Mill Valley, California
Encyclopedia
Mill Valley is a city in Marin County
, California
, United States
located about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of San Francisco
via the Golden Gate Bridge
. The population was 13,903 at the 2010 census.
Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay
. Beyond the flat coastal area and marshlands, it occupies narrow wooded canyon
s, mostly of second-growth redwoods, on the southern slopes of Mount Tamalpais
. The Mill Valley 94941 ZIP code
also includes the following adjacent unincorporated communities: Almonte, Alto, Homestead Valley, Strawberry and Tamalpais Valley. The Muir Woods National Monument
is also located just outside the city limits.
, arrived approximately 6,000 years ago. The territory of the Coast Miwok included all of Marin County, north to Bodega Bay and southern Sonoma County. More than 600 village sites have been identified,including 14 sites in the Mill Valley area. Nearby archaeological discoveries include the rock carvings and grinding sites on Ring Mountain
. The pre-Missionization
population of the Coast Miwok is estimated to be between 1,500 (Alfred L. Kroeber's estimate for the year 1770 A.D. to 2,000 (Sherburne F. Cook's estimate for the same year). The pre-Missionization population of the Coast Miwok may have been as high as 5000. Cook speculated that by 1848 their population had decreased to 300, and down to 60 by 1880. As of 2011 there are over 1,000 registered members of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
which includes both the Coast Miwok and the Southern Pomo, all of whom can date their ancestry back to the 14 survivors original tribal ancestors. The Lucretia Hanson Little History Room in the Mill Valley Public Library has some oral histories recorded from some Coast Miwok descendants
In Mill Valley, on Locust Avenue between Sycamore and Walnut Avenues, there is now a metal plaque set in the sidewalk in the area believed to be the birthplace of Chief Marin
nearly 230 years ago; the plaque was dedicated on 8 May 2009. The village site was first identified by Nels Nelson in 1907 and his excavation revealed tools, burials and food debris just beyond the driveway of 44 Locust Ave. At that time, the moud was 20 feet high. Another famous Mill Valley site was in the Manzanita area underneath the Fireside Inn (previously known as the Manzanita Roadhouse, Manzanita Hotel, Emil Plasberg's Top Rail, and Top Rail Tavern, most of which were notorious Prohibition
-era gin joints
and brothels) located near the intersection of U.S. Route 101
and California State Route 1
. Built in 1916, the "blind pig" roadhouse
was outside the dry
limits of the city itself. Shell mounds have been discovered in areas by streams and along Richardson Bay, including in the Strawberry and Almonte neighborhoods.
Beginning with the foundation of Mission San Francisco de Asís
, commonly known as Mission Dolores, in 1776, the Coast Miwok of southern Marin began to slowly enter the mission, first those from Sausalito followed by those from areas we now know as Mill Valley, Belvedere, Tiburon and Bolinas. They called themselves the "Huimen" people. At the mission they were taught the Catholic religion, lost their freedom, and three quarters died as a result of exposure to European diseases. As a result of the high death rate at Mission Dolores it was decided to build a new Mission San Rafael, built in 1817. Over 200 surviving Coast Miwok were taken there from Mission Dolores and Mission San Jose,including the 17 survivors of the Huimen Coast Miwok of the Richardson Bay Area. California Missions.
government. They took Miwok ancestral lands, divided them and gave them to Mexican soldiers or relatives who had connections with the Mexican governor. The huge tracts of land, called ranchos
by the Mexican settlers, or Californios, soon covered the area. The Miwoks who had not died or fled were often employed under a state of indentured servitude to the California land grant
owners. In 1834, the governor of Alta California José Figueroa
awarded to John T. Reed
the first land grant in Marin, Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio
. Just west of that, Rancho Saucelito
was transferred to William A. Richardson in 1838 after being originally awarded to Nicolas Galindo in 1835. John Reed married Hilarita Sanchez, the daughter of a commandante in the San Francisco Presidio. William Richardson also married a well-connected woman; both he and Reed were originally from Europe. Richardson's name was later applied to Richardson Bay
, an arm of the San Francisco Bay
that brushes up against the eastern edge of Mill Valley. The latter rancho contained everything south and west of the Corte Madera and Larkspur
areas with the Pacific Ocean
, San Francisco Bay, and Richardson Bay as the other three borders. The former encompassed what is now southern Corte Madera, the Tiburon Peninsula
, and Strawberry Point.
In 1836, Reed married Hilaria Sanchez, the daughter of the commandant of the local presidio
. He built the first sawmill
in the county on the Cascade Creek (now Old Mill Park) in the mid-1830s on Richardson's rancho and settled near what is now Locke Lane and LaGoma Avenue. The mill cut wood for the San Francisco Presidio. He also raised cattle and horses and had a brickyard and stone quarry. Reed also did brisk businesses in hunting, skins, tallow, and other products until his death in 1843 at 38 years of age. Richardson sold butter, milk and beef to San Francisco during the Gold Rush
. Shortly thereafter, he made several poor investments and wound up massively in debt to many creditors. On top of losing his Mendocino County rancho he was forced to deed 640 acres (2.6 km²) of Rancho Saucelito to his wife, Maria Antonia Martinez, daughter of the commandant of the Presidio, in order to protect her. The rest of the rancho, including the part of what is now Mill Valley that did not already belong to Reed's heirs, was given to his administrator Samuel Reading Throckmorton
. At his death in 1856 at 61 years old, Richardson was almost entirely destitute.
Throckmorton came to San Francisco in 1850 as an agent for an eastern mining business before working for Richardson. As payment of a debt, Throckmorton acquired a large portion of Rancho Saucelito in 1853-4 and built his own rancho "The Homestead" on what is now Linden Lane and Montford Avenue. The descendants of ranch superintendent Jacob Gardner continue to be active in Marin. Some of the rest of his land was leased out for dairy farming to Portuguese
settlers. A majority of the immigrants came from the Azores Islands
. Those who were unsuccessful at gold mining came north to the Marin Headlands
and later brought their families. In Mill Valley, Ranch "B" is one of the few remaining dairy farm buildings and is located near the parking lot at the Tennessee Valley trailhead. Throckmorton also suffered devastating financial problems before his death in 1887. His surname would later be applied to one of the major thoroughfares in Mill Valley.
Richardson and Reed had never formalized the boundary lines separating their ranchos. Richardson's heirs successfully sued Reed's heirs in 1860 claiming the mill was built on their property. The border was officially marked as running along the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio
along present day Miller Avenue. Everything to the east of the creek was Reed property, and everything to the west was Richardson land. It was Richardson's territory that would soon become part of Mill Valley when Throckmorton's daughter Suzanna was forced to relinquish several thousand acres to the San Francisco Savings & Union Bank to satisfy a debt of $100,000 against the estate in 1889.
In 1873, San Francisco physician Dr. John Cushing discovered 320 "lost" acres between the Reed and Richardson boundaries between present day Corte Madera Avenue, across the creek, and into West Blithedale Canyon. Using the Homestead Act
he petitioned the government and managed to acquire the land. Before his death in 1879 he had built a sanitarium
in the peaceful canyon. In Sausalito the North Pacific Coast Railroad
had laid down tracks to a station near present day Highway 101 at Strawberry. Seeing the financial advantages of a railroad his descendants then turned the hospital into the Blithedale Hotel after the land title was finally granted in 1884. The sanitarium was enlarged, cottages were built up along the property, and horse-drawn carriages were purchased to pick up guests at the Alto station. Within a few years, several other summer resort hotels had cropped up in the canyon including the Abbey, the Eastland, and the Redwood Lodge. Fishing, hunting, hiking, swimming, horseback riding, and other activities increased in popularity as people came to the area as vacationers or moved in and commuted to San Francisco for work. Meanwhile, Reed's mill deforested much of the surrounding redwoods meaning most of the redwoods growing today are second or third growth.
The King family (King Street) also owned property near the Cushing land. One of its buildings was a small adobe house which, according to oral histories available at the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room in the Mill Valley Public Library, is believed to have predated the King farm. The Blithedale Hotel used it as a milk house. The adobe structure is still standing and connected to a house on West Blithedale Avenue; it is the oldest structure in Mill Valley.
The San Francisco Savings & Union Bank organized the Tamalpais Land & Water Company in 1889 as an agency for disposing of the Richardson land gained from the Throckmorton debt. The Board of Directors was President Joseph Eastland, Secretary Louis L. Janes (Janes Street), Thomas Magee (Magee Avenue), Albert Miller (Miller Avenue), and Lovell White (Lovell Avenue). Eastland, who had been president of the North Pacific Coast Railroad in 1877 and retained an interest, pushed to extend the railroad into the area in 1889. Though Reed, Richardson, and the Cushings were crucial to bringing people to the Mill Valley area, it was Eastland who really propelled the area and set the foundation for the city today. He had founded power companies all around the San Francisco Bay area, was on the board of several banks, and had control of several commercial companies. The Tamalpais Land & Water Co. hired Michael M. O'Shaughnessy
, already a noted engineer (later on he would become chief engineer for the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
and O'Shaughnessy Dam
and planned many San Francisco streets) to lay out roads, pedestrian paths, and step-systems for what the developers hoped would become a new city. He also built the Cascade Dam & Reservoir for water supply, and set aside land plots for churches, schools, and parks.
On 31 May 1890, nearly 3,000 people attended The Tamalpais Land & Water Co. land auction near the now-crumbling sawmill. More than 200 acre (0.809372 km²) were sold that day in the areas of present day Throckmorton, Cascade, Lovell, Summit, and Miller Avenues and extending to the west side of Corte Madera Avenue. By 1892, there were two schools in the area and a few churches. The auction also brought into Mill Valley architects, builders, and craftsmen. Harvey A. Klyce was one of the most prominent of the architects and designed many private homes and public buildings in the area, including the Masonic Lodge in 1904. Before his death in 1894, Eastland built a large summer home, "Burlwood", constructed on Throckmorton Avenue in 1892 that still stands though much of the original land has been parceled off. Burlwood was the first home in the town to have electricity, and when telephones were installed only he and Mrs. Cushing, the owner of the Blithedale Hotel had service. After the land auctions the area was known as both "Eastland" and "Mill Valley".
Janes, by then the resident director of Tamalpais Land & Water Co. (and eventually the city's first town clerk), and Sidney B. Cushing, president of the San Rafael Gas & Electric Co. set out to bring the railroads to Mt. Tamalpais. The Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway opened in 1896 (with Cushing as President) and ran from the town center (present day Lytton Square) all the way to the summit. After Muir Woods became a national monument in 1908 the railroad expanded and became the Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Scenic Railway. "The Crookedest Railroad in the World" and its accompanying Gravity Cars
brought thousands of tourists to the Tavern of Tamalpais on the mountain summit (built in 1896, rebuilt after the 1929 fire, and razed in the 1950s after a windstorm), the West Point Inn (built in 1904, abandoned in the 1930s, reopened in 1943), and the Muir Woods Inn (burned in 1907, rebuilt in 1914, now closed). The tracks were removed in 1930 after the 1929 fire, the drop in tourism due to the Great Depression
, and the increase in automobile traffic with the construction of the Panoramic Highway and other roads caused a drastic drop in ridership. Train service also became a reliable and relatively cheap form of commuting and tracks crisscrossed Mill Valley and connected it with neighboring cities and San Francisco.
(1905), the latter marking its 100th anniversary in 2010. The second big population boom came after the 1906 Great Earthquake
. While much of San Francisco and Marin County was devastated, many fled to Mill Valley and most never left. In that year alone the population grew to over 1,000 permanent residents. Creeks were bridged over or dammed, more roads laid down and oiled, and cement sidewalks poured. Tamalpais High School
opened in 1908, the first city hall was erected in 1908, and Andrew Carnegie's library in 1910. The Post Office opened under the name "Eastland", however after many objections it was changed to "Mill Valley" in 1904. The very first Mountain Play
was performed at the Mountain Theater on Mt. Tam in 1913.
By the 1920s, most roads were paved over, mail delivery was in full swing, and the population was at its highest at more than 2,500 citizens. Mill Valley Italian settlers made wine during Prohibition
, while some local bar owners made bootleg whiskey under the dense foliage around the local creeks. January 1922 saw the first of several years of snow in Marin County, coating Mt. Tam white. Two years later the Sulphur Springs, a natural hot spring where locals could revive their lagging spirits, was covered over and turned in the playground of the Old Mill Elementary School. 1929 was a year of great change for Mill Valley. The Great Fire raged for several days in early July and nearly destroyed the fledgling city. It ravaged much of Mt. Tam (including the Tavern and 117 homes) and the city itself was spared only by a change in wind direction. In October of that year, the Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods Scenic Railway ran for the last time. The fire caused great devastation to tourism and tourist destinations, but the railroads were also crushed by the car
. Panoramic Highway, a section of Highway 1 running between Mill Valley and Stinson Beach was built in 1929-1930. The stock market crash of 1929
and the ensuing Great Depression
crippled what little railroad tourism there was to the point where the tracks were eventually taken up in 1931.
During the Great Depression, many famous local landmarks were constructed with the help of the Works Progress Administration
and the Civilian Conservation Corps
, including the Mead Theater at Tam High(named after school board Trustee Ernest Mead), the Mountain Theater rock seating, and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1934-1937; the latter event ended railroad commuting between Marin and the city and helped increase the Marin population. With the demise of the railroads came the introduction of local bus service. Greyhound
moved into the former train depot in Lytton Square in October 1940. In Sausalito, Marinship
brought over 75,000 people to Marin, many of whom moved to Mill Valley permanently. At the height of the War, nearly 400 locals were fighting, including many volunteer firemen and government officials. By 1950, 1 in 10 Mill Valleyans were living in a "Goheen Home". George C. Goheen built the so-called "defense homes" for defense workers throughout the 1940s and 1950s in the Alto neighborhood.
to protect the area during the Korean War
. In 1956, a group of Beat poets and writers lived briefly in the Perry house, most notably Jack Kerouac
and San Francisco Renaissance
Beat poet
Gary Snyder. The house and its land is now owned by the Marin County Open Space District. By the beginning of the 1960s, however, the population swelled. The Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival became a permanent annual event and the old Carnegie library was replaced with an award-winning library at 375 Throckmorton Ave. Designed by architect Donn Emmons, the new library was formally dedicated on September 18, 1966.
The 1970s saw a change in attitude and population. Mill Valley became an area associated with great wealth, with many people making their millions in San Francisco and moving north. New schools and neighborhoods cropped up, though the city maintained its defense of redwoods and protected open space. Cascade Dam, built in 1893, was closed in 1972 and drained four years later in an attempt to curb the "hordes" of young people using the reservoir
for nude sunbathing and swimming. Youth subculture would come under attack again in 1974 when the City Council banned live music, first at the Sweetwater and later at the Old Mill Tavern, both now defunct. In 1977, the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room in the library opened and became the base of operations for the Mill Valley Historical Society. Marin County was hit with one of the worst drought
s on record beginning in 1976 and peaking in 1977, brought on by a combination of several seasons of low rainfall and a refusal to import water from the Russian River
, instead relying solely on rain water from Mt. Tam and the West Marin watersheds to fill the then-six reservoirs. By June 1977, the County managed to pipe in water from the Sacramento River Delta
, staving off disaster. The rainfall during the winter of 1977-78 was one of the heaviest on record. The Mill Valley Film Festival
, now part of the California Film Institute
, began in 1978 at the Sequoia Theatre.
The 1980s and 1990s saw the decline of small businesses in Mill Valley. Local establishments like Lockwood's Pharmacy closed in 1981 after running almost continuously for 86 years. Old Mill Tavern, O'Leary's, and the Unknown Museum shut their doors, as did Red Cart Market and Tamalpais Hardware. In their places came boutiques, upscale clothing stores, coffee shops, art galleries, and gourmet grocery stores. Downtown Plaza and Lytton Square were remodled to fit the new attitude. The population in the city alone swelled over 13,000 and many of the old, narrow, winding streets grew clogged with traffic congestion. The Public Library expanded with a new Children's Room, a downstairs Fiction Room, and Internet computers. It also joined MARINet, a consortium of all the public libraries in Marin, to allow patrons greater access to information. MARINet now has an online catalogue of all the materials, both physical and electronic, in the Marin public libraries, which patrons can order, pick up, and drop off materials at any of the participating libraries. The Old Mill also got a face lift; it was rebuilt to the same specifications of the original in 1991. The 1990s also saw another influx of affluence. Many new homeowners gutted homes built in the 19th and early 20th centuries, or tore them down all together.
The dawn of the new millennium brought reflection on the past, as the city celebrated 100 years of incorporation. Soon after Mill Valley got its brand new Community Center at 180 Camino Alto, adjacent to Mill Valley Middle School
. On January 31, 2008, Mill Valley's sewage treatment plant spilled 2.45 million gallons of sewage
into the San Francisco Bay. This marked the second such spill in Mill Valley within a week (the previous one spilled 2.7 million gallons), and the most recent of several that occurred in Marin County in early 2008. Mill Valley's treatment plant attributed the spills to "human error". The spills caused distress in Mill Valley's administrative government, which remains outspoken about "dedicating itself to the protection of air quality, waste reduction, water and energy conservation, and the protection of wildlife and habitat" in Mill Valley.
the city has a total area of 4.8 square miles (12.4 km²), of which 4.7 square miles (12.2 km²) is land and 0.1 square mile (0.258998811 km²) of (1.74%) water.
The Mill Valley 94941 area lies between Mt. Tamalpais on the west, the city of Tiburon on the east,the City of Corte Madera on the north, and the Golden Gate National Recreational Area (GGNRA) on the south. Two streams flow from the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais through Mill Valley to the bay: the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio; and Cascade Creek. Mill Valley is surrounded by hundreds of acres (hectares) of state
, federal, and county
park lands. In addition, there are many municipally maintained open-space reserves, parks, and coastal habitats which, when taken together, ensconce Mill Valley in a natural wilderness. This close and constant proximity to nature has left generations of Mill Valley residents with a strong sense of conservancy toward much of this natural environment. This unique cultural attitude, along with the many natural public spaces preserved within (see below) and around its borders, combine to form one of the main cultural cornerstones that has always defined Mill Valley.
Mill Valley has a number of scenic and natural features which provides significant habitat
for fishes, marine mammals, and other biota. Notable areas of public access to experience these aquatic preserves can be found at:
Mill Valley and the Homestead Valley Land Trust maintains many minimally disturbed wildland areas and preserves which are open to the public from sunrise to dusk everyday. Several nature trails allow access as well as providing gateway access to neighboring state and federal park lands, and the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed wildland on the broad eastern face of Mt. Tamalpais that overlooks Mill Valley. These are undeveloped natural areas and contain many species of wild animals, including some large predators like the coyote
, the bobcat
, and the cougar. As in all wildland areas, observe daytime access hours, keep dogs on leashes, and keep younger children from wandering about unattended. One may also want to familiarize themselves with how to live and recreate among cougars, coyotes, and bobcats prior to visiting these wildland areas.
which results in relatively wet winters and very dry summers. Winter lows rarely drop below freezing and summer highs rarely peak 90 °F (32.2 °C) with 90% of the annual rain falling in November through March. Wind speeds average lower than national averages in winter months and higher in summer, and often become quite gusty in the canyon regions of town. California coastal fog
often affects Mill Valley, making relative humidity highly variable. The wetter winter months tend to make for a more consistent daily relative humidity around 70-90% (slightly higher than US averages). During the summer months, however, while the morning fog often keeps morning humidity normal, in a typical 70-80% range, by afternoon after the fog burns off, the humidity regularly plummets to around 30% as one would expect in this dry seasonal climate.
Mill Valley is also affected by microclimate
conditions in the several box canyons with steep north-facing slopes and dense forests which span the southern and western city limits, which, along with the coastal fog, all conspire to make many of the dense forested regions of Mill Valley noticeably cooler and moister, on average, than other regions of town. This microclimate is what makes for the favorable ecology required by the Coastal Redwood forests which still cover much of the town and surrounding area, and have played such a pivotal role throughout the history of Mill Valley.
was 2,868.2 people per square mile (1,107.4/km²). The racial makeup of Mill Valley was 12,341 (88.8%) White, 118 (0.8%) African American, 23 (0.2%) Native American, 755 (5.4%) Asian, 14 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 152 (1.1%) from other races
, and 500 (3.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 622 persons (4.5%).
The Census reported that 99.5% of the population lived in households and 0.5% were institutionalized.
There were 6,084 households, out of which 1,887 (31.0%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 2,984 (49.0%) were opposite-sex married couples
living together, 465 (7.6%) had a female householder with no husband present, 178 (2.9%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 306 (5.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships
, and 55 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,016 households (33.1%) were made up of individuals and 888 (14.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27. There were 3,627 families
(59.6% of all households); the average family size was 2.94.
The population was spread out with 3,291 people (23.7%) under the age of 18, 459 people (3.3%) aged 18 to 24, 2,816 people (20.3%) aged 25 to 44, 4,714 people (33.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 2,623 people (18.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46.6 years. For every 100 females there were 85.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.8 males.
There were 6,534 housing units at an average density of 1,348.0 per square mile (520.4/km²), of which 3,974 (65.3%) were owner-occupied, and 2,110 (34.7%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.5%. 9,861 people (70.9% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 3,966 people (28.5%) lived in rental housing units.
, there were 13,600 people, 6,147 households and 3,417 families residing in the city, not including those living in unincorporated territories. The population density
was 2,883.1 inhabitants per square mile (1,112.5/km²). There were 6,286 housing units at an average density of 1,332.6 per square mile (514.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city in 2010 was 85.8% non-Hispanic White, 0.8% non-Hispanic African American, 0.1% Native American, 5.3% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from other races
, and 3.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.5% of the population.
There were 6,147 households of which 27.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.2% were married couples
living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.4% were non-families. 34.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.85.
21.2% of the population was under the age of 18, 2.9% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 32.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 86.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.5 males.
The median household income
was $90,794, and the median family income was $119,669. Males had a median income of $94,800 versus $52,088 for females. The per capita income
for the city was $64,179. About 2.7% of families and 4.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.6% of those under age 18 and 5.7% of those age 65 or over. The median single-family home price in the city was $1,500,000 in January 2005.
coupled with its ease of access to nearby San Francisco has made it a popular home for many high-income commuters
. Over the last 20 years, following a trend that is endemic throughout the Bay Area, home prices have climbed in Mill Valley (the median price for a single-family home is in excess of $1.5 million as of 2005), which has had the effect of pushing out some earlier residents who can no longer afford to live in the area. This trend has also transformed Mill Valley's commercial activity, e.g. Village Music (see below) was replaced in 2008 by more luxury-oriented commercial establishments: a cupcake shop and a dog salon.
In July 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Mill Valley tenth on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States. In 2007, MSN
and Forbes magazine ranked Mill Valley seventy-third on its "Most expensive zip codes in America" list.
While Mill Valley has retained elements of its earlier artistic culture through galleries, festivals, and performances, its stock of affordable housing has diminished, forcing some residents to leave the area. This trend has also affected some of the city's well-known cultural centers like Village Music. and the Sweetwater Saloon
. As of April 2007, only one affordable housing project was underway: an initiative to raze and rebuild an abandoned motel called the Fireside.
to the east of the City of Mill Valley. Other CDPs with Mill Valley mailing addresses include Tamalpais-Homestead Valley and Muir Beach
. Smaller unincorporated areas include Alto
and Almonte
.
Neighborhoods in Mill Valley:
Mill Valley has a costly but popular "steps, lanes, and paths program" that provides improved pedestrian access between many of the winding and twisting residential roads that cover the hillsides. Blue stencils on the roadway mark certain paths as potential emergency escape routes from the fire prone hills. A picture book, although not entirely accurately, shows the paths, "Steps, Lanes and Paths of Mill Valley". In 2009 resident Matt Connelly threatened litigation alleging that some of the proposed paths represent a seizure of private property (even though some antique maps suggest that certain potential easements could be thought of as the justification for future steps, lanes, or paths)..
For those who prefer to enjoy nature from the comfort of a chair, the city's public library is nestled in a serene and scenic location at the edge of Old Mill Park where visitors may relax indoors near the wood-burning fireplace and view the redwood forest through the library's multi-storied windows, or from the outside deck which overlooks the park and Cascade Creek.
Public schools are managed by the Mill Valley School District
. There are five elementary schools and one middle school, Mill Valley Middle School
, a four-time winner of the California Distinguished School
Award. The public high school, Tamalpais High School
, is part of the Tamalpais Union High School District
, whose five campuses serve central and southern Marin County. Marin Horizon School is an independent school
serving students in grades PK-8. Founded in 1977, the school enrolls approximately 285 students.
The Mill Valley Public Library is also home to the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room. It has thousands of books, photographs, newspapers, pamphlets, artifacts, and oral histories on the history of California, Marin County, and Mill Valley. It is staffed almost entirely by volunteers. As of 2009, the History Room is in the midst of a digitization project wherein all documents are being scanned and digitized. Eventually the History Room will have all of their documents and artifacts available for public perusal on an online database. It also has a Twitter account, @MVHistoryRoom where updates, historical information, and new acquisitions are posted.
, which is part of the California Film Institute
, for over thirty years. In addition, Mill Valley's Chamber of Commerce has sponsored the annual Gourmet Food and Wine Tasting in Lytton Square for many years.
Theater arts also have a huge following in Mill Valley. In addition to supporting the local 142 Throckmorton Theatre, which hosts theater of all levels, Mill Valley is also home for the Marin Theatre Company, and the Mountain Play Association which hosts annual musical productions in the Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheater
located in Mill Valley's neighboring Mount Tamalpais State Park
. For several years the Curtain Theatre Group has also been performing annual free Shakespeare plays among the redwoods on the Old Mill Park Amphitheatre behind the Mill Valley Library.
— who recorded music in a Mill Valley recording studio — also once called Mill Valley home. John Lennon
and Yoko Ono
summered in a Mill Valley home on Lovell Ave. near the library in the early 1970s, having left some of his own graffiti on the wall of the residence "The Maya the Merrier". Other rock stars such as Michael Bloomfield
, Huey Lewis
, Bob Weir
, Lee Michaels
, Sammy Hagar
, Bonnie Raitt
, Pete Sears
, Clarence Clemons
, John and Mario Cipollina, and Janis Joplin
have also called this small town home. The composer John Anthony Lennon
was raised in Mill Valley. Authors such as Wright Morris
and Jack London
have also lived here, as does Joyce Maynard
. Actors Peter Coyote
, Dana Carvey
, Jill Eikenberry
, Kathleen Quinlan
, Michael Tucker
, and it was the place of birth for actors Eve Arden
, Mariel Hemingway
and Jonah Hill
. Celebrity chef Tyler Florence
, Pixar Animation Studios' Andrew Stanton
and former women's basketball star Jennifer Azzi
also call Mill Valley home. Former naval aviator Dieter Dengler
built a home on Mount Tamalpais near the Mountain Home Inn and lived there until his death in 2001; parts of the biographical documentary about him, Little Dieter Needs to Fly
were filmed there. Author John Gray
who writes the Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
books is a long time Mill Valley resident. Preventive medicine physician, John Travis, founded the first wellness center in the US at 42 Miller Avenue in 1975.
In fiction, character B.J. Hunnicutt from the TV show M*A*S*H called Mill Valley home, and fictional character Charley Furuseth in Jack London's
1904 novel The Sea-Wolf
, apparently had a summer cottage here. In the Star Trek
universe, it is home to the 602 Club. It is also the setting for resident author Jack Finney's
1954 novel The Body Snatchers
, although the 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers
, and subsequent movie versions of the book have been set elsewhere. Fictional character Doris Martin from the TV show The Doris Day Show
called Mill Valley home as well. In the syndicated version of Too Close For Comfort
, Henry and Muriel Rush got their jobs at the Marin Bugler newspaper in Mill Valley.
Writer Jack Kerouac
and beat poet Gary Snyder
shared a Mill Valley cabin in 1955-56 around 370 Montford Ave. in Homestead Valley. The cabin's coincidental location in Marin County and its adjacent location to a meadow where horses grazed, combined with Snyder's expertise in Asian languages and cultures, lead to Snyder naming the cabin "Marin-An", which is Japanese for "Horse Grove Hermitage". It was during this stay in Mill Valley that Kerouac's recent budding interest in Zen Buddhism was greatly expanded by Snyder's expertise in the subject. Kerouac's 1958 novel, The Dharma Bums
, was consequently composed while living here and contains many semi-fictionalized accounts of the lives of Kerouac and Snyder while living at Marin-An.
American writer Cyra McFadden
, while living in Mill Valley in the 1970s, wrote a column for the Pacific Sun newspaper entitled, "The Serial", which satirized the trendy lifestyles of the affluent residents of Marin County. In 1977, she turned her column ideas into a novel called The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County
which focused on the fictional exploits of a Mill Valley couple, Kate and Harvey Holroyd, who never quite fit in to the Marin 'Scene.' The highly successful book was later made into a 1980 comedy called Serial
, starring Tuesday Weld
and Martin Mull
.
The song "Mill Valley", recorded in 1970 and released on the album Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point 4th Grade Class
, reached #90 on the Billboard Hot 100
. While the school is in the Mill Valley School District, it is not within the city limits.
Richard Laymon
, the American horror author, set his novel The Lake primarily in Mill Valley. Other Laymon novels are also either set in or mention Mill Valley.
The Tamalpais High School
Marching Band appeared in the 1969
Woody Allen
film Take The Money and Run
. In the 1973
George Lucas
film American Graffiti
, the 'sock hop' dance scenes were filmed in the high school's boys gymnasium.
The television show Quantum Leap filmed episode 406 in Mill Valley in 1991.
A now defunct band named Abi Yoyos resided in Mill Valley, and named one of their albums after the town.
In March 2009, the pilot for NBC's Parenthood filmed a few scenes at Boyle Park.
into law, which prohibited gender discrimination in any area of education. Since Little League depended upon public school facilities for practice and games, Title IX made the boys-only policy illegal. Jenny Fulle of Mill Valley was first banned from playing Little League upon registration in 1973, but after her was written about in the Mill Valley Record, it quickly attracted national attention and the support of National Organization for Women
and the American Civil Liberties Union
. In 1974, Jenny Fulle won a superior court ruling under Title IX which allowed her to become the first girl in the nation to play Little League. In 1975, the year after she played her first season, Little League permanently changed its national policy, allowing girls to participate.
Marin County, California
Marin County is a county located in the North San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco. As of 2010, the population was 252,409. The county seat is San Rafael and the largest employer is the county government. Marin County is well...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
located about 4 miles (6.4 km) north of San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
via the Golden Gate Bridge
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, the structure links the city of San Francisco, on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula, to...
. The population was 13,903 at the 2010 census.
Mill Valley is located on the western and northern shores of Richardson Bay
Richardson Bay
Richardson Bay is a shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay, managed under a Joint Powers Agency of four Northern California cities. The Richardson Bay Sanctuary was acquired in the early 1960s by the National Audubon Society. The bay was named for William A...
. Beyond the flat coastal area and marshlands, it occupies narrow wooded canyon
Canyon
A canyon or gorge is a deep ravine between cliffs often carved from the landscape by a river. Rivers have a natural tendency to reach a baseline elevation, which is the same elevation as the body of water it will eventually drain into. This forms a canyon. Most canyons were formed by a process of...
s, mostly of second-growth redwoods, on the southern slopes of Mount Tamalpais
Mount Tamalpais
Mount Tamalpais is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Mount Tamalpais Watershed.-Geography:...
. The Mill Valley 94941 ZIP code
ZIP Code
ZIP codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, is properly written in capital letters and was chosen to suggest that the mail travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly, when senders use the...
also includes the following adjacent unincorporated communities: Almonte, Alto, Homestead Valley, Strawberry and Tamalpais Valley. The Muir Woods National Monument
Muir Woods National Monument
Muir Woods National Monument is a unit of the National Park Service on the Pacific coast of southwestern Marin County, California, north of San Francisco and part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
is also located just outside the city limits.
Coast Miwok
The first people known to inhabit Marin County, the Coast MiwokCoast Miwok
The Coast Miwok were the second largest group of Miwok Native American people. The Coast Miwok inhabited the general area of modern Marin County and southern Sonoma County in Northern California, from the Golden Gate north to Duncans Point and eastward to Sonoma Creek...
, arrived approximately 6,000 years ago. The territory of the Coast Miwok included all of Marin County, north to Bodega Bay and southern Sonoma County. More than 600 village sites have been identified,including 14 sites in the Mill Valley area. Nearby archaeological discoveries include the rock carvings and grinding sites on Ring Mountain
Ring Mountain (California)
Ring Mountain is an elevated landform on the Tiburon Peninsula in Marin County, California. This mountain was named for George E. Ring, who served as a Marin County Supervisor from 1895 to 1903.A number of rare and endangered flora inhabit Ring Mountain...
. The pre-Missionization
Spanish missions in California
The Spanish missions in California comprise a series of religious and military outposts established by Spanish Catholics of the Franciscan Order between 1769 and 1823 to spread the Christian faith among the local Native Americans. The missions represented the first major effort by Europeans to...
population of the Coast Miwok is estimated to be between 1,500 (Alfred L. Kroeber's estimate for the year 1770 A.D. to 2,000 (Sherburne F. Cook's estimate for the same year). The pre-Missionization population of the Coast Miwok may have been as high as 5000. Cook speculated that by 1848 their population had decreased to 300, and down to 60 by 1880. As of 2011 there are over 1,000 registered members of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria
The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, formerly known as the Federated Coast Miwok, is a federally recognized American Indian tribe of Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo Indians. The tribe was officially restored to federal recognition by the U.S. government pursuant to the Graton Rancheria...
which includes both the Coast Miwok and the Southern Pomo, all of whom can date their ancestry back to the 14 survivors original tribal ancestors. The Lucretia Hanson Little History Room in the Mill Valley Public Library has some oral histories recorded from some Coast Miwok descendants
In Mill Valley, on Locust Avenue between Sycamore and Walnut Avenues, there is now a metal plaque set in the sidewalk in the area believed to be the birthplace of Chief Marin
Chief Marin
Chief Marin was the "great chief of the tribe Licatiut" , according to General Vallejo's semi-historical report to the first California State Legislature in 1850...
nearly 230 years ago; the plaque was dedicated on 8 May 2009. The village site was first identified by Nels Nelson in 1907 and his excavation revealed tools, burials and food debris just beyond the driveway of 44 Locust Ave. At that time, the moud was 20 feet high. Another famous Mill Valley site was in the Manzanita area underneath the Fireside Inn (previously known as the Manzanita Roadhouse, Manzanita Hotel, Emil Plasberg's Top Rail, and Top Rail Tavern, most of which were notorious Prohibition
Prohibition
Prohibition of alcohol, often referred to simply as prohibition, is the practice of prohibiting the manufacture, transportation, import, export, sale, and consumption of alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The term can also apply to the periods in the histories of the countries during which the...
-era gin joints
Speakeasy
A speakeasy, also called a blind pig or blind tiger, is an establishment that illegally sells alcoholic beverages. Such establishments came into prominence in the United States during the period known as Prohibition...
and brothels) located near the intersection of U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101
U.S. Route 101, or U.S. Highway 101, is an important north–south U.S. highway that runs through the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, on the West Coast of the United States...
and California State Route 1
California State Route 1
State Route 1 , more often called Highway 1, is a state highway that runs along much of the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. It is famous for running along some of the most beautiful coastlines in the world, leading to its designation as an All-American Road.Highway 1 does not run...
. Built in 1916, the "blind pig" roadhouse
Roadhouse (facility)
A roadhouse is a commercial establishment typically built on a major road or highway, to service passing travellers. Its meaning varies slightly by country.-USA:...
was outside the dry
Dry county
A dry county is a county in the United States whose government forbids the sale of alcoholic beverages. Some prohibit off-premises sale, some prohibit on-premises sale, and some prohibit both. Hundreds of dry counties exist across the United States, almost all of them in the South...
limits of the city itself. Shell mounds have been discovered in areas by streams and along Richardson Bay, including in the Strawberry and Almonte neighborhoods.
Beginning with the foundation of Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís
Mission San Francisco de Asís, or Mission Dolores, is the oldest surviving structure in San Francisco and the sixth religious settlement established as part of the California chain of missions...
, commonly known as Mission Dolores, in 1776, the Coast Miwok of southern Marin began to slowly enter the mission, first those from Sausalito followed by those from areas we now know as Mill Valley, Belvedere, Tiburon and Bolinas. They called themselves the "Huimen" people. At the mission they were taught the Catholic religion, lost their freedom, and three quarters died as a result of exposure to European diseases. As a result of the high death rate at Mission Dolores it was decided to build a new Mission San Rafael, built in 1817. Over 200 surviving Coast Miwok were taken there from Mission Dolores and Mission San Jose,including the 17 survivors of the Huimen Coast Miwok of the Richardson Bay Area. California Missions.
Early settlers
By 1834 the Mission era had ended and California was under the control of the MexicanMexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
government. They took Miwok ancestral lands, divided them and gave them to Mexican soldiers or relatives who had connections with the Mexican governor. The huge tracts of land, called ranchos
Ranchos of California
The Spanish, and later the Méxican government encouraged settlement of territory now known as California by the establishment of large land grants called ranchos, from which the English ranch is derived. Devoted to raising cattle and sheep, the owners of the ranchos attempted to pattern themselves...
by the Mexican settlers, or Californios, soon covered the area. The Miwoks who had not died or fled were often employed under a state of indentured servitude to the California land grant
Alta California
Alta California was a province and territory in the Viceroyalty of New Spain and later a territory and department in independent Mexico. The territory was created in 1769 out of the northern part of the former province of Las Californias, and consisted of the modern American states of California,...
owners. In 1834, the governor of Alta California José Figueroa
José Figueroa
General José Figueroa , was a General and the Mexican territorial Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835.Figueroa oversaw the initial secularization of the missions of upper California, which included the expulsion of the Spanish Franciscan mission officials.This also involved the issuing of...
awarded to John T. Reed
John Reed (Early Californian)
John Thomas Reed was an early California European settler who was the grantee of Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio in what is present day Marin County, California.-Life:Reed went to Acapulco, Mexico in 1820...
the first land grant in Marin, Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio
Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio
Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio was a Mexican land grant in present day Marin County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to John Reed. Corte Madera del Presidio means the "lumber mill of the Presidio". The grant encompassed what is now southern Corte Madera, Mill Valley,...
. Just west of that, Rancho Saucelito
Rancho Saucelito
Rancho Saucelito was a Mexican land grant in present day Marin County, California given in 1838 by Governor Juan Alvarado to William A. Richardson. The name means "ranch of the little willow grove"...
was transferred to William A. Richardson in 1838 after being originally awarded to Nicolas Galindo in 1835. John Reed married Hilarita Sanchez, the daughter of a commandante in the San Francisco Presidio. William Richardson also married a well-connected woman; both he and Reed were originally from Europe. Richardson's name was later applied to Richardson Bay
Richardson Bay
Richardson Bay is a shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay, managed under a Joint Powers Agency of four Northern California cities. The Richardson Bay Sanctuary was acquired in the early 1960s by the National Audubon Society. The bay was named for William A...
, an arm of the San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay
San Francisco Bay is a shallow, productive estuary through which water draining from approximately forty percent of California, flowing in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers from the Sierra Nevada mountains, enters the Pacific Ocean...
that brushes up against the eastern edge of Mill Valley. The latter rancho contained everything south and west of the Corte Madera and Larkspur
Larkspur, California
Larkspur is a city in Marin County, California, United States. Larkspur is located south of San Rafael, at an elevation of . As of the 2010 Census, the city's population was 11,926. Larkspur is located north of San Francisco near Mount Tamalpais. Larkspur's Police Department is shared with that...
areas with the Pacific Ocean
Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...
, San Francisco Bay, and Richardson Bay as the other three borders. The former encompassed what is now southern Corte Madera, the Tiburon Peninsula
Tiburon Peninsula
The Tiburon Peninsula , or simply "the Tiburon", is a region of Haiti encompassing all of Haiti's southern coast. It starts roughly at the southernmost of the Haiti-Dominican Republic border and extends westward near Cuba, forming a large headland. Four of Haiti's ten departments are located...
, and Strawberry Point.
In 1836, Reed married Hilaria Sanchez, the daughter of the commandant of the local presidio
Presidio
A presidio is a fortified base established by the Spanish in North America between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The fortresses were built to protect against pirates, hostile native Americans and enemy colonists. Other presidios were held by Spain in the sixteenth and seventeenth...
. He built the first sawmill
Sawmill
A sawmill is a facility where logs are cut into boards.-Sawmill process:A sawmill's basic operation is much like those of hundreds of years ago; a log enters on one end and dimensional lumber exits on the other end....
in the county on the Cascade Creek (now Old Mill Park) in the mid-1830s on Richardson's rancho and settled near what is now Locke Lane and LaGoma Avenue. The mill cut wood for the San Francisco Presidio. He also raised cattle and horses and had a brickyard and stone quarry. Reed also did brisk businesses in hunting, skins, tallow, and other products until his death in 1843 at 38 years of age. Richardson sold butter, milk and beef to San Francisco during the Gold Rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
. Shortly thereafter, he made several poor investments and wound up massively in debt to many creditors. On top of losing his Mendocino County rancho he was forced to deed 640 acres (2.6 km²) of Rancho Saucelito to his wife, Maria Antonia Martinez, daughter of the commandant of the Presidio, in order to protect her. The rest of the rancho, including the part of what is now Mill Valley that did not already belong to Reed's heirs, was given to his administrator Samuel Reading Throckmorton
Rancho Saucelito
Rancho Saucelito was a Mexican land grant in present day Marin County, California given in 1838 by Governor Juan Alvarado to William A. Richardson. The name means "ranch of the little willow grove"...
. At his death in 1856 at 61 years old, Richardson was almost entirely destitute.
Throckmorton came to San Francisco in 1850 as an agent for an eastern mining business before working for Richardson. As payment of a debt, Throckmorton acquired a large portion of Rancho Saucelito in 1853-4 and built his own rancho "The Homestead" on what is now Linden Lane and Montford Avenue. The descendants of ranch superintendent Jacob Gardner continue to be active in Marin. Some of the rest of his land was leased out for dairy farming to Portuguese
Portuguese people
The Portuguese are a nation and ethnic group native to the country of Portugal, in the west of the Iberian peninsula of south-west Europe. Their language is Portuguese, and Roman Catholicism is the predominant religion....
settlers. A majority of the immigrants came from the Azores Islands
Azores
The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...
. Those who were unsuccessful at gold mining came north to the Marin Headlands
Marin Headlands
The Marin Headlands is a hilly area at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Headlands are located just north of San Francisco, immediately across the Golden Gate Bridge. The entire area is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
and later brought their families. In Mill Valley, Ranch "B" is one of the few remaining dairy farm buildings and is located near the parking lot at the Tennessee Valley trailhead. Throckmorton also suffered devastating financial problems before his death in 1887. His surname would later be applied to one of the major thoroughfares in Mill Valley.
Richardson and Reed had never formalized the boundary lines separating their ranchos. Richardson's heirs successfully sued Reed's heirs in 1860 claiming the mill was built on their property. The border was officially marked as running along the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio
Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio
Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio is a year-round stream in southern Marin County, California, USA. This watercourse is also known as Corte Madera Creek, although the actual stream of that name flows into San Francisco Bay further north at Point San Quentin...
along present day Miller Avenue. Everything to the east of the creek was Reed property, and everything to the west was Richardson land. It was Richardson's territory that would soon become part of Mill Valley when Throckmorton's daughter Suzanna was forced to relinquish several thousand acres to the San Francisco Savings & Union Bank to satisfy a debt of $100,000 against the estate in 1889.
In 1873, San Francisco physician Dr. John Cushing discovered 320 "lost" acres between the Reed and Richardson boundaries between present day Corte Madera Avenue, across the creek, and into West Blithedale Canyon. Using the Homestead Act
Homestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....
he petitioned the government and managed to acquire the land. Before his death in 1879 he had built a sanitarium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
in the peaceful canyon. In Sausalito the North Pacific Coast Railroad
North Pacific Coast Railroad
The North Pacific Coast Railroad was a common carrier narrow gauge steam railroad begun in 1874 and sold in 1902 to new owners who renamed it the North Shore Railroad and which rebuilt the southern section into a standard gauge electric railroad.The NPC operated in the northern California...
had laid down tracks to a station near present day Highway 101 at Strawberry. Seeing the financial advantages of a railroad his descendants then turned the hospital into the Blithedale Hotel after the land title was finally granted in 1884. The sanitarium was enlarged, cottages were built up along the property, and horse-drawn carriages were purchased to pick up guests at the Alto station. Within a few years, several other summer resort hotels had cropped up in the canyon including the Abbey, the Eastland, and the Redwood Lodge. Fishing, hunting, hiking, swimming, horseback riding, and other activities increased in popularity as people came to the area as vacationers or moved in and commuted to San Francisco for work. Meanwhile, Reed's mill deforested much of the surrounding redwoods meaning most of the redwoods growing today are second or third growth.
The King family (King Street) also owned property near the Cushing land. One of its buildings was a small adobe house which, according to oral histories available at the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room in the Mill Valley Public Library, is believed to have predated the King farm. The Blithedale Hotel used it as a milk house. The adobe structure is still standing and connected to a house on West Blithedale Avenue; it is the oldest structure in Mill Valley.
The San Francisco Savings & Union Bank organized the Tamalpais Land & Water Company in 1889 as an agency for disposing of the Richardson land gained from the Throckmorton debt. The Board of Directors was President Joseph Eastland, Secretary Louis L. Janes (Janes Street), Thomas Magee (Magee Avenue), Albert Miller (Miller Avenue), and Lovell White (Lovell Avenue). Eastland, who had been president of the North Pacific Coast Railroad in 1877 and retained an interest, pushed to extend the railroad into the area in 1889. Though Reed, Richardson, and the Cushings were crucial to bringing people to the Mill Valley area, it was Eastland who really propelled the area and set the foundation for the city today. He had founded power companies all around the San Francisco Bay area, was on the board of several banks, and had control of several commercial companies. The Tamalpais Land & Water Co. hired Michael M. O'Shaughnessy
Michael O'Shaughnessy
Michael Maurice O'Shaughnessy was an Irish Civil engineer who became city engineer for the city of San Francisco during the first part of the twentieth century and developed the Hetch-Hetchy water system.-Life:...
, already a noted engineer (later on he would become chief engineer for the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir
Hetch Hetchy Reservoir is a reservoir in Yosemite National Park, about northeast from the city of Merced, California. The reservoir has a capacity of and is formed by the concrete gravity O'Shaughnessy Dam in Hetch Hetchy Valley on the Tuolumne River...
and O'Shaughnessy Dam
O'Shaughnessy Dam
The O'Shaughnessy Dam is a curved gravity dam on the Tuolumne River in the Hetch Hetchy Valley of California's Sierra Nevada. The dam is located in Yosemite National Park, and creates the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. It is named for former San Francisco chief engineer and the original chief engineer of...
and planned many San Francisco streets) to lay out roads, pedestrian paths, and step-systems for what the developers hoped would become a new city. He also built the Cascade Dam & Reservoir for water supply, and set aside land plots for churches, schools, and parks.
On 31 May 1890, nearly 3,000 people attended The Tamalpais Land & Water Co. land auction near the now-crumbling sawmill. More than 200 acre (0.809372 km²) were sold that day in the areas of present day Throckmorton, Cascade, Lovell, Summit, and Miller Avenues and extending to the west side of Corte Madera Avenue. By 1892, there were two schools in the area and a few churches. The auction also brought into Mill Valley architects, builders, and craftsmen. Harvey A. Klyce was one of the most prominent of the architects and designed many private homes and public buildings in the area, including the Masonic Lodge in 1904. Before his death in 1894, Eastland built a large summer home, "Burlwood", constructed on Throckmorton Avenue in 1892 that still stands though much of the original land has been parceled off. Burlwood was the first home in the town to have electricity, and when telephones were installed only he and Mrs. Cushing, the owner of the Blithedale Hotel had service. After the land auctions the area was known as both "Eastland" and "Mill Valley".
Janes, by then the resident director of Tamalpais Land & Water Co. (and eventually the city's first town clerk), and Sidney B. Cushing, president of the San Rafael Gas & Electric Co. set out to bring the railroads to Mt. Tamalpais. The Mt. Tamalpais Scenic Railway opened in 1896 (with Cushing as President) and ran from the town center (present day Lytton Square) all the way to the summit. After Muir Woods became a national monument in 1908 the railroad expanded and became the Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Scenic Railway. "The Crookedest Railroad in the World" and its accompanying Gravity Cars
Gravity railroad
A gravity railroad or Gravity railway is a railroad on a slope that allow cars carrying minerals or passengers to coast down the slope by the force of gravity alone. The cars are then hauled back up the slope using animal power or a stationary engine and a cable, chain or one or more wide, flat...
brought thousands of tourists to the Tavern of Tamalpais on the mountain summit (built in 1896, rebuilt after the 1929 fire, and razed in the 1950s after a windstorm), the West Point Inn (built in 1904, abandoned in the 1930s, reopened in 1943), and the Muir Woods Inn (burned in 1907, rebuilt in 1914, now closed). The tracks were removed in 1930 after the 1929 fire, the drop in tourism due to the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, and the increase in automobile traffic with the construction of the Panoramic Highway and other roads caused a drastic drop in ridership. Train service also became a reliable and relatively cheap form of commuting and tracks crisscrossed Mill Valley and connected it with neighboring cities and San Francisco.
Incorporation through WWII
By 1900, the population was nearing 900 and the locals pushed out the Tamalpais Land & Water Co. in favor of incorporation. Organizations and clubs cropped up including the Outdoor Art Club (1902) and the Dipsea RaceDipsea Race
The Dipsea Race is the oldest cross-country trail running event—and one of the oldest foot races of any kind—in the United States. The 7.5 mile long Dipsea Race has been held annually almost every year since 1905, starting in Mill Valley, and finishing at Stinson Beach, in Marin County,...
(1905), the latter marking its 100th anniversary in 2010. The second big population boom came after the 1906 Great Earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
The San Francisco earthquake of 1906 was a major earthquake that struck San Francisco, California, and the coast of Northern California at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, April 18, 1906. The most widely accepted estimate for the magnitude of the earthquake is a moment magnitude of 7.9; however, other...
. While much of San Francisco and Marin County was devastated, many fled to Mill Valley and most never left. In that year alone the population grew to over 1,000 permanent residents. Creeks were bridged over or dammed, more roads laid down and oiled, and cement sidewalks poured. Tamalpais High School
Tamalpais High School
Tamalpais High School is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises more than above Mill Valley....
opened in 1908, the first city hall was erected in 1908, and Andrew Carnegie's library in 1910. The Post Office opened under the name "Eastland", however after many objections it was changed to "Mill Valley" in 1904. The very first Mountain Play
Mountain Play
The Mountain Play Association is a 5013 organization responsible for the production of theatrical events at the Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheatre on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. The stone amphitheatre, named for the owner of the railroad company which constructed the Mount Tamalpais...
was performed at the Mountain Theater on Mt. Tam in 1913.
By the 1920s, most roads were paved over, mail delivery was in full swing, and the population was at its highest at more than 2,500 citizens. Mill Valley Italian settlers made wine during Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
, while some local bar owners made bootleg whiskey under the dense foliage around the local creeks. January 1922 saw the first of several years of snow in Marin County, coating Mt. Tam white. Two years later the Sulphur Springs, a natural hot spring where locals could revive their lagging spirits, was covered over and turned in the playground of the Old Mill Elementary School. 1929 was a year of great change for Mill Valley. The Great Fire raged for several days in early July and nearly destroyed the fledgling city. It ravaged much of Mt. Tam (including the Tavern and 117 homes) and the city itself was spared only by a change in wind direction. In October of that year, the Mt. Tamalpais and Muir Woods Scenic Railway ran for the last time. The fire caused great devastation to tourism and tourist destinations, but the railroads were also crushed by the car
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
. Panoramic Highway, a section of Highway 1 running between Mill Valley and Stinson Beach was built in 1929-1930. The stock market crash of 1929
Wall Street Crash of 1929
The Wall Street Crash of 1929 , also known as the Great Crash, and the Stock Market Crash of 1929, was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its fallout...
and the ensuing Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
crippled what little railroad tourism there was to the point where the tracks were eventually taken up in 1931.
During the Great Depression, many famous local landmarks were constructed with the help of the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
and the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
, including the Mead Theater at Tam High(named after school board Trustee Ernest Mead), the Mountain Theater rock seating, and the Golden Gate Bridge in 1934-1937; the latter event ended railroad commuting between Marin and the city and helped increase the Marin population. With the demise of the railroads came the introduction of local bus service. Greyhound
Greyhound Lines
Greyhound Lines, Inc., based in Dallas, Texas, is an intercity common carrier of passengers by bus serving over 3,700 destinations in the United States, Canada and Mexico, operating under the well-known logo of a leaping greyhound. It was founded in Hibbing, Minnesota, USA, in 1914 and...
moved into the former train depot in Lytton Square in October 1940. In Sausalito, Marinship
Marinship
Marinship Corporation was a shipbuilding company of the United States during World War II, created to build the shipping required for the war effort...
brought over 75,000 people to Marin, many of whom moved to Mill Valley permanently. At the height of the War, nearly 400 locals were fighting, including many volunteer firemen and government officials. By 1950, 1 in 10 Mill Valleyans were living in a "Goheen Home". George C. Goheen built the so-called "defense homes" for defense workers throughout the 1940s and 1950s in the Alto neighborhood.
1950s to present
With a population just over 7,000 by 1950, Mill Valley was still relatively rural. Men commuted to San Francisco on the Greyhound bus when the streets were not flooding in heavy rain, and there still were not any traffic lights. The military built the Mill Valley Air Force StationMill Valley Air Force Station
The AN/FPS-107 search radar operated with a 360° continuous spin, at a rate of 5 rotations per minute. It transmitted ten megawatt pulses of radio frequency energy, with each pulse having a duration of six microseconds. It had a detection range of 250 miles, up to an altitude of 100,000 feet...
to protect the area during the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
. In 1956, a group of Beat poets and writers lived briefly in the Perry house, most notably Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
and San Francisco Renaissance
San Francisco Renaissance
The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco and which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetic avant-garde. However, others The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range...
Beat poet
Beat generation
The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
Gary Snyder. The house and its land is now owned by the Marin County Open Space District. By the beginning of the 1960s, however, the population swelled. The Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival became a permanent annual event and the old Carnegie library was replaced with an award-winning library at 375 Throckmorton Ave. Designed by architect Donn Emmons, the new library was formally dedicated on September 18, 1966.
The 1970s saw a change in attitude and population. Mill Valley became an area associated with great wealth, with many people making their millions in San Francisco and moving north. New schools and neighborhoods cropped up, though the city maintained its defense of redwoods and protected open space. Cascade Dam, built in 1893, was closed in 1972 and drained four years later in an attempt to curb the "hordes" of young people using the reservoir
Reservoir
A reservoir , artificial lake or dam is used to store water.Reservoirs may be created in river valleys by the construction of a dam or may be built by excavation in the ground or by conventional construction techniques such as brickwork or cast concrete.The term reservoir may also be used to...
for nude sunbathing and swimming. Youth subculture would come under attack again in 1974 when the City Council banned live music, first at the Sweetwater and later at the Old Mill Tavern, both now defunct. In 1977, the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room in the library opened and became the base of operations for the Mill Valley Historical Society. Marin County was hit with one of the worst drought
Drought
A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region...
s on record beginning in 1976 and peaking in 1977, brought on by a combination of several seasons of low rainfall and a refusal to import water from the Russian River
Russian River (California)
The Russian River, a southward-flowing river, drains of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately , it is the second largest river flowing through the nine county Greater San Francisco Bay Area with a mainstem 110 miles ...
, instead relying solely on rain water from Mt. Tam and the West Marin watersheds to fill the then-six reservoirs. By June 1977, the County managed to pipe in water from the Sacramento River Delta
Sacramento River Delta
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, or California Delta, is an expansive inland river delta and estuary in northern California in the United States. The Delta is formed at the western edge of the Central Valley by the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and lies just east of...
, staving off disaster. The rainfall during the winter of 1977-78 was one of the heaviest on record. The Mill Valley Film Festival
Mill Valley Film Festival
The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...
, now part of the California Film Institute
California Film Institute
The California Film Institute presents the annual Mill Valley Film Festival; and exhibits films year-round at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center.-Programming:...
, began in 1978 at the Sequoia Theatre.
The 1980s and 1990s saw the decline of small businesses in Mill Valley. Local establishments like Lockwood's Pharmacy closed in 1981 after running almost continuously for 86 years. Old Mill Tavern, O'Leary's, and the Unknown Museum shut their doors, as did Red Cart Market and Tamalpais Hardware. In their places came boutiques, upscale clothing stores, coffee shops, art galleries, and gourmet grocery stores. Downtown Plaza and Lytton Square were remodled to fit the new attitude. The population in the city alone swelled over 13,000 and many of the old, narrow, winding streets grew clogged with traffic congestion. The Public Library expanded with a new Children's Room, a downstairs Fiction Room, and Internet computers. It also joined MARINet, a consortium of all the public libraries in Marin, to allow patrons greater access to information. MARINet now has an online catalogue of all the materials, both physical and electronic, in the Marin public libraries, which patrons can order, pick up, and drop off materials at any of the participating libraries. The Old Mill also got a face lift; it was rebuilt to the same specifications of the original in 1991. The 1990s also saw another influx of affluence. Many new homeowners gutted homes built in the 19th and early 20th centuries, or tore them down all together.
The dawn of the new millennium brought reflection on the past, as the city celebrated 100 years of incorporation. Soon after Mill Valley got its brand new Community Center at 180 Camino Alto, adjacent to Mill Valley Middle School
Mill Valley Middle School
Mill Valley Middle School is a middle school including sixth to eighth grade located in Mill Valley, California. It is part of the Mill Valley School District. Students from the district's five elementary schools attend Mill Valley Middle School. Students from this school are in the attendance...
. On January 31, 2008, Mill Valley's sewage treatment plant spilled 2.45 million gallons of sewage
Sewage
Sewage is water-carried waste, in solution or suspension, that is intended to be removed from a community. Also known as wastewater, it is more than 99% water and is characterized by volume or rate of flow, physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains...
into the San Francisco Bay. This marked the second such spill in Mill Valley within a week (the previous one spilled 2.7 million gallons), and the most recent of several that occurred in Marin County in early 2008. Mill Valley's treatment plant attributed the spills to "human error". The spills caused distress in Mill Valley's administrative government, which remains outspoken about "dedicating itself to the protection of air quality, waste reduction, water and energy conservation, and the protection of wildlife and habitat" in Mill Valley.
Geography
According to the United States Census BureauUnited States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
the city has a total area of 4.8 square miles (12.4 km²), of which 4.7 square miles (12.2 km²) is land and 0.1 square mile (0.258998811 km²) of (1.74%) water.
The Mill Valley 94941 area lies between Mt. Tamalpais on the west, the city of Tiburon on the east,the City of Corte Madera on the north, and the Golden Gate National Recreational Area (GGNRA) on the south. Two streams flow from the slopes of Mt. Tamalpais through Mill Valley to the bay: the Arroyo Corte Madera del Presidio; and Cascade Creek. Mill Valley is surrounded by hundreds of acres (hectares) of state
Mount Tamalpais
Mount Tamalpais is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Mount Tamalpais Watershed.-Geography:...
, federal, and county
Marin Headlands
The Marin Headlands is a hilly area at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The Headlands are located just north of San Francisco, immediately across the Golden Gate Bridge. The entire area is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area...
park lands. In addition, there are many municipally maintained open-space reserves, parks, and coastal habitats which, when taken together, ensconce Mill Valley in a natural wilderness. This close and constant proximity to nature has left generations of Mill Valley residents with a strong sense of conservancy toward much of this natural environment. This unique cultural attitude, along with the many natural public spaces preserved within (see below) and around its borders, combine to form one of the main cultural cornerstones that has always defined Mill Valley.
Mill Valley has a number of scenic and natural features which provides significant habitat
Habitat
* Habitat , a place where a species lives and grows*Human habitat, a place where humans live, work or play** Space habitat, a space station intended as a permanent settlement...
for fishes, marine mammals, and other biota. Notable areas of public access to experience these aquatic preserves can be found at:
Mill Valley and the Homestead Valley Land Trust maintains many minimally disturbed wildland areas and preserves which are open to the public from sunrise to dusk everyday. Several nature trails allow access as well as providing gateway access to neighboring state and federal park lands, and the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed wildland on the broad eastern face of Mt. Tamalpais that overlooks Mill Valley. These are undeveloped natural areas and contain many species of wild animals, including some large predators like the coyote
Coyote
The coyote , also known as the American jackal or the prairie wolf, is a species of canine found throughout North and Central America, ranging from Panama in the south, north through Mexico, the United States and Canada...
, the bobcat
Bobcat
The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...
, and the cougar. As in all wildland areas, observe daytime access hours, keep dogs on leashes, and keep younger children from wandering about unattended. One may also want to familiarize themselves with how to live and recreate among cougars, coyotes, and bobcats prior to visiting these wildland areas.
- Cascade Falls Park—A natural forested park that spans an area between the western stretches of Cascade Drive and Lovell Ave.
- Blithedale Summit Open Space Preserve—located up West Blithdale Ave.
- Tennessee Valley—located in Tamalpais Valley, off Shoreline Highway
- Alto Bowl Open Space Preserve—located 1.2 miles (1.9 km) up Camino Alto
- Camino Alto Open Space Preserve—located 1/2 mile (800 m) up Camino Alto, up Overhill Rd.
Climate
Mill Valley has a mild Mediterranean climateMediterranean climate
A Mediterranean climate is the climate typical of most of the lands in the Mediterranean Basin, and is a particular variety of subtropical climate...
which results in relatively wet winters and very dry summers. Winter lows rarely drop below freezing and summer highs rarely peak 90 °F (32.2 °C) with 90% of the annual rain falling in November through March. Wind speeds average lower than national averages in winter months and higher in summer, and often become quite gusty in the canyon regions of town. California coastal fog
Fog
Fog is a collection of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. While fog is a type of stratus cloud, the term "fog" is typically distinguished from the more generic term "cloud" in that fog is low-lying, and the moisture in the fog is often generated...
often affects Mill Valley, making relative humidity highly variable. The wetter winter months tend to make for a more consistent daily relative humidity around 70-90% (slightly higher than US averages). During the summer months, however, while the morning fog often keeps morning humidity normal, in a typical 70-80% range, by afternoon after the fog burns off, the humidity regularly plummets to around 30% as one would expect in this dry seasonal climate.
Mill Valley is also affected by microclimate
Microclimate
A microclimate is a local atmospheric zone where the climate differs from the surrounding area. The term may refer to areas as small as a few square feet or as large as many square miles...
conditions in the several box canyons with steep north-facing slopes and dense forests which span the southern and western city limits, which, along with the coastal fog, all conspire to make many of the dense forested regions of Mill Valley noticeably cooler and moister, on average, than other regions of town. This microclimate is what makes for the favorable ecology required by the Coastal Redwood forests which still cover much of the town and surrounding area, and have played such a pivotal role throughout the history of Mill Valley.
2010
The 2010 United States Census reported that Mill Valley had a population of 13,903. The population densityPopulation density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 2,868.2 people per square mile (1,107.4/km²). The racial makeup of Mill Valley was 12,341 (88.8%) White, 118 (0.8%) African American, 23 (0.2%) Native American, 755 (5.4%) Asian, 14 (0.1%) Pacific Islander, 152 (1.1%) from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 500 (3.6%) from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 622 persons (4.5%).
The Census reported that 99.5% of the population lived in households and 0.5% were institutionalized.
There were 6,084 households, out of which 1,887 (31.0%) had children under the age of 18 living in them, 2,984 (49.0%) were opposite-sex married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 465 (7.6%) had a female householder with no husband present, 178 (2.9%) had a male householder with no wife present. There were 306 (5.0%) unmarried opposite-sex partnerships
POSSLQ
POSSLQ is an abbreviation for "Persons of Opposite Sex Sharing Living Quarters," a term coined in the late 1970s by the United States Census Bureau as part of an effort to more accurately gauge the prevalence of cohabitation in American households....
, and 55 (0.9%) same-sex married couples or partnerships. 2,016 households (33.1%) were made up of individuals and 888 (14.6%) had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27. There were 3,627 families
Family (U.S. Census)
A family or family household is defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes as "a householder and one or more other people related to the householder by birth, marriage, or adoption. They do not include same-sex married couples even if the marriage was performed in a state...
(59.6% of all households); the average family size was 2.94.
The population was spread out with 3,291 people (23.7%) under the age of 18, 459 people (3.3%) aged 18 to 24, 2,816 people (20.3%) aged 25 to 44, 4,714 people (33.9%) aged 45 to 64, and 2,623 people (18.9%) who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 46.6 years. For every 100 females there were 85.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 80.8 males.
There were 6,534 housing units at an average density of 1,348.0 per square mile (520.4/km²), of which 3,974 (65.3%) were owner-occupied, and 2,110 (34.7%) were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.2%; the rental vacancy rate was 4.5%. 9,861 people (70.9% of the population) lived in owner-occupied housing units and 3,966 people (28.5%) lived in rental housing units.
2000
At the 2000 censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, there were 13,600 people, 6,147 households and 3,417 families residing in the city, not including those living in unincorporated territories. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 2,883.1 inhabitants per square mile (1,112.5/km²). There were 6,286 housing units at an average density of 1,332.6 per square mile (514.2/km²). The racial makeup of the city in 2010 was 85.8% non-Hispanic White, 0.8% non-Hispanic African American, 0.1% Native American, 5.3% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 3.1% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.5% of the population.
There were 6,147 households of which 27.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.2% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 7.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 44.4% were non-families. 34.1% of all households were made up of individuals and 12.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.20 and the average family size was 2.85.
21.2% of the population was under the age of 18, 2.9% from 18 to 24, 28.1% from 25 to 44, 32.5% from 45 to 64, and 15.4% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 86.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 82.5 males.
The median household income
Median household income
The median household income is commonly used to generate data about geographic areas and divides households into two equal segments with the first half of households earning less than the median household income and the other half earning more...
was $90,794, and the median family income was $119,669. Males had a median income of $94,800 versus $52,088 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the city was $64,179. About 2.7% of families and 4.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 3.6% of those under age 18 and 5.7% of those age 65 or over. The median single-family home price in the city was $1,500,000 in January 2005.
Cityscape
The combination of Mill Valley's idyllic location nestled beneath Mount TamalpaisMount Tamalpais
Mount Tamalpais is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Mount Tamalpais Watershed.-Geography:...
coupled with its ease of access to nearby San Francisco has made it a popular home for many high-income commuters
Commuting
Commuting is regular travel between one's place of residence and place of work or full time study. It sometimes refers to any regular or often repeated traveling between locations when not work related.- History :...
. Over the last 20 years, following a trend that is endemic throughout the Bay Area, home prices have climbed in Mill Valley (the median price for a single-family home is in excess of $1.5 million as of 2005), which has had the effect of pushing out some earlier residents who can no longer afford to live in the area. This trend has also transformed Mill Valley's commercial activity, e.g. Village Music (see below) was replaced in 2008 by more luxury-oriented commercial establishments: a cupcake shop and a dog salon.
In July 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine ranked Mill Valley tenth on its list of the 100 Best Places to Live in the United States. In 2007, MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
and Forbes magazine ranked Mill Valley seventy-third on its "Most expensive zip codes in America" list.
While Mill Valley has retained elements of its earlier artistic culture through galleries, festivals, and performances, its stock of affordable housing has diminished, forcing some residents to leave the area. This trend has also affected some of the city's well-known cultural centers like Village Music. and the Sweetwater Saloon
Sweetwater Saloon
Located in Mill Valley, California, Sweetwater was a bar/tavern with a 30 year history of live musical performances by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia, The String Cheese Incident, John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana, plus many others. There were typically at least 4 to 5...
. As of April 2007, only one affordable housing project was underway: an initiative to raze and rebuild an abandoned motel called the Fireside.
Neighborhoods and unincorporated CDPs
Strawberry is an unincorporated Census-designated PlaceCensus-designated place
A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
to the east of the City of Mill Valley. Other CDPs with Mill Valley mailing addresses include Tamalpais-Homestead Valley and Muir Beach
Muir Beach, California
Muir Beach is a census-designated place , unincorporated community, and beach that is located northwest of San Francisco in western Marin County, California, United States...
. Smaller unincorporated areas include Alto
Alto, Mill Valley, California
Alto is a census-designated place adjacent to Mill Valley in Marin County, California. It lies at an elevation of 26 feet . The population was 711 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
and Almonte
Almonte, California
Almonte is an unincorporated community in Marin County, California. It is located on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad south of downtown San Rafael, at an elevation of 20 feet ....
.
Neighborhoods in Mill Valley:
| Almonte Almonte, California Almonte is an unincorporated community in Marin County, California. It is located on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad south of downtown San Rafael, at an elevation of 20 feet .... |
"Alto Alto, Mill Valley, California Alto is a census-designated place adjacent to Mill Valley in Marin County, California. It lies at an elevation of 26 feet . The population was 711 at the 2010 census.-Geography:... " Sutton Manor |
Blithedale Canyon | Boyle Park | Cascade Canyon | Country Club | Downtown | East Blithedale Corridor |
| Edgewood Cypress | Enchanted Knolls | Eucalyptus Knolls | Homestead Valley | Kite Hill | Land of Peter Pan | Marin Terrace | Marin View |
| Middle Ridge | Mill Valley Heights | Mill Valley Meadows | Miller Avenue | Molino Edgewood | Muir Woods | Old Mill | Panoramic Highway |
| Scott Highlands | Scott Valley | Sequoia Valley | Shelter Bay | Shelter Ridge | Strawberry Strawberry Fragaria is a genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, commonly known as strawberries for their edible fruits. Although it is commonly thought that strawberries get their name from straw being used as a mulch in cultivating the plants, the etymology of the word is uncertain. There... |
Sycamore | Sycamore Park |
| Tam Junction | Tamalpais Valley | Tamalpais Park | Tennessee Valley | Vernal Heights | Warner Canyon |
City recreational parks
Mill Valley maintains many recreational parks which often contain playgrounds and other designated areas specifically designed for playing various sports. Dogs are required to be on leashes in all but one of these parks, which is specifically designated a dog park to allow the option of off-leash exercise.Mill Valley has a costly but popular "steps, lanes, and paths program" that provides improved pedestrian access between many of the winding and twisting residential roads that cover the hillsides. Blue stencils on the roadway mark certain paths as potential emergency escape routes from the fire prone hills. A picture book, although not entirely accurately, shows the paths, "Steps, Lanes and Paths of Mill Valley". In 2009 resident Matt Connelly threatened litigation alleging that some of the proposed paths represent a seizure of private property (even though some antique maps suggest that certain potential easements could be thought of as the justification for future steps, lanes, or paths)..
For those who prefer to enjoy nature from the comfort of a chair, the city's public library is nestled in a serene and scenic location at the edge of Old Mill Park where visitors may relax indoors near the wood-burning fireplace and view the redwood forest through the library's multi-storied windows, or from the outside deck which overlooks the park and Cascade Creek.
Nature trails
- Tenderfoot Trail (1.5 miles) -- Lower trail head is on Cascade Drive between Cascade Falls park and the lower trail head of the Zigzag trail. The upper trail head is at Edgewood Ave., near Mountain Home Inn. This upper trail head provides access to the Edgewood trail, and also provides gateway access to the upper region of Muir Woods, Tamalpais State Park near the Alice Eastwood Campsite access road, and the main southern access point Mt. Tamalpais Watershed (near the Throckmorton Ridge Fire Station).
- Zigzag Trail (1/2 mile, steep climb) -- This is a very steep trail which has an upper trail head near the Throckmorton Ridge Fire Station and the Mountain Home Inn with gateway access to the upper region of Muir Woods, Tamalpais State Park near the Alice Eastwood Campsite access road, and the main southern access point Mt. Tamalpais Watershed (near the Throckmorton Ridge Fire Station). The lower trail head is near the western end of Cascade Drive, west of Cascade Falls Park and the lower Tenderfoot Trail head.
- Cypress Trail (1 mile) -- runs between the end of Cypress Ave. and the middle of the Tenderfoot Trail. Cypress Avenue leads to Edgewood Blvd. Going down Edgewood leads to the top of Dipsea trail stairs and Cowboy Rock Trail head, and uphill on Edgewood lead to the Edgewood Trail.
- Edgewood Trail (1/2 mile)(aka Pipeline trail) -- runs between the two parts of Edgewood Ave. and provides access to the upper Tenderfoot trail head or, if one follows Edgewood Ave. out to the Mountain Home Inn, leads to a gateway access to the upper region of Muir Woods, Tamalpais State Park near the Alice Eastwood Campsite access road, and the main southern access point Mt. Tamalpais Watershed (near the Throckmorton Ridge Fire Station)
- Cowboy Rock Trail (1/4 mile) -- part of the Homestead Valley Land Trust, the upper trail head is at Edgewood and Sequoia Valley Road intersection, across the street from where the Dipsea trail stairs from downtown end. This path leads to the Homestead Trail and to the path/stairs down to Stolte Grove and the western tip of Homestead ValleyTamalpais-Homestead Valley, CaliforniaTamalpais-Homestead Valley is a census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States. The population was 10,735 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
. - Pixie Trail (1/2 mile) -- part of the Homestead Valley Land Trust, this trail has several trail heads. On the upper end the trail head is at Marion Ave, (upper portion) Ridgewood Ave., and Edgewood Ave. intersect. The Pixie Trail also has a mid-access point, where the Pixie Trail becomes paved and developed. The street runs down hill to Stolte Grove. The trail continues on and connects to any of three other trail heads. The first head is at the five way intersection of Molino Ave, Edgewood Ave, Cape Ct, and Mirabel Ave. The second head leads to the end of Seymour lane which is a short road off of Edgewood Ave. Crossing Edgewood, the path continues down a set of stairs to Ethel Ave and the Una Way staircase down to Miller Ave. The third and final head ends at Janes Street, down the way from Molino Avenue Park.
- Homestead Trail (1 mile) -- part of the Homestead Valley Land trust, this longer winding trail traverses the western slope of Homestead ValleyTamalpais-Homestead Valley, CaliforniaTamalpais-Homestead Valley is a census-designated place in Marin County, California, United States. The population was 10,735 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
itself. It is not well delineated or maintained in parts. It has several other trail heads that leads up into Tamalpais State Park near the "four-corners" intersection, as well as down into the valley via (lower portion) Ridgeview Ave. and Ferndale Ave. - Dipsea Trail (7.1 miles) The most famous hike in Marin County is the Dipsea Trail, a challenging route beginning with three long, steep stairways leading up from Old Mill Park and ending at Stinson Beach 7.1 miles (11.4 km) later. The annual Dipsea RaceDipsea RaceThe Dipsea Race is the oldest cross-country trail running event—and one of the oldest foot races of any kind—in the United States. The 7.5 mile long Dipsea Race has been held annually almost every year since 1905, starting in Mill Valley, and finishing at Stinson Beach, in Marin County,...
is in June, although the trail can be run or hiked any time. The West Marin Stagecoach is a bus that runs from Stinson Beach back to Mill Valley, stopping approximately one mile from downtown.http://www.marintransit.org/local.html The Dipsea Trail is not well marked, so first timers should consider carrying a guidebook. - Muir Woods to Bootjack Trail (6.3 miles) This trail is a loop that will take around 3.5 hours and popular among tourists due to the first hour among the redwood trees. Bootjack is accessible from here, transitioning to meadows with bridges and streams. Bootjack itself is 2.2 miles (3.5 km) long, moderate uphill and great for the average hiker.
Public schools
Mill Valley School District
The Mill Valley School District is located 13 miles north of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, California. The district has 5 elementary schools and 1 middle school with an enrollment of approximately 2,200 students in grades K through 8...
. There are five elementary schools and one middle school, Mill Valley Middle School
Mill Valley Middle School
Mill Valley Middle School is a middle school including sixth to eighth grade located in Mill Valley, California. It is part of the Mill Valley School District. Students from the district's five elementary schools attend Mill Valley Middle School. Students from this school are in the attendance...
, a four-time winner of the California Distinguished School
California Distinguished School
A California Distinguished School is an award given by the California State Board of Education to public schools within the state that best represent exemplary and quality educational programs. Approximately five percent of California schools are awarded this honor each year following a selection...
Award. The public high school, Tamalpais High School
Tamalpais High School
Tamalpais High School is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises more than above Mill Valley....
, is part of the Tamalpais Union High School District
Tamalpais Union High School District
The Tamalpais Union High School District or TUHSD provides high school education to students residing in ten elementary districts in central and southern Marin County, California and parts of West Marin: Bolinas-Stinson Union, Kentfield, Lagunitas, Larkspur, Mill Valley, Nicasio, Reed Union, Ross,...
, whose five campuses serve central and southern Marin County. Marin Horizon School is an independent school
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
serving students in grades PK-8. Founded in 1977, the school enrolls approximately 285 students.
Mill Valley Public Library
The municipal library overlooks Old Mill Park and provides many picturesque reading locations, as well as free computer and Internet access. Recently they have begun offering Museum Passes to 94941 residents for free entry to Bay Area museums. As part of the City of Mill Valley's decision to "go Green", the library has a Sustainability Collection with books and DVDs with information about how to become more environmentally friendly.The Mill Valley Public Library is also home to the Lucretia Hanson Little History Room. It has thousands of books, photographs, newspapers, pamphlets, artifacts, and oral histories on the history of California, Marin County, and Mill Valley. It is staffed almost entirely by volunteers. As of 2009, the History Room is in the midst of a digitization project wherein all documents are being scanned and digitized. Eventually the History Room will have all of their documents and artifacts available for public perusal on an online database. It also has a Twitter account, @MVHistoryRoom where updates, historical information, and new acquisitions are posted.
Annual events
Mill Valley is the home of several annual events, many of which attract national and international followings:- Dipsea RaceDipsea RaceThe Dipsea Race is the oldest cross-country trail running event—and one of the oldest foot races of any kind—in the United States. The 7.5 mile long Dipsea Race has been held annually almost every year since 1905, starting in Mill Valley, and finishing at Stinson Beach, in Marin County,...
- The Mountain PlayMountain PlayThe Mountain Play Association is a 5013 organization responsible for the production of theatrical events at the Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheatre on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. The stone amphitheatre, named for the owner of the railroad company which constructed the Mount Tamalpais...
- Mill Valley Film FestivalMill Valley Film FestivalThe Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...
- Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival
- Mill Valley Shakespeare in Old Mill Park Amphitheater
Arts and crafts in Mill Valley
Mill Valley is known for being a village with a strong artistic heritage. A visitor to downtown Mill Valley will discover many art galleries, open-air coffee shops, and other hallmarks of a thriving artistic community. In addition, the town has sponsored the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival for over fifty years and also the Mill Valley Film FestivalMill Valley Film Festival
The Mill Valley Film Festival is an annual, non-competitive film festival presented by the California Film Institute. Known as a filmmakers’ festival, the annual Mill Valley Film Festival offers a non-competitive environment for exhibiting independent and world cinema.Founded in 1978 by MVFF...
, which is part of the California Film Institute
California Film Institute
The California Film Institute presents the annual Mill Valley Film Festival; and exhibits films year-round at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center.-Programming:...
, for over thirty years. In addition, Mill Valley's Chamber of Commerce has sponsored the annual Gourmet Food and Wine Tasting in Lytton Square for many years.
Theater arts also have a huge following in Mill Valley. In addition to supporting the local 142 Throckmorton Theatre, which hosts theater of all levels, Mill Valley is also home for the Marin Theatre Company, and the Mountain Play Association which hosts annual musical productions in the Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheater
Mountain Play
The Mountain Play Association is a 5013 organization responsible for the production of theatrical events at the Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheatre on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County, California. The stone amphitheatre, named for the owner of the railroad company which constructed the Mount Tamalpais...
located in Mill Valley's neighboring Mount Tamalpais State Park
Mount Tamalpais State Park
Mount Tamalpais State Park is a California state park, located in Marin County, California. The primary feature of the park is the Mount Tamalpais. The park contains mostly redwood and oak forests. The mountain itself covers around . There are about of hiking trails, which are connected to a...
. For several years the Curtain Theatre Group has also been performing annual free Shakespeare plays among the redwoods on the Old Mill Park Amphitheatre behind the Mill Valley Library.
Music, novels, television and movies
Mill Valley has also been home to many musicians, authors, actors, and TV personalities. Jerry GarciaJerry Garcia
Jerome John "Jerry" Garcia was an American musician best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead...
— who recorded music in a Mill Valley recording studio — also once called Mill Valley home. John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
summered in a Mill Valley home on Lovell Ave. near the library in the early 1970s, having left some of his own graffiti on the wall of the residence "The Maya the Merrier". Other rock stars such as Michael Bloomfield
Mike Bloomfield
Michael Bernard "Mike" Bloomfield was an American musician, guitarist, and composer, born in Chicago, Illinois, who became one of the first popular music superstars of the 1960s to earn his reputation almost entirely on his instrumental prowess, since he rarely sang before 1969–70...
, Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis
Huey Lewis is an American musician, songwriter and occasional actor.Lewis sings lead and plays harmonica for his band Huey Lewis and the News, in addition to writing or co-writing many of the band's songs...
, Bob Weir
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, most recognized as a founding member of the Grateful Dead. After the Grateful Dead disbanded in 1995, Weir performed with The Other Ones, later known as The Dead, together with other former members of the Grateful Dead...
, Lee Michaels
Lee Michaels
Lee Michaels plays the Hammond organ, piano, and guitar , and is best known for his 1971 Top 10 pop hit single, "Do You Know What I Mean."-Career:...
, Sammy Hagar
Sammy Hagar
Sam Roy "Sammy" Hagar , also known as The Red Rocker, is an American rock singer, guitarist, and songwriter. Also sings Country Music....
, Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
, Pete Sears
Pete Sears
Peter 'Pete' Sears is an English rock musician. In a career spanning more than four decades he has been a member of many bands and has moved through a variety of musical genres, from early R&B, psychedelic improvisational rock of the 1960s, folk, country music, arena rock in the 1970s, and blues...
, Clarence Clemons
Clarence Clemons
Clarence Anicholas Clemons, Jr. , also known as The Big Man, was an American musician and actor. From 1972 until his death, he was a prominent member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band, playing the tenor saxophone. He released several solo albums and in 1985, had a hit single with "You're a...
, John and Mario Cipollina, and Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...
have also called this small town home. The composer John Anthony Lennon
John Anthony Lennon
John Anthony Lennon is an American composer of contemporary classical music based in Georgia. He was raised in Mill Valley, California, and is a professor of composition at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia...
was raised in Mill Valley. Authors such as Wright Morris
Wright Morris
Wright Marion Morris was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms. Wright Morris died April 25, 1998 at the age of 88 years. He is...
and Jack London
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
have also lived here, as does Joyce Maynard
Joyce Maynard
Daphne Joyce Maynard is an American author known for writing with candor about her life, as well as for her works of fiction and hundreds of essays and newspaper columns, often about parenting and family...
. Actors Peter Coyote
Peter Coyote
Peter Coyote is an American actor, author, director, screenwriter and narrator of films, theatre, television and audio books. His voice work includes narrating the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics and Apple's iPad campaign. He has also served as on-camera co-host of the 2000 Oscar...
, Dana Carvey
Dana Carvey
Dana Thomas Carvey is an American actor and stand-up comedian, best known for his work as a cast member on Saturday Night Live and for playing the role of Garth in the Wayne's World movies.-Early life:...
, Jill Eikenberry
Jill Eikenberry
Jill Eikenberry is an American film, stage, and television actress. She is best known for her role as lawyer Ann Kelsey in L.A. Law...
, Kathleen Quinlan
Kathleen Quinlan
Kathleen Denise Quinlan is an Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominated American actress, mostly seen on television and in motion pictures.-Personal life:...
, Michael Tucker
Michael Tucker (actor)
Michael Tucker is an American actor and author, most widely known for his role in L.A. Law, a portrayal for which he received Emmy nominations three years in a row....
, and it was the place of birth for actors Eve Arden
Eve Arden
Eve Arden was an American actress. Her almost 60-year career crossed most media frontiers with supporting and leading roles, but she may be best-remembered for playing the sardonic but engaging title character, a high school teacher, on Our Miss Brooks, and as the Rydell High School principal in...
, Mariel Hemingway
Mariel Hemingway
- Early life :Hemingway was born in Mill Valley, California, the third daughter of Byra Louise Hemingway and Jack Hemingway, a writer. Her sisters are Joan Hemingway and Margaux Hemingway...
and Jonah Hill
Jonah Hill
Jonah Hill Feldstein , known professionally as Jonah Hill, is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, and comedian. Hill is best known roles for his roles in Superbad, Knocked Up, and Get Him to the Greek. He made his theatrical debut in I Heart Huckabees, alongside Jason Schwartzman and Dustin...
. Celebrity chef Tyler Florence
Tyler Florence
Tyler Florence is a chef and television host of several Food Network shows. He graduated from the College of Culinary Arts at the Charleston, South Carolina campus of Johnson & Wales University in 1991...
, Pixar Animation Studios' Andrew Stanton
Andrew Stanton
Andrew Stanton is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and occasional voice actor based at Pixar Animation Studios. His film work includes writing and directing Finding Nemo and WALL-E; both films earned him the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.-Life and career:Stanton was...
and former women's basketball star Jennifer Azzi
Jennifer Azzi
Jennifer Lynn Azzi is the head coach of the women's basketball team at the University of San Francisco. Azzi is a former collegiate and professional basketball player.-College years:...
also call Mill Valley home. Former naval aviator Dieter Dengler
Dieter Dengler
Dieter Dengler was a United States Navy Naval aviator during the Vietnam War. He was one of the two survivors , out of seven, to escape from a Pathet Lao prison camp in Laos. He was rescued after 23 days on the run, and was the first captured U.S...
built a home on Mount Tamalpais near the Mountain Home Inn and lived there until his death in 2001; parts of the biographical documentary about him, Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
Little Dieter Needs to Fly is a 1997 documentary film made for German television, written and directed by Werner Herzog, produced by Werner Herzog Filmproduktion. The film was released to DVD in 1998 by Anchor Bay.-Summary:...
were filmed there. Author John Gray
John Gray (U.S. author)
John Gray is an American relationship counselor, lecturer and author who has several university degrees received under a variety of circumstances. In 1969, he began a nine year association with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi before beginning his career as an author and personal relationship counselor...
who writes the Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is a book written by American author, and relationship counselor, John Gray.The book has sold more than 7 million copies and is reported to be one of the best selling self-help books of all time...
books is a long time Mill Valley resident. Preventive medicine physician, John Travis, founded the first wellness center in the US at 42 Miller Avenue in 1975.
In fiction, character B.J. Hunnicutt from the TV show M*A*S*H called Mill Valley home, and fictional character Charley Furuseth in Jack London's
Jack London
John Griffith "Jack" London was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the then-burgeoning world of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to obtain worldwide celebrity and a large fortune from his fiction alone...
1904 novel The Sea-Wolf
The Sea-Wolf
The Sea-Wolf is a 1904 psychological adventure novel by American novelist Jack London about a literary critic, survivor of an ocean collision who comes under the dominance of Wolf Larsen, the powerful and amoral sea captain who rescues him...
, apparently had a summer cottage here. In the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
universe, it is home to the 602 Club. It is also the setting for resident author Jack Finney's
Jack Finney
Jack Finney was an American author. His best-known works are science fiction and thrillers, including The Body Snatchers and Time and Again. The former was the basis for the 1956 movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers and its remakes.-Biography:Finney was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and given the...
1954 novel The Body Snatchers
The Body Snatchers
The Body Snatchers is a 1955 science fiction novel by Jack Finney, originally serialized in Colliers Magazine in 1954, which describes the fictional town of Santa Mira, California being invaded by seeds that have drifted to Earth from space...
, although the 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956 film)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a 1956 US-American science fiction film directed by Don Siegel, starring Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter. Daniel Mainwaring adapted the screenplay from Jack Finney's novel The Body Snatchers...
, and subsequent movie versions of the book have been set elsewhere. Fictional character Doris Martin from the TV show The Doris Day Show
The Doris Day Show
The Doris Day Show is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS network from September 1968 until September 1973. In addition to showcasing Doris Day, the show is remembered for its many abrupt format changes over the course of its five-year run...
called Mill Valley home as well. In the syndicated version of Too Close For Comfort
Too Close for Comfort (TV series)
Too Close for Comfort is an American television sitcom which ran on the ABC network and later in first-run syndication from November 11, 1980 to September 27, 1986. It was modeled after the British series Keep It in the Family, which debuted nine months before Too Close for Comfort debuted in the U.S...
, Henry and Muriel Rush got their jobs at the Marin Bugler newspaper in Mill Valley.
Writer Jack Kerouac
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis "Jack" Lebris de Kerouac was an American novelist and poet. He is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Kerouac is recognized for his spontaneous method of writing, covering topics such as Catholic...
and beat poet Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder
Gary Snyder is an American poet , as well as an essayist, lecturer, and environmental activist . Snyder is a winner of a Pulitzer Prize for Poetry...
shared a Mill Valley cabin in 1955-56 around 370 Montford Ave. in Homestead Valley. The cabin's coincidental location in Marin County and its adjacent location to a meadow where horses grazed, combined with Snyder's expertise in Asian languages and cultures, lead to Snyder naming the cabin "Marin-An", which is Japanese for "Horse Grove Hermitage". It was during this stay in Mill Valley that Kerouac's recent budding interest in Zen Buddhism was greatly expanded by Snyder's expertise in the subject. Kerouac's 1958 novel, The Dharma Bums
The Dharma Bums
The Dharma Bums is a 1958 novel by Beat Generation author Jack Kerouac. The semi-fictional accounts in the novel are based upon events that occurred years after the events of On the Road...
, was consequently composed while living here and contains many semi-fictionalized accounts of the lives of Kerouac and Snyder while living at Marin-An.
American writer Cyra McFadden
Cyra McFadden
Cyra McFadden is an American writer, living in the San Francisco Bay Area.McFadden's 1977 novel The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County satirized the trendy lifestyles of the affluent residents of Marin County, California, just north of San Francisco...
, while living in Mill Valley in the 1970s, wrote a column for the Pacific Sun newspaper entitled, "The Serial", which satirized the trendy lifestyles of the affluent residents of Marin County. In 1977, she turned her column ideas into a novel called The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County
The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County
The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County is a satirical novel about Marin County, California, written by Cyra McFadden . Beginning in 1976, the book's chapters had been serialized in the Marin County alternative newspaper, Pacific Sun...
which focused on the fictional exploits of a Mill Valley couple, Kate and Harvey Holroyd, who never quite fit in to the Marin 'Scene.' The highly successful book was later made into a 1980 comedy called Serial
Serial (1980 film)
Serial is a comedy film from 1980 produced by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay, by Rich Eustis and Michael Elias, is drawn from the novel The Serial: A Year in the Life of Marin County by Cyra McFadden, published in 1977...
, starring Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld
Tuesday Weld is an American actress.Weld began her acting career as a child, and progressed to more mature roles during the late 1950s. She won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Female Newcomer in 1960...
and Martin Mull
Martin Mull
Martin Mull is an American actor who has starred in his own television sitcom and acted in prominent films. He is also a comedian, painter, and recording artist...
.
The song "Mill Valley", recorded in 1970 and released on the album Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point 4th Grade Class
Rita Abrams
Rita Abrams is an American songwriter, performer and writer. Her song "Mill Valley", recorded with children at the school where she was teaching, was released under the name Miss Abrams and the Strawberry Point Third Grade Class in 1970, becoming a Billboard Hot 100 hit and being nominated for a...
, reached #90 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
. While the school is in the Mill Valley School District, it is not within the city limits.
Richard Laymon
Richard Laymon
Richard Carl Laymon was an American author of suspense and horror fiction, particularly within the splatterpunk subgenre. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and lived as a child in California...
, the American horror author, set his novel The Lake primarily in Mill Valley. Other Laymon novels are also either set in or mention Mill Valley.
The Tamalpais High School
Tamalpais High School
Tamalpais High School is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises more than above Mill Valley....
Marching Band appeared in the 1969
1969 in film
The year 1969 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Last year for prize giving at the Venice Film Festival until it is revived in 1980...
Woody Allen
Woody Allen
Woody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
film Take The Money and Run
Take the Money and Run
Take the Money and Run is a 1969 comedy film written by Woody Allen and Mickey Rose, and directed by and starring Woody Allen. It is an early mockumentary, chronicling the life of Virgil Starkwell, a bungling petty thief...
. In the 1973
1973 in film
The year 1973 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces his second wife, Barbara Blakely. Blakely would later marry actor/singer Frank Sinatra....
George Lucas
George Lucas
George Walton Lucas, Jr. is an American film producer, screenwriter, and director, and entrepreneur. He is the founder, chairman and chief executive of Lucasfilm. He is best known as the creator of the space opera franchise Star Wars and the archaeologist-adventurer character Indiana Jones...
film American Graffiti
American Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
, the 'sock hop' dance scenes were filmed in the high school's boys gymnasium.
The television show Quantum Leap filmed episode 406 in Mill Valley in 1991.
A now defunct band named Abi Yoyos resided in Mill Valley, and named one of their albums after the town.
In March 2009, the pilot for NBC's Parenthood filmed a few scenes at Boyle Park.
1974: Jenny Fulle first girl to play Little League
Little League Baseball specifically banned girls from participating in 1951 and had successfully defended this gender discrimination many times in court. In 1972, President Nixon signed Title IXTitle IX
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 is a United States law, enacted on June 23, 1972, that amended Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 2002 it was renamed the Patsy T. Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act, in honor of its principal author Congresswoman Mink, but is most...
into law, which prohibited gender discrimination in any area of education. Since Little League depended upon public school facilities for practice and games, Title IX made the boys-only policy illegal. Jenny Fulle of Mill Valley was first banned from playing Little League upon registration in 1973, but after her was written about in the Mill Valley Record, it quickly attracted national attention and the support of National Organization for Women
National Organization for Women
The National Organization for Women is the largest feminist organization in the United States. It was founded in 1966 and has a membership of 500,000 contributing members. The organization consists of 550 chapters in all 50 U.S...
and the American Civil Liberties Union
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union is a U.S. non-profit organization whose stated mission is "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States." It works through litigation, legislation, and...
. In 1974, Jenny Fulle won a superior court ruling under Title IX which allowed her to become the first girl in the nation to play Little League. In 1975, the year after she played her first season, Little League permanently changed its national policy, allowing girls to participate.
Points of interest
- Muir Woods
- Mount TamalpaisMount TamalpaisMount Tamalpais is a peak in Marin County, California, United States, often considered symbolic of Marin County. Much of Mount Tamalpais is protected within public lands such as Mount Tamalpais State Park and the Mount Tamalpais Watershed.-Geography:...
- Edgewood Botanic GardenEdgewood Botanic GardenThe Edgewood Botanic Garden is a small botanical garden of less than 1 acre located at 436 Edgewood Avenue, on the southeastern side of Mount Tamalpais near the intersection of Edgewood with Cypress Avenue, in Mill Valley, California, USA. It is dedicated to the native plants of the region but is...
- Richardson BayRichardson BayRichardson Bay is a shallow, ecologically rich arm of San Francisco Bay, managed under a Joint Powers Agency of four Northern California cities. The Richardson Bay Sanctuary was acquired in the early 1960s by the National Audubon Society. The bay was named for William A...
- Golden Gate Baptist Theological SeminaryGolden Gate Baptist Theological SeminaryGolden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary is one of six official Southern Baptist seminaries. The main campus is located in Mill Valley, California.- History :...
- Sweetwater SaloonSweetwater SaloonLocated in Mill Valley, California, Sweetwater was a bar/tavern with a 30 year history of live musical performances by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia, The String Cheese Incident, John Lee Hooker, Carlos Santana, plus many others. There were typically at least 4 to 5...
- Evicted from its 30 year home in September 2007 - Mill Valley School DistrictMill Valley School DistrictThe Mill Valley School District is located 13 miles north of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, California. The district has 5 elementary schools and 1 middle school with an enrollment of approximately 2,200 students in grades K through 8...
- Tamalpais High SchoolTamalpais High SchoolTamalpais High School is a public secondary school located in Mill Valley, California. It is named after nearby Mount Tamalpais, which rises more than above Mill Valley....
- Old Mill School
- 142 Throckmorton Theatre
- Mill Valley Air Force StationMill Valley Air Force StationThe AN/FPS-107 search radar operated with a 360° continuous spin, at a rate of 5 rotations per minute. It transmitted ten megawatt pulses of radio frequency energy, with each pulse having a duration of six microseconds. It had a detection range of 250 miles, up to an altitude of 100,000 feet...
- Mill Valley Masonic Events Center
- Mill Valley Islamic Center
External links
- Mill Valley Public Library
- Lucretia Hanson Little History Room
- City of Mill Valley
- Mill Valley Historical Society
- Mill Valley Masonic Lodge
- Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival
- California Film Institute (CFI)
- Mill Valley Film Festival
- Marin Theatre Company
- Mountain Play Association
- Curtain Theatre Shakespeare in the Park
- Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce
- The Dipsea Race
- Tamalpais Community Services District (T.C.S.D.)
- Tamalpais Valley Community Center (T.C.C.)
- Homestead Valley Community Association (H.V.C.A.)