Vignette > Marvel Mar

In about 1940, Mrs. Guy Brock opened a restaurant on the Redwood Highway where the Travelodge is now located south of Goodman Building Supply. She called it Brock’s Marvel Mar. The name is a contraction of Marvelous Marin. It advertised its “Chicken-Steak-Frog Leg Dinners”. In 1947, Charles Mowers purchased the restaurant and made significant changes. His ad for Marvel Mar said, “Dine and Dance; Orchestra Music; Banquets, Parties, Lunches, Dinners, Cocktail Lounge”. It was a popular night club. In 1957, Mowers, tired of the restaurant business, leased it to a proprietor who converted it into The Colonel’s Ranch Wagon, an all you can eat chuck wagon style restaurant. It lasted three years. In 1960 Mowers decided to build a motel on the property. Instead of demolishing the building, he sold it to the City of Mill Valley for $1.00. It was cut up into several sections, each of which was barged across the estuary to a site that is now where the Community Center is located. The building was put back together to become a community recreation center. Mowers built the Hi-Ho Motel on the Marvel Mar site.

Part of the restaurant

The Rec. Center