This Week in Marin History
Archives
July 2008

CSI: Marin

In July 1866, the wife of Timothy Cronin of Bolinas mysteriously disappeared, and the events that followed resulted in Marin County’s first judicial hanging. Cronin’s wife’s body was eventually discovered in a ravine—a duck pond having been built over her grave. The pond had been of recent construction, which raised suspicion, and when the body was found, it appeared to have been beaten. Cronin was arrested by means of a lasso (he had attempted to run away), and was subsequently sentenced to death. (The Governor delayed the hanging to give him “time to prepare for the awful doom that awaits him.”) On May 8, 1868, in a San Rafael jail yard, Sheriff Peter K. Austin applied the noose—which a Bolinas supervisor reportedly later took home as a souvenir.

Marin County Court House,
San Rafael, 1872

Jumping July!

July, 1903: The Edison Electric Theater showed moving pictures in a San Rafael storeroom for the first time. (The Palm Theater, Marin County’s first regular movie house, opened a couple of years later.)

July, 1910: Marin’s first kennel show was held in Larkspur, drawing 250 entries.

July, 1923: Governor William Richardson signed a bill into law making Richardson Bay a bird sanctuary.

July, 1928: T.A. Tomasini was given a permit to build a toll bridge from Sausalito to Belvedere—the plan was later shelved.

July, 1932: Edwin Porter Ammerman—Marin’s last surviving Civil War Veteran—was honored.

July, 1982: Tamalpais High School Orchestra wins first place at the International Youth Music Festival in Vienna.

Aerial view of Richardson Bay, 1984 (Brady Collection, API)

A place to heal

In July 1909, a fire destroyed the $12,000 Ross home of wealthy businessman Henry E. Bothin. That misfortune, however, didn’t dampen the land developer’s philanthropic tendencies. A short time later he donated land on White’s Hill in Fairfax to be used as the site for Arequipa Sanatorium, where working-class women were treated for tuberculosis (and where they made pottery still prized by collectors today). After more effective TB treatments were developed in the ‘50s, the Girl Scouts of the San Francisco Bay Area began using the properties and today it is called the Henry E. Bothin Youth Center.

Girl Scout ceremony, c. 1950

Beach party

On Independence Day, 1887, Willow Camp—today Stinson Beach—was the site of a lively celebration. A partial list of the festivities:

Fourth of July Program
Willow Camp 1887

MORNING

Salute of 38 guns at sunrise.

“America”—By the Camp.

Song “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean”—Mrs. Clark and the Camp.

EVENING

Song and Chorus, “Naughty Jemima”—Mrs. Hoxie.

Tableau—Crowning of George Washington.

Fireworks on the Beach.

Rallying ‘round the Campfire.

Chocolate Party in Pavilion Grounds.