked in Marin since 1985 and has a keen interest in the history of our county. He has been a volunteer with the Marin History Museum since 2011 and has authored over 140 “History Watch” articles in the Marin Independent Journal. His new book, “Moment in Marin History,” is a collection of those articles with additional information and historic photos. Here’s his take on one of Sausalito’s most distinctive mansions:  

The Holly Oaks villa, built in 1887 by California pioneer fruit packer and shipping agent, George W. Meade (known as the Raisin King), was the crown jewel of Sausalito homes and hotels for many decades. It was celebrated for its ornate Victorian architecture, exquisite interior furnishings and unparalleled views of the San Francisco Bay and nearby Angel Island and Yerba Buena (then called Goat Island). In its early days, Sausalito had a slightly scandalous reputation as a rugged, untamed fishing village inhabited by mostly English and Portuguese fisherman and wealthy yachting enthusiasts looking to escape the foggy, urban environs of San Francisco. The Meade family brought a certain air of respectability to the growing town and local newspapers like the Sausalito News and San Francisco Call frequently reported on the many visitors and occasional luminaries who came to stay at Holly Oaks.

The Meade family’s ownership of Holly Oaks did not last long, though, as they put the house up for rent in 1890 just before embarking on a long European Tour. Meade eventually moved to Redlands, California where he became an influential land developer, expanded his business interests and became a city leader. Within a few years Holly Oaks was sold and converted into a luxury hotel and guest house and renamed the “Hollyoaks”. For a brief time, a Mrs. M. A. Farrar ran the hotel, but it was Mrs. Sawyer, a Civil War widow who had relocated to California, that managed the guest house for many years. A 1909 Sacramento Bee advertisement boasted of the Hollyoaks that it featured an “Enchanting view of Bay and Mountain from every window. Unsurpassed table, first class in every respect. Bathing, good fishing, boating. Half-hour’s ferry ride from San Francisco. Headquarters of S.F. Yacht Club and anchorage of U.S. Revenue Cutters”.

Its reputation for fine food, luxury accommodations, and stunning views made it the only Sausalito hotel to be mentioned in the 1909 Baedeker’s Guide to the United States. Hollyoaks also catered to the residents of Sausalito hosting many weddings, galas, garden parties, and holiday gatherings, accounts of which appeared in the local newspapers. The hotel changed hands several times during the second decade of the twentieth century and at the height of the Great Depression the hotel was shuttered, and the furnishings and property put up for sale. In a last, rather ignominious Sausalito News item in 1939, an advertisement read, “FREE FIREWOOD: Wrecking Hotel Hollyoaks. 20 truck loads. Help yourself.”

Scott’s book is available at Sausalito Books by the Bay, Book Passage in Corte Madera and online sites such as Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

 Hollyoaks on Harrison Avenue exemplified fine craftsmanship.

Looking Back at the Sausalito Art Festival

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

A recent announcement that the Sausalito Art Festival would be postponed for another year got me reminiscing about the festival’s on-and-off history.

In his book Moments in Time, Jack Tracy points out:

“Sausalito in 1950 was on the threshold of its ‘art colony’ years. Always a haven for writers, artists., poets and creative souls of many bents, Sausalito experienced an influx of artists in the decade after World War II.

“Art shows held in various places evolved into an annual art festival, with established artists mingling with newcomers. Many well-known Bay Area artists emerged from the Sausalito art colony of the 1950s.”

The Art Festival Foundation, which manages the festival, reported in 2011:

“The Sausalito Art Festival, one of the leading outdoor fine art festivals in the United States, has attracted more than one million art enthusiasts, museum curators, and private collectors since it began in 1952.

“The first festival was held on September 6, 1952, at Shell Beach, where the Spinnaker Restaurant is now located. Over the next 25 years, several groups produced the festival.”

Historical Society Board member Bill Kirsch, was one of those early organizers. Bill, who passed away in 2018, co-wrote a column for this paper commemorating the festival’s 60th anniversary in 2012. Here are some lightly-edited excerpts from that column:

“In the 1950s, Jean Varda, Ed Spolin and other local artists produced the Sausalito Art Festival on the sand spit before the Spinnaker Restaurant was built. Eventually they pursued other interests and didn’t want to produce festivals any longer, and so there were no festivals for several years.”

Current SHS Board member Nora Sawyer reported a fascinating account from those dark years in the August 29, 2018, Marinscope. In 1955, the Sausalito Art Center, which had sponsored the festival since 1952, was unable to muster enough interest or volunteer power to pull it off. In July, the Center took a “vote of apathy,” cancelling the event. Avant garde painter Enid Foster responded by proposing a procession down Bridgeway led by a band or two. Nora wrote: “After some consideration, the city council refused to grant a permit, citing the inconvenience of shutting down streets on a busy afternoon and the immutability of bus schedules.

“Muralist Val Bleeker came up with a solution. If busy streets made an afternoon parade impossible, why not hold the parade at the “’ess conspicuous hour’ of 5 AM?

“After much discussion, the city council agreed, on the condition that the parade not disturb the early morning peace, and parade participants stay on sidewalks as much as possible.

“And so, on the fog-bound morning of October 15th, a small group of artists, Sausalitans, and reporters assembled.

“Foster took the lead as the parade’s grand marshal. Val Bleeker carried a sign reading “Silence! Genius at Work.”

Bill Kirsch described what happened next: “In the early ‘60s, the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce put on the festivals in the yard at Central School, School, which is now City Hall. The artists became increasingly critical of the way the Chamber was running the festival, so in 1966 the artists took over the festival. They formed their own Sausalito Arts Association, with the intention of producing the art show themselves. The artists wanted to bring the festival back downtown, so a committee of artists lobbied the City Council to use the parking lot next to the Bank of America for the festival.” Bill and his colleague Michael Bry were elected cochairmen of the 1966 art festival.

“The festivals held next to the Bank of America in 1966 and 1967 were hugely successful; received critical acclaim and drew vast crowds of people that caused the biggest traffic jams in the history of Sausalito. The merchants complained that the festivals were ruining their business.

“Enough money was earned to rent the abandoned school on King Street and remodel it into ateliers for painters and sculptors, facilities for ceramicists and glass blowers and a room for the performing arts. Al Garvey was the art center’s first director, and for the next several years the art shows were held at the remodeled Sausalito Art Center. In 1971 the building was rented to another tenant, the Art Center disbanded, and the Chamber of Commerce took over the festival once again. The festival evolved into the internationally known Sausalito Art Festival.”

Stay tuned for the next installment of this ever-changing institution

Bill’s and Nora’s columns can be read in their entirety on the MarinScope Columns page at www.sausalitohistoricalsociety.com.

PHOTO FROM ART FESTIVAL FOUNDATION

The Art Festival was once one of the largest in the U.S.

The Case of the Boyish Bartender

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

COURTESY PHOTO

Baby Face Nelson was more dangerous than he looked.

Only a few people in Sausalito knew that the short, boyish bartender at the Walhalla back in 1934 was actually a hardened bank robber and gunman who became infamous as Baby Face Nelson.

After escaping during a transfer from Joliet penitentiary in Illinois in February 1932, Nelson (real name: Lester Gillis) fled west to Reno, where he was harbored by a local crime boss and gambler. From there, he moved to Sausalito, using the alias "Jimmy Johnson," according to the book Public Enemies by Bryan Burrough.

During his Bay area criminal ventures, Nelson met Sausalitan John Paul Chase who became a close associate. As Jack Tracy recounts in his book Moments in Time, “Chase had established a reputation for toughness and reliability as a bootlegger. Chase befriended the quiet, unassuming youth. Lester Gillis, barely five feet, four inches tall, looking even younger than his twenty-three years. Chase found a room for Gillis near his home on Turney Street, in the old Sylva mansion, now converted to a boarding house. Gillis, his nineteen-year-old wife Helen, and their three-year-old son moved into the quiet neighborhood. John Chase learned that Gillis, far different than his mild demeanor indicated, was an escaped convict from Illinois. He was a bank robber, known in Chicago as George Nelson, one of several aliases he used. He was also known there by his childhood nickname, Baby Face.”

“Gillis apparently fooled his Sausalito neighbors and his employer at the Walhalla, where he worked as a part-time bartender. Even his neighbor on Turney Street, constable Manuel Menotti, didn’t suspect that the quiet young man was the dangerous Baby Face Nelson.”

According to Tracy, Gillis taught Chase how to handle a Thompson submachine gun out on the deserted beach at Point Reyes. Tracy’s account continues:

“Gillis grew restless in Sausalito and through San Francisco gangster Joe Parente was introduced to John Dillinger’s gang. After a series of bank robberies and the murder of a federal agent in Wisconsin, Gillis gained nationwide notoriety as ‘Baby Face Nelson,’ feared even by Dillinger himself.” Chicago became too hot for Gillis, so he returned to Sausalito in 1934 with his wife Helen and again met John Chase.

After several weeks had passed, Chase and Gillis headed for Chicago. Accompanying them were several gang members, Helen Gillis, and her young son.

But life on the road was not as glamorous as the media depicted it. The "romantic" era of bank robbers was rapidly coming to an end. On July 22, 1934, Dillinger was ambushed and killed by FBI agents outside the Biograph Theater in Lincoln Park, Chicago. The next day the FBI announced that Pretty Boy Floyd was now Public Enemy No. 1. On October 22, 1934, Floyd was killed in a shootout with FBI agents including Melvin Purvis, famous for manhunts that captured several bank robbers and killed both Dillinger and Floyd. Subsequently, J. Edgar Hoover announced that Nelson was now Public Enemy No. 1 according to the book Baby Face Nelson.

In November Nelson, along with his wife Helen Gillis and John Chase, were on the lam in a stolen V8 Ford headed towards Chicago when Nelson caught sight of a sedan driven in the opposite direction by FBI agents. After a furious but brief gun battle, two agents lay dead, and the fatally wounded Baby Face Nelson was sped away by Chase and Helen Gillis.

Author Bryan Burrough states that Nelson told his wife "I'm done for” and then died in bed with Helen at his side. Helen and Chase dumped his bullet-riddled body in a ditch near a cemetery and went their separate ways.

Nelson's widow wandered the streets of Chicago as a fugitive for several days, described by the Chicago Herald Examiner as the first U.S. female "public enemy.” After surrendering on Thanksgiving Day, Helen served a year in prison for harboring her husband.

John Paul Chase was captured near Mt. Shasta in December 1934, and later sentenced to life imprisonment for murder in the Chicago shootout. Constable Manuel Menotti flew to Shasta City to assist in the identification and capture of Chase when it was learned he was hiding there.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Menotti was thanked by no less than J. Edgar Hoover for his help in the arrest of Chase. After Chase was convicted in 1935 the paper reported:

“John Paul Chase, Sausalito boy who ‘made good’ in gangland and shoulder-to-shoulder with Baby Face Nelson, is to spend the rest of his life within rifle range of his boyhood home. But the prospect isn't pleasing to the 33-year-old hoodlum, who was sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted under one of the new federal gangster-laws. ‘I think I'd rather dangle,’ he told the Associated Press. Chase's sentence will be carried out at the new escape-proof prison Alcatraz, after he has been taken first to Leavenworth for ‘seasoning.’

Wosser Family Dynasty

By Mabel Wosser and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

After Irish immigrant Thomas Wosser sailed around the Horn in the late 1850s, he found his way to Sausalito and started a family which played several important roles in our town’s history.

In 1968 his youngest daughter Mabel wrote a memoir about her family. Here are some lightly edited excerpts from her account:

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Six of the seven Wosser daughters out for a row, wearing their Jack Tar hats. Mabel is in the bow.

My father worked on ships and received his license as chief engineer for steam boats which were gradually replacing sailing vessels. He was chief engineer on the "Princess," the first ferry boat between San Francisco and Sausalito in 1868. He continued in this position on the Princess and other ferry boats for many years until, because of illness, he retired.

My mother, Margaret Whelan, was born and raised in Kilkenny, Ireland. When my mother was about sixteen years old, her father brought her to New York in a sailing ship and then on by way of Central America to California. He left her in San Francisco to live with an older married sister, who was a talented harpist. My parents met at this sister's home and later they were married in Old St. Mary's Church on California Street in San Francisco, in 1859.

Their first home was on Telegraph Hill where the first of their fourteen children was born. As the family grew, they planned to move to Marin County because of the healthy country atmosphere. The little cottage in Sausalito where they first lived was just below where the Sausalito Presbyterian Church is located. In a very short time, they decided to build their home on Pine Road. My father chose this location because of its historical interest; it was close to where William Richardson had built his adobe home on the corner of Bonita and Pine. Many years previously, Indians inhabited the same location. In this home, the family continued to live and grow for over 100 years.

There were fourteen children — five boys and nine girls. One of the girls, Lucy (twin of William Wosser) died in infancy. The rest of the children all lived long lives. The children were: James, Jane, Joseph, Agnes, Richard, Adeline, Edward, Isabel, Bertha, Florence, Alice, William, Lucy, and Mabel.

The boys were all interested in marine and locomotive engineering. Three older boys became chief engineers on steam boats and the two younger boys became locomotive engineers. The men in the family found great pleasure in hunting and fishing and enjoyed the freedom of the hills of Marin County.

The girls were naturally gifted in music, literature, and art. We did not hunt or swim but we did enjoy walking and horseback riding over the beautiful hills. Our home life was filled with music, dancing and plays. We had the distinction of having the first piano in Sausalito. It was a French make. My father had a clarinet which he played well and with my mother joining in with her natural lovely singing voice. We had many interesting musical evenings. I was the youngest member of the family and made thorough use of the piano and taught piano and pipe organ lessons. I was the organist for the Star of the Sea Roman Catholic Church in Sausalito for many years. I also played for a number of weddings at St. Mary's Cathedral in San Francisco where my parents were married.

My father bought us a very lovely boat, called the Chespete, in which my sisters rowed each evening, weather permitting. We rowed Richardson Bay and sometimes around Angel Island which is a trip of a number of miles. A remarkable note here is that not one of us could swim but we were all excellent oarsmen. We were presented with a silk flag and "jack tar" caps from the officers of the U.S. Revenue Cutters McCullough and Bear which were stationed in Sausalito Bay at that time.

Our home on Pine Road was built in 1874. Our home was called "Oldlands". A large creek ran down through the valley to the bay. The Indians had lived there under the handsome laurel trees, many of which are still standing.

Father Valentini was our parish priest and dear friend of our family. He and Mr. George Maxwell of the Episcopal Church were great scholars and friends. They were the founders of the Sausalito Public Library in 1907. My sister, Florence, was appointed one of the library trustees. Later, my sister Bertha was appointed librarian. She continued in that position until her sudden death fifteen years later.

During the depression, music was considered a luxury and many pupils were unable to continue their music studies with me, Therefore, I accepted the position of assistant librarian and, following my sister Bertha's death, was appointed head librarian. I remained in this position until my retirement after 27 years of enjoyable service.

We had many pets — horses, hunting dogs, cats, etc. My father being a great lover of animals treated them with such kindness that they were devoted to him, and he would be met when returning from work in the evening with animals coming down the road to greet him.

My parents died at the family home. My father died January 3, 1900. My mother died December 18, 1931.

Mabel herself died in 1982, a year after giving an interview to Marin Scope’s Cindy Roby filled with warm recollections of her close-knit family. It can be found in the online archives of the California Digital Newspaper Collection at https://cdnc.ucr.edu.

Marin City Celebrates its 80th

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Prior to WWII, Waldo Valley north of Sausalito and west of highway 101 was occupied by a dairy farm and a handful of families. In June 1942, soon after work began on Marinship, Sausalito’s waterfront shipyard, a new town was built there which came to be called "Marin City." By the end of 1943, Marin City's population was nearly 6,000 — about 1,000 in dormitories.

PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Marin City housed 6,000 Marinship workers and their families during WWII

Since Marinship was one of the last WWII shipyards, experienced workers were hard to find. The Bechtel Corporation, which built and managed the shipyard, devised a system of pre-fabricated elements which could be welded together quickly and with less expertise than previously. They recruited workers from all over the country, including women and minorities for the first time. Marinship developed a training program to teach the recruits how to build ships assembly line style. According to filmmaker and historian Eric Torney, “Women were noted as being most efficient welders, their welds being more precise and smoother than a man's weld.” So instead of Rosie the Riveter, Marinship became known for Wendy the Welder. A total of 93 ships were launched there, including 15 Liberty Ships and 78 Tankers.

After the war, many families chose to stay in California. Most white families moved to other nearby communities, but redlining, housing covenants and other restrictions kept most of the black families in Marin City, which included a market, schools, churches, a candy store and other amenities that made it a largely self-sufficient community.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the community, and a year-long celebration of that milestone has commenced, under the banner Marin City 80. The woman behind all these activities is Felecia Gaston, well known for her work with the Performing Stars troupe of young entertainers. Felecia has teamed up with Jahi Torman of Microphone Mechanics to co-produce the celebration. Says Jahi: “Our partnership is one I have been very proud of, and we look forward to continuing for decades to come with the establishment of the Marin City Historical and Preservation Society.”

So far this year, the celebration has included art installations, an album of songs about Marin City and the shipyard, and a new cookbook with recipes by Marin City grandmothers, Grandmothers Feed Us Love. The biggest Marin City 80 events are coming in August and September.

The Bartolini Gallery at Marin Center will host a free exhibit titled A California Story: 1942-1962, featuring memorabilia from Black shipyard workers, along with contemporary art, artifacts in various media, a virtual reality experience, and never-seen-before photographs.

Another exhibit on the first and third floors of the Marin Civic Center will tell a narrative of housing discrimination, land grabs, predatory developers, and the continual fight for housing rights and equality in Marin City. One major accomplishment was to replace dilapidated WWII housing with an award-winning public housing project which came to be known as Golden Gate Village in the early 60s. Six decades later, that development is now in need of major upgrades, which are under being negotiated between residents and the Marin Housing Authority.

More information about these exhibits can be found at Marincity80.com.

A multimedia show at Marin Center’s Showcase Theater will feature actors and singers celebrating the life of Mr. Joseph James, a shipyard worker and world-class singer whose stand against a segregated union led to a landmark ruling by the California Supreme Court. Thurgood Marshall, who later became the first Black justice to serve on the United States Supreme Court, was one of the attorneys representing James. “Marinship became known as the most effectively integrated and efficient workforce among all WWII Emergency Shipyards,” according to Eric Torney. Tickets to The Spirit of Joseph James may be purchased at tickets.marincenter.org.

The official celebration of Marin City 80 will take place from on Monday, September 5 in the 100 block of Drake Avenue. A Blues and Soul Party in the Park will feature will be live music, local artists and vendors, a car show, youth activities, food stations, and visits by local, county, and state officials. The event will also mark the launch of the Marin City Historical and Preservation Society and the release of a #MarinCity80 commemorative book.

For more information and to learn about sponsorship opportunities, please contact Felecia Gaston at felecia@marincity80.com.

Tales of Early Sausalito

By Helen Kerr and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Helen Kerr was a Marin journalist who once edited the Sausalito News. She was also on the Board of the Sausalito Arts Festival as early as 1956. Her beautifully calligraphed and illustrated book, “Sausalito Since the Days of the Dons,” is in the collection of the Historical Society, and in select Marin County libraries. Here are some lightly edited excerpts describing life here in the 19th century.

Settlers like [Capt. Wm.] Richardson had little cause to rejoice in the Bear Flag Rebellion. The days under Mexican rule had been peaceful and profitable, but in 1846 California became a pawn in a game of power politics. For a time it was uncertain whether California would remain Mexican, be taken over by the United States or England or become an independent republic.

ILLUSTRATION BY ALBERT GARVEY

The Bear Flag flew briefly in California

Sausalito played its role in the events of that time. With Captain John Frémont on his trail, the Mexican cavalry officer Captain de la Torre debarked from Sausalito in one of Richardson’s boats. Frémont, whose career is still the subject of heated controversy, described in his memoirs how he rowed a longboat from the captain of the American vessel MOSCOW, which was anchored at Sausalito, and made the crossing to Fort Point where he spiked the guns of Castillo del San Joaquin to prevent de la Torre from entrenching himself there.

In January of 1847 the treaty of Couenga ended hostilities and California became a possession of the United States.

On Christmas Day, 1849, when Captain Leonard Story arrived with his family at the site of what was to be Sausalito’s Old Town, he found there only a sawmill building and a shanty where the workers lived. He nonetheless deemed it an agreeable place to live and invested a thousand dollars in a house-frame which had been brought around the Horn. Others took up residence in the next few years, among them Robert Parker, who built a hotel, Fountain House, and a government store. But this first spurt of growth was short-lived, for when the town of Sacramento was badly damaged by fire in 1852 many of Sausalito’s buildings were dismantled and the lumber sold upriver to rebuild Sacramento.

Between 1853 and 1868 Sausalito could hardly have been called a town, but 1868 saw the formation of the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company, a partnership of twenty “San Francisco gentlemen” who purchased some three miles of waterfront property and proceeded to divide it up into “town lots and country seats.” They also laid out avenues and streets and established a regular ferry service to San Francisco.

Business was anything but brisk in the first days of the ferry run — often the passengers numbered only five or six — and it was the custom of the captain of the steamer PRINCESS to call the roll of commuters before casting off the hawser. “I can’t afford to leave one behind,” he explained to strangers.

Commerce in water and lumber had come to an end by 1880, but the dairy industry had developed steadily, with San Francisco as a convenient and ready market. With the dairy industry grew Sausalito’s New Town, for beginning in the 1870’s the dairying attracted a host of Portuguese immigrants from the Azores. Sober-minded, hard-working men, they brought their families with them or married into the Marin clan, encouraging their relatives back on the islands to join them.

A member of the original colony, Mrs. May Ann (Josie) Rosa, bright-eyed and clear-minded at the age of 93, described her childhood in Sausalito of the late nineteenth century. Her father, Joseph Silva, had come to Sausalito aboard a whaler, settled at the end of town and married a girl from Sã0 Jorge who had been brought over to keep house for her brothers. Josie and the other children walked several miles back and forth to school each day. As the youngsters passed the scattered homes along the way to the school on Hannon’s Hill, their classmates fell in with them, and the walk constituted their social life for the day.

Their route took them past Shanghai Valley, now part of Marinship, where a number of Chinese railroad workers lived. There were no women and children and in Shanghai Valley and the men, certainly homesick for their families, made friends with the children and offered them sweets on holidays. The Chinese lived quietly in Sausalito until the North Pacific Coast Railway was completed, then they disappeared.