This Week in Marin History
Archives
August 2008

Watershed event

On August 31, 1872, businessman William T. Coleman floated the Marin County Water Company enough money to begin the process of creating the first reservoir within the Mount Tamalpais watershed. As chief stockholder of the new company, Coleman paid Chinese laborers $20 a month to build a 51-foot high dam to form Lake Lagunitas, the 600-foot long reservoir. His motive: to supply water for his real estate developments in San Rafael—a town he virtually built. He later stocked the lake with trout, and planted its approach with eucalyptus trees imported from Australia.

Lake Lagunitas, c.1900

At home on the range

In August 1923, a fire closed San Rafael’s Schuetzen Park, which was opened in 1891 by the renowned marksman Philo Jacoby. Jacoby’s 37-acre amusement park provided friends in the San Francisco Schuetzen Verein—a German social group he co-founded after the Gold Rush—with lodging, dance pavilion and an impressive rifle range where members could compete for marksmanship. In 1876, Jacoby had won the title of “Champion Rifle Shot of the World” at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. It was said that he was the recipient of so many shooting medals, that he was able to wear only a third of them in civic parades. Jacoby was also the editor of The Hebrew, one of the first Jewish newspapers in San Francisco. His mark in San Rafael today: Jacoby Street.

Schutzen Park during high tide, c.1912

Fun on a funicular

On August 16, 1913, the Fairfax Inclined Railroad—also known as the Fairfax Funicular—was officially opened to entertain tourists and to help sell hillside lots on Manor Hill. (Music at the opening ceremony was provided by the St. Vincent Boys School band.)  Thrill seekers and prospective homebuyers flocked to Fairfax to ride the car—which carried as many as 26 people—paying a nickel to climb 500 feet up a 33% grade. An electric motor at the top of the 1,500-foot wooden trestle provided power. Also at the top was a tavern that, rumor had it, offered more than ice cream sodas during Prohibition. The funicular shut down in 1929 because it was deemed unsafe.

The Fairfax Funicular boarding platform, c.1920

Marin's "sweetest daughter"

In the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, Marin County’s Eleanor Garatti won the gold medal as a member of the U.S. freestyle relay team and a silver in the 100 m freestyle. Her homecoming was triumphant, with huge crowds celebrating wildly along her train’s route from Sausalito to San Rafael. But Garatti wasn’t finished: In the 1932 Summer Games in Los Angeles, she captured the gold in the 4x100 m freestyle relay and a bronze in the 100 m freestyle. Marin’s first Olympic gold and silver medalist trained at San Rafael’s Municipal Bath House, breaking record after record in swim meets across the country. (Trips were subsidized by local merchants.) Indeed, San Rafael Mayor D.D. Bowman hailed her as “Marin’s sweetest daughter.”

Flyer featuring Eleanor Garatti, c.1920s. (MHM Collection)