Fascinating stories about Marin Art and Garden Center are as abundant as the many wildly wonderful flowers that bloom on the property. Some tales, however, like those of Frank Greene, are exceptionally enthralling, as they span over 150 years and offer a special glimpse into the fruitful family land that has been treasured by generations of people.
“My mother, Esther Perry Greene, was the great granddaughter of James Ross and granddaughter of George & Annie Worn,” Frank says. The town of Ross is named after James Ross, a Scottish man who moved from Australia to California during the Gold Rush. He found fortune by selling wine and spirits to miners and purchased over eight thousand acres of land in what is now Central Marin County. Upon his untimely death, many acres were sold, but his daughter Annie Worn and her husband George kept the land that is now Marin Art and Garden Center and built a home they called “Sunnyside”.
Esther Perry Greene was born in 1903. She was raised in San Anselmo and attended The Branson School and the Dominican Convent before joining her family’s successful floral decorating business, “The Misses Worn” in San Francisco, which specialized in debutante parties and high-society events in the San Francsico Bay Area and helped open Marshall Field in Chicago as well as the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in Honolulu.
“My mother met my father, Frank Townsend Greene in 1935,” Frank says. They married in 1936 and lived in Cananea, Mexico, where Esther’s father-
in-law, William Cornell Greene, had moved from New York in 1870 when he heard about gold and silver discoveries.
He settled in Tombstone, Arizona, married, had a small ranch, and in 1889 came upon an abandoned gold/silver mine in Cananea, about forty miles south of the Arizona border. Since Edison had just perfected the first incandescent light bulb, William foresaw opportunities for copper with the electrification of America. He bought the mining claims which turned out to be one of the richest copper deposits in North America. He raised money on Wall Street, developed the mines, and became a “copper baron.”
In 1937, a pregnant Esther returned to San Francisco in search of the best prenatal care. Frank Perry Greene was born in January 1937 at the original Stanford Hospital. After a brief return to Mexico, the family officially moved back to California in 1945 and settled in Marin. Frank’s memories of Marin Art and Garden Center date back to those early childhood years. “I remember picnicking and attending family celebrations in 1945, not long after we returned to Marin. There was an annual fair that celebrated gardens and flowers, full of color and vibrancy,” he says. In fact, what Frank recalls is the fair that would evolve into the Marin County Fair, a beloved tradition that continues to this day.
Frank attended Wade Thomas School, followed by Ross Grammar School, and eventually Stanford University. He served as a Naval Officer for three years, returned to Stanford for a MBA, married his wife Barbro, became involved in the investment management and real estate development businesses, and bought a home in Belvedere.
The sense of tradition and continuity that Marin Art and Garden Center embodies has only grown stronger for Frank over the years. “Barbro and I have attended numerous weddings and memorial celebrations,” he says. “We look forward to the annual Fall celebration. Each one seems to be better than the prior year. This year’s Edible Garden walking tour and dinner was outstanding, thanks to the work of many volunteers. I can’t think of a better way to bring people together to create a sense of community.”
Frank’s family ties to horticulture, particularly through his nephews Tom and Ross Perry, who owned and operated Sunnyside Nursery in San Anselmo, have kept him connected to the Center’s mission, as well. “I am inspired by the many years that Tom Perry (current Marin Art and Garden Center Board of Trustees President) has contributed to the Center,” Franks says. “He is our family historian and has always had an interest in history as well as horticulture. The Center has had a major resurgence in interest and popularity under his guidance and the work of many other committed ‘partners’. I feel particularly close to the organization because of Tom’s commitment.
“I’m also inspired by the physical beauty of the Center and want to help ensure its long-term viability. The Center is the last remaining property once owned by the Ross-Worn family. It provides my family with a sense of continuity with the Ross Valley. I am hoping that the property will provide my family with a sense of history and a lasting connection with the place where our three children and four of our six grandchildren grew up.”
Today, Frank continues to live in Belvedere with his wife Barbro, where they’ve been for over fifty years. Frank’s ties to the area—and to the Marin Art and Garden Center—remain as strong as ever. For him, it is more than just a beautiful space; it is a family legacy that he is proud to preserve and pass down. “My wife and I have just funded a ten-year lease for a bench dedicated to my mother, Esther Perry Greene,” Frank says. “The bench is immediately in front of the Octagon House and faces the pond.”
In dedicating a bench to his mother, Frank ensures that the Greene family will always have a place in the heart of Marin Art and Garden Center, where nature, history, and community come together in the most beautiful way possible.
For more information about honoring a loved one with a Commemorative Bench, contact Kelly Miller, Director of Development or visit the Commemorative Bench page.
