Vignettes

In 1900, most of the fairly new houses on the northeast side of Miller Ave. were on lots that extended back to Corte Madera del Presidio Creek. Many lots were vacant. The houses had city water and sewage laterals connected to the sewage main that took sewage to the bay. Several houses had not yet…

In 1991, Peter and Mimi Buckley started a kindergarten in their home in Tamalpais Valley. In 1996 with 28 pupils in what they called Garden School they tried to establish a school located at the historic Redwood Lodge in Blithedale Canyon.  Their plan met determined opposition.  In 1998, they finally found a home for three…

Originally from a small town called Decollatura in Calabria, Domenico Petrone and his brother Paolo immigrated to New York with their family in 1966. With only a high school education, Domenico went directly into the restaurant business starting as a busboy, and later he became a waiter. In 1980, the brothers moved to Marin with…

Charles Thoney was born in California of Austrian-Italian parents. His wife Olga was born in California of Swiss-Italian parents. In 1903, Charles, a fireman for the City of San Francisco Fire Department, bought the lot at the dead end of Sunnyside Ave. next to the creek. He built a tent platform on it that the…

Today, Covid-19 vaccinations require one or two injections. In the late 1950s, vaccinations against polio required three injections of Salk Vaccine. The recommended schedule called for a second injection 4 weeks after the first, and a third 7 months following the second.  A California law required school children to be vaccinated.  All three shots had…

The Keystone Block on Lytton Square was built in 1906 and remodeled in Tudor–style in 1934 as the Keystone Building. The upstairs once housed the Odd Fellows Hall.  There have also been offices for a dentist, a physician, an attorney and various commercial enterprises. On the ground floor there have been retail businesses such as…