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

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produced one or two pictures filmed there; something about horses and bad men. The studio contracted local talent and Edward I. Butler, now Judge of the Superior Court, took a judicial part in The Unwritten Law, one of the films. Henry Greer, Superintendent of Schools, also played a part in the trigger-fast-Black- Jack production. At that time, studios depended upon sunlight for their shots, and as camera work was slowed by cloudy days, the company thought it best to move to a more suitable climate than San Rafael ' s. But Hollywood almost happened here and, but for the weather in Marin, you might have gone down to the Brown Derby or the Copacoke Bar for your rocky road ice cream, instead of Borden ' s. All that is past now, but California Park (you go over it as you pass down the bridge coming into town from San Fran- cisco) , is the site planned for an oiudoor theater by Mr. Blumenfeld, and movies will be sho vn where they once were made. San Rafael has very little crime, perhaps because the first hangman ' s galloTvs in the state were once just about where Albert ' s is now. I don ' t know what hap- pened to Gordon ' s Opera House with its elegant and commodious auditorium but the Rafael Hotel burned down almost twenty years ago. The hotel was Marin County Journal, October, 1887. 95

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affectionately, by another name. These are the every- day shoppes with Avhich you deal. They fill your needs and you ask for nothing more. Yet a closer look into San Rafael ' s surroundings as an object of beauty and interest, even in a town whose buildings have no need for elevators, may prove fruitful. Have you ever wandered over the hills beyond the Convent and lived the view that is there for you? Standing at one point you can look east over San Pablo Bay and the Marin Islands and Red Rock and, of course, north to the San Francisco Bay and the do- mains behind it. A few feet farther from this point and San Rafael itself crawls lazily at your feet. Or have you ever walked around the homes near the Convent (this is close to home— take the road behind the g} ' m, the one over vhich the locust trees form a stained-glass cathedral arch) and noticed, just for in- stance, the huge lath greenhouse that nurses thou- sands and thousands of flame, yellow, white and pink tuberous begonias? Those beautiful flowers started as a hobby; now the owner ' s hobby is managing the Call Bulletin, and the flowers are the career. Or have you paid particular attention to the new homes and gardens growing in Sun Valley or Picnic Valley near California Park? Not intriguing? Cali- fornia Park was once the site of a movie studio which 94

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superior to any resort north of San Francisco. It was comparable in size and atmosphere, but not in Vic- torian elegance, to Berkeley ' s Claremont Hotel, and said not to be inferior to the Del Monte Lodge at Monterey or the Arcadia at Santa Monica although it followed their design in architecture. The hostelry itself was large, artistic, and surrounded by cottages, club houses, bowling greens and lawn-tennis courts; the grounds provided a magnificent grove of cypress, eucalyptus, and pine trees. It was built to provide a restful resort and caravansary, not for travelers, but for wealthy health-seekers, and was the scene of many gay parties, or so they tell me. Now, on those rare occa- sions when you walk to town, you sometimes pass through the grounds, which have been subdivided into the Rafael Gardens. There are other dominions inside and around San Rafael: you may see the lovely homes on Locust Ave- nue; an industrial revolution going on along the high- way; the shipyard on the canal; the sea-cliff dwellings that hang out over the Avater on the road to McNear ' s Point; the community around the brick factory that you ' d be certain is right out of How Green Was My Valley; and China Camp that exudes Oriental mysti- cism and a promise of tong wars and opium dens, but really only offers shrimp for twenty cents a pound. 96