Vignettes

In the 1980s there were two hardware stores in downtown Mill Valley: Varneys was at 57 Throckmorton and Tamalpais Hardware was at 30 Miller Ave. In 1919, World War I veterans Tony and John Varney bought the plumbing business of August Muntz at 67 Throckmorton. They renamed it Varneys and moved it to 57 Throckmorton.…

Between the spring of 1918 and the summer of 1919, 25% of the US population became sick from the so-called Spanish flu—675,000 died. In November 1918, Mill Valley counted 84 cases or about 3% of the population.  In San Francisco the rate was about 4%.  In San Anselmo, 70 out of 120 orphans were down…

In 1904, john Dias purchased 20 acres in Homestead Valley between Ridgewood Ave. and Homestead Blvd. He built a four-bedroom, one-bath house and named it Hill Ranch.  He also constructed a bunkhouse for hired hands, a cookhouse and barns for dry cows, calves and bulls.  Hill Ranch was the headquarters for the extensive Dias Ranch…

In early presidential elections Homestead voters were more liberal than Mill Valley voters. In 1908, democrat William Jennings Bryan received 32 % of the vote in Homestead vs. 23% in Mill Valley. In 1912, Homestead voted 50% for democrat Woodrow Wilson and 13 % for Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs.  Mill Valley voted 49% for…

In 1835, the Mexican government ceded Rancho Sausalito, about 20,000 acres in southern Marin, to William Richardson.  By 1900, considerable development had occurred:  in the north, two towns, Sausalito and Mill Valley; in the south, Fort Baker, Fort Barry and Fort Cronkhite; in between, several dairy ranches. Of major significance was the Point Bonita Lighthouse…