Ezekiel House
January, 2008
The above photo was taken after Marin’s biggest 20th century snowstorm in January 1922. Edwin Ezekiel, his wife Josephine and their seven children moved into this house at 227 Laverne in 1904. Edwin was a buyer for a fur house in San Francisco. He spent a lot of time in Alaska plying his trade.
The 1910 census counted eleven people living in the house. In addition to the Ezekiel family with seven children aged 6 to 28, there were two boarders: Anne Foley, age 34, a bookkeeper for the telephone company and her 4-year old son John.
In 1909, the eldest daughter, Florence Ezekiel, age 27, was appointed by Teddy Roosevelt as postmistress of Homestead’s first post office located in Cooper’s Grocery store. The building is now a residence at #11 Linden Lane. The name of the post office was LaVerne. In announcing the opening of the post office, the Mill Valley Record=Enterprise stated, “Last night, Homestead Valley became a thing of the past and the new town of LaVerne sprang into existence.” Although Homestead school was renamed LaVerne, and there was even a LaVerne baseball team, the designation did not last very long. The post office was closed in 1914 with the advent of Rural Free Delivery, when mail to Homestead residents had an address consisting of the name of their street and RFD #1, Sausalito.
By 1920, the Ezekiel family had moved away, although the eldest son Edwin lived on Evergreen with his wife and three children. Today, the small 648 sq. ft. house on the 0.84 acre lot at 227 LaVerne is not visible from the street.
If you have comments or questions about this article or other topics
pertaining to the history of Homestead Valley,
please feel free to e-mail Chuck Oldenburg.