photo by Marion Brenner
Celebrating 80 Years
Founded in 1945, Marin Art and Garden Center marks 80 years as a community-wide resource, for learning, relaxation, inspiration, and celebration. It is our duty to carry on this legacy, ensuring future generations the opportunity to enjoy this beautiful, sacred space.
Sowing the Seeds, phase one of a master plan for preservation, coincides with our 80th birthday. The funds raised will rehabilitate and strengthen historic buildings and utilities. It will provide updated safety, accessibility and signage paving the way for the next 80 years of this much-loved community cultural center.
Marin Art and Garden Center
Founded in 1945
The end of World War II marks the growth of the conservation movement in Marin County,
championed by a group of exceptionally capable, committed and resourced women who founded the Marin Conservation League (MCL) in 1934. Caroline Livermore, Sepha Evers, Portia Forbes and Helen Van Pelt gather resources and support to preserve the natural resources of Marin County with early accomplishments including acquiring Drakes and Stinson Beaches.
A member of the Marin Garden Club sends a proposal for a Marin “art center” to Ross Town Council, to be modeled after the Allied Arts Center in Palo Alto.
Caroline Sealy Livermore lends $5,000 to the Marin Garden Club to “hold” for sale what is then one of the largest undeveloped parcels, known as the Kittle Property, in the fast-growing county. The group purchases the acreage for $25,000.
Foundation & Incorporation
With a group of women leaders and conservationists at the helm, along with the support of various Marin art and horticultural organizations, Marin Art and Garden Center is founded and incorporated on August 6, 1945.
Representing the arts: The Ross Valley Players who have been using the Barn on the property for their productions and for storing sets and costumes; the Marin Society of Artists; the Marin Music Chest; and the Marin Dance Council.
Representing horticultural interests: The Marin Garden Club; the Garden Society of Marin; the Marin Conservation League and the Marin Nature Club.
Thomas Church conducts the first surveys and inventory; the Board of Trustees discusses a master plan for Marin Art and Garden Center.
The “Fiesta” or Marin Art and Garden Fair begins with performances by the Ross Valley Players and nature tours of Marin Art and Garden Center. Held annually, the event soon becomes the Marin County Fair, attracting landscape designers whose annual designs and contributions become permanent installations on the 11-acre campus.
The first Marin Art and Flower Show at the Center is held. The event expands and becomes the Marin Art and Garden Fair, held each summer for almost 15 years.
A year of growth and development:
- “Memory Garden” is established and designed by Helen Van Pelt and donated by the Marin Garden Club; the Dawn Redwood is planted.
- Expansion of the Barn and outdoor terrace, designed by Thomas Church.
- Building of the Bottle House by Ray Olesin for the ticket booth of the annual fair; it is then used as an antique shop.
- Construction of the rustic Amphitheater for outdoor theatrical and dance performances.
Buildings of Significance
After some years of providing luncheons and antique sales around the grounds, the Northgate Group incorporates. The group goes on to establish a permanent antique and consignment shop that ultimately becomes known as Laurel House Antiques and Consignment after the converted residence that is the shop’s home from 1962 onward.
The Evers Pavilion is funded by Sepha Evers to honor her son killed in World War II. The Northgate Shops are built, designed by Don Emmons of Wurster, Bernardi and Emmons.
The Northgate Building and Livermore Pavilion are built, also designed by Don Emmons.
Pixie Park
Marin naturalist and Center volunteer Elizabeth Terwilliger organizes the Pixie Playground Group in 1952. In 1956, Pixie Parent Group incorporates and joins the Center.
In 1958, the Playground is redesigned and upgraded under the supervision of modernist architect Robert Royston.
The Decorations Guild Building is built, designed by Don Emmons. It now serves as the main office of Marin Art and Garden Center.
Restoration and Dedication of The Octagon House
Helen Moya del Pino provides the initial funding for the complete restoration of the Octagon House in memory of her husband José Moya del Pino, a founder of Marin Art and Garden Center who was inspired to utilize the building as an art and garden reference library.
The Octagon House, formerly the pump house for the Worn’s Estate, Sunnyside, is moved 30 feet to a new foundation. Renovations by architect Roger Hooper and interior decorator Carla Flood are made and the Octagon House is renamed the José Moya del Pino Library.
The serpentine brick wall surrounding Marin Art and Garden Center is constructed, designed by George Livermore in honor of his mother Caroline.
The original bricks are reused from a condemned San Francisco warehouse; the serpentine style is used to make the most of the limited materials.
The Marin County Fair is held at Marin Art and Garden Center for the last time. After 25 years, it moves to the Marin Civic Center grounds.
The Gladys Memorial Pool is built, commonly known as the Fountain Pond.
The “Lockside room” is moved from near the Livermore Pavilion to the southeast side of the property, and is later renamed the Butterfly Cottage. The building was manufactured in Sweden, transported to a garden in San Anselmo and eventually became part of an exhibit at an early Fair in the 50s.
Bingo games are organized in the Barn to help support Marin Art and Garden Center in 1977.
Private events such as weddings and memorials bring thousands of visitors to Marin Art and Garden Center every year and create beautiful memories.
The Pathfinders Guild, after offering on-site dining for nearly three decades to support Marin Art and Garden Center, is disbanded. From a two-day-per-week operation in the Octagon House in 1967, they then added dinners before the Ross Valley Players performances, catered weddings and receptions, and expanded into what is now the Garden School, where they served lunch Monday through Friday. Woodlands Market then offers breakfast, lunch and tea in the space for several years afterwards.
The Rose Garden is established on the former site of the Octagon House, with over 150 varieties.
The Summer Concert series makes its debut on the Gazebo lawn in 2003, becoming a community destination on Thursday nights each year.
Marin Art and Garden Center mourns the loss of its 135-year-old Magnolia Tree. Planted in 1860 by then owner George Worn, the tree exceeded all height and longevity expectations and was a beloved symbol of the Center. It stood in the center of the lawn and gave birth to the seedlings that create what is now known as the Magnolia Grove.
In Resolution number 1867, the Town of Ross commemorates the Sesquicentennial, or 150th Anniversary, of the Octagon House at Marin Art and Garden Center.
After 67 years and a shrinking number of volunteers, the Northgate Group formally dissolves and Laurel House Antiques and Consignment closes after selling its remaining inventory. Weeks later, California shuts down in the Covid-19 pandemic.
Marin Art and Garden Center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the California Register of Historical Resources.
The first Edible Garden event is held, a culinary and artistic fundraiser to celebrate and support Marin Art and Garden Center.
Marin Art and Garden Center launches Friends of the Garden, offering benefits to community members who support the Garden.
Marin Art and Garden Center Celebrates 80 Years and launches “Sowing the Seeds” Capital Campaign to support phase one of a master plan to rehabilitate aging buildings and infrastructure. The Center calls for community support to preserve the 80-year-old treasure for future generations.
History of Marin Art & Garden Center
Early Years prior to 1945
Earliest known inhabitants
Marin Art and Garden Center sits within the unceded ancestral homeland of the Coast Miwok people. We respect and honor past, present, and future generations of Miwok and their continued connection to this land.
On September 25th, Mexican Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado grants Marin property “Rancho Punta de San Quentin y Canada de San Anselmo” to Captain Juan B.R. Cooper, a sea captain from Boston.
Cooper sells the Mexican land grant property to Benjamin R. Buckelew of San Francisco. Buckelew, the second proprietor and editor of California’s first newspaper the Californian, is credited with publishing the first story of gold nearly two months after its initial discovery. Gold Fever brings thousands to California, some to Marin. Buckelew’s focus is on the lumber industry.
James Ross, a Scot from Inverness Shire, Scotland came to California to find gold, but standing on the wharf that would later become known as “Ross Landing,” Ross sees the beauty and possibilities around him. On the 28th of July, 1857, for $50,000 gold coin, James Ross becomes the landowner of the 8,877 acre Rancho Punta. Later that year James and his wife Anne move from San Francisco to the Buckelew Home at 30 Redwood Drive (today) and plant extensive gardens on the property. They establish a successful shipping and trading post called “Ross Landing.”
“Sunnyside,” The Octagon House, and Birth of the Magnolia Ring 1864–early 1870s
Annie Ross, Ross’ eldest daughter, marries George Austin Worn. The young couple choose a rancho site of 21 acres and build their estate, naming it “Sunnyside,” the site of the current Marin Art and Garden Center.
The first building constructed at Sunnyside is an Octagon House designed as a tank house for the well on the property. The first floor serves as the newlyweds’ temporary home until the main house is completed in 1865.
The family also builds a Barn and plants the original gardens.
The Worns are interested in horticulture and plant many trees, including the Magnolia grandiflora, which stood in the center of the lawn and gave birth to the seedlings that create Marin Art and Garden Center’s Magnolia Grove today. From their travels abroad, the Worns bring back many specimen plants that can still be found on Marin Art and Garden Center’s grounds today.
Jonathan G. Kittle purchases Sunnyside for $12,000 after financial reversals require the Worns to sell the estate. Kittle remodels and enlarges the original home and he and his descendants live at the “Kittle Estate” for more than 50 years.
Women Leaders: Marin County Conservation 1931–1934
A group of friends meet at the Ross home of Mrs. Millen Griffith for the first official meeting of the Marin Garden Club. Mrs. Griffith is elected the first president. Early projects included providing support to the founding of the Marin Conservation League and in saving Samuel P. Taylor Park.
The Kittle’s main home is damaged by fire, but the Octagon House and Barn remain standing. The Kittles never rebuilt the main house, and the property lies idle for 15 years.
Caroline Livermore, Sepha Evers, Portia Forbes and Helen Van Pelt found the Marin Conservation League (MCL), to protect and preserve the natural resources of Marin County. The MCL’s early accomplishments include acquiring Drakes and Stinson Beach.
