Dominican College of San Rafael - Firebrand Yearbook (San Rafael, CA)

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and rosy-cheeked, the name for the Mission became Mission of San Rafael, Arcangel. Its lands were ex- tensive; orchards, cattle, horses and sheep were used to serve thousands. Now a tin sign marks its prox- imity; it is the only unrestored mission in California. The beauty and peace of San Rafael are still at- tractive, bringing into the town such men as Admiral Chester Nimitz and Lieutenant Colonel Robinson, men who have seen the world and yet prefer San Rafael as a home. Admiral Nimitz has purchased property on the Bret Harte heights; both men have sent their daughters to the Dominican lower school. This article by no means intends to give a graphic picture of San Rafael or its highlights. It only means to show that the town is interesting and stimulating. There are so many diversities you could find yourself and not even miss the time. Marilyn Myers ' 47 LANDMARKS 0 YOU remember the fairy stories you heard when you were very small? They all began with Once upon a time , and immediately you were trans- ported to a golden world where there were no every- day trifles and cares, where everyone was happy and good, and every event was fascinating. So we should 98

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But you can ' l have missed the beauty in the euca- lyptus and locust lined streets, or the sunny peace of the fall and spring afternoons. This beauty has at- tracted many people who could have lived anywhere, but chose San Rafael: the old families, the Dollars, the Colemans, the Freitas ' , the Donahues, the Fosters, people who came in the 1850 ' s and who had stables, orchards, and tracts of land to go with their porticoed mansions, people like Jacob Albert who did so much for the town. The same beauty attracted the Franciscans, who established a Mission here in December of 1817. Father O ' Meara loves to tell how the site for the Mis- sion was found, especially on Sundays that tingle with a new spring and when everyone feels well enough to found his own mission. He describes the sickness that beset the Indians clustered around the Mission in foggy San Francisco and the parties who set out to find a health resort across the Bay. Indians and monks paddled master canoes against the rip tides and landed in Richardson Bay. The lush sweetness of Ross Val- ley did not suit them, nor the richness of Fairfax, nor, I suppose, the marsh tang of Vallejo. All these they by-passed. But San Rafael; ah, there was a place where missionary and follower could thrive on sun and sky and peace and God. So, while the Indians became fat 97

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begin our tales with Once upon a time at Dominican College , because these are tales about the times when our school was very young. The first house on the college campus was Meadow- lands. It had been the home of the De Youngs when San Rafael was a fashionable suburb (you can read about that time in Kathleen Norris ' Sa urf rt) ' ' 5 C i (i) . On an August evening, nineteen-eighteen, fifteen young women met there in the Green Room and, seated in the tall, ladder-back chairs, ate their first college dinner at the long green table, now in Benin- casa. The walls above the green panels were calci- mined in a buff tint, very decorotis as beseemed a con- vent college in its infancy, but Sister Thomas, Sister Catherine Marie, and Sister Patrick knew that under- neath was a hidden treasure, so one day twenty years later they decided to investigate. Sister Patrick took a chisel and chipped away part of the plaster: there appeared a bright spot of color. The Sisters immedi- ately ordered all the plaster removed, and there, en- circling the walls of the room, was a fox hunt on a dewy May morning, painted in unfaded colors. Even today you can see that mural in which the ladies and gentlemen always ride and the fox is forever caught. From the balcony right outside the green room you can see the small building in a grove of trees which the 99