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TRANSCRIPT
Interviewed by Carla Ehat and Anne Kent,
June 15, 1977
Transcribed by Marjorie Hoffman
Edited by Marilyn L. Geary
David Russell Keil
You may also enjoy reading the complete
transcription of this oral history interview.
David Russell Keil’s 38 acre estate is
part of the first Mexican land grant in
Marin County, Rancho Corte Madera Del Presidio, which was granted in 1834 to John Thomas Reed. Upon
her father’s death in 1843, John Reed’s daughter, Hilarita, who later married Doctor Benjamin Lyford,
inherited over a thousand acres in Tiburon as her share of the Rancho .
My family bought this estate from the Lyford descendants in the 1880’s. They came over here in
about 1881, but the first homes were on Belvedere. This area in here wasn’t settled until sometime
later. This house that we’re in now was built about the turn of the century. There were stables here
before that. The family always used it as a summer home. They were in San Francisco, and they
came over in a little steam launch.
Actually, there was a small house on the property called the Rose Cottage that had been built by
Dr.Lyford. It was really sort of a little hideaway that he could come to and do some of his weird
experiments. If you’ve ever read some of the stories of Lyford, you know what could have hap-
Keil’s Cove, 1895
Oral History Project of theMarin County Free Library
Anne T. Kent California History Room.
Original tape recording available at the Anne T. Kent California History Room.
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pened out here. But the place itself was built, as I
would say, in about 1898 or so in there. The original
home in Belvedere, was at the end, and was leased
from the Belvedere Land Company. My family
wanted to have a more permanent place, and they
came over here.
They actually paced out the land, the way I under-
stand the story, just what they had seen from a row-
boat. They just paced out the area. Sometimes they
ask me why the property lines run so strange. The
reason, I believe, was that my grandfather, when he
paced it out, he went 40 feet over the crest of the hill,
the theory being that nobody could build up and look
down on you. So the lines don’t go to the crest of the hill, they go 40 feet over the crest of the hill.
My grandfather had a lot of little ideas like that. Like in this house here where we’re sitting now,
when we did some of the renovation, we found little brown packets of dirt in the spaces between the
joists. When they were cleaned, it turned out they were forty four blank shells for cartridges. The
reason for that was that if the house ever burned down, my grandfather wanted to wake up. He didn’t
care about the house burning down, but that was his own fire alarm.
My grandfather David was originally a Bavarian. I don’t like to say this about the old fellow, but I
think he was a draft dodger because of getting out of the German army at that time when the princi-
palities were want to get their revenues by leasing out regiments. Young men who didn’t have too
good an education were subject to it. The oldest boy in the family had a good education, became a
head of one of the gymnasiums over there, but the other two boys came here and arrived in San
Francisco (when it was under Mexican law). I remember one of the stories in the family was that
David Keil used to always say, “I did not come to the United States. I was here and the United States
came to me.”
He came from a little town outside of Munich or somewhere. When you look through the history of
early California, you’ll find a lot of those early Germans mixed in with the Spanish. And one of the
reasons for that was just this: they didn’t want to get into the compulsory military, and they came
over. They were all very young men. You know, you see these pictures of the grizzly forty-niners,
and they were all about 18 or 19 years old. It wasn’t until quite a bit later that my grandfather came
to Marin County.
My grandfather liked yachting. He liked boating and the two boys, both my father and my uncle,
also enjoyed yachting. They were founders of the Corinthian Yacht Club. They thought that they
would bring yachts over here and that this might be a site for a club. I don’t know whether they were
turned down. It would have been a nice site. In fact, the St. Francis Yacht Club was looking at it at
one time. But they came over here and built the houses. As I say, in the beginning, it was used
purely as a summer home.
The Goodall family, Mrs. Hugo Keil was a Goodall, they were the original Pacific Steamship Com-
pany. Old Captain Goodall was one of the first trustee’s of Stanford University. You might even
remember the last of that line. There were many ships in that steamship line. The end of that line was
the old Yale and Harvard. Captain Goodall’s son ran that.
Tower and archway marked entrance to Lyford’s Hygeia.
And now can I digress a little? I’ll tell you a ghost story. You get down on the beach here on a very
silent night and the wind is blowing just right, you’ll hear the dripping off of what we call Water
Spout Point. Now I like to think that that isn’t water, but that’s really blood, because this was the
supply area for all the ships in the bay for water. Originally the water was brought down there, and
they used to skull out to the sailboats in the bay during the early 1850’s and 1860’s and bring water
to them. Ultimately they developed a paddle wheel or boat that you could supply the water to the
ships. And from that time they developed the famous Longshoremen, Stevedores, of the Pacific,
which were owned by Goodall and his group.
There was plenty of violence. They used to call the people the fresh water marines. They actually
had guns mounted on the front of their boats. This tradition was carried on to where it was a mo-
nopoly. No ship could be serviced in this area except it went through this group. This function was
taken over by the Steamship Companies ultimately and then in 1934, still blood running in the
streets, they killed four men with your General Barrows and the rest of them in the great strike. Out
of that Bridges took over and continued on the tradition. From there it moved to Seattle, San Pedro,
and into the Gulf posts. The docks were always steeped in violence. As I say, sometimes when it’s
very quiet over here and you hear that little drip, that’s where it all started right down here at Water
Spout Point, which is one point of the Keil Cove. It runs from Water Spout Point to the Bluff Point.
My father’s name was Edward, and Edward lived in San Francisco always. My Uncle Hugo was a
widower without any children, in a way fortunate for me. However, my Mother ran both houses
(both my Uncle’s and this house) after Uncle Hugo’s wife died in May 1922. My Uncle stayed on
and lived in this house occasionally. He traveled considerably. When I talk about traveling, I think
it’s rather interesting that he made, I think, about 22 trips to Europe and about 3 trips around the
world. He was supposed to go out on the Titanic when she sank, he and Aunt Tee. They had tickets,
and then they decided to stay in London. He was standing at Lakehurst waiting to get on the Zeppe-
lin when she blew up. So he lived sort of a charmed life. He died on his 80th birthday in about 1940.
Uncle Hugo was a very nice personality. He was President of the Downtown Association in the
Chamber of Commerce. He was head of Police Commission right after the graft prosecution. I
succeeded to the President of the Downtown Association many years later. He was a good raconteur,
entertained considerably, and spoke fluent German because both my father and uncle went to school
in Germany after attending school here. They went to Germany, so they both spoke German. I don’t
say that I speak German. I studied in the Foreign Service School, but I’m very poor about it.
Uncle Hugo was not as large as my father. I would say he was a man of about five foot ten or so. My
uncle was president of the Police Commission, after the graft prosecution in Mayor Taylor’s term,
who took over after the Schmidts. Then the great feud was going on between the Spreckels and the
DeYoungs, and all that shooting outside and so on. Biggy was the Chief of
Police, and he came over to talk to my Uncle. Biggy had a belief that no
policeman should ever carry a gun. He sort of had the idea of the English
bobby system where policemen don’t carry guns.
It must have been a very important discussion that Biggy had with my Uncle,
but he left here and he never arrived in San Francisco. Three days later his
body was fished out of the Bay, and my Uncle’s gun was on it. This is in all
the San Francisco history books you read, so I’m not telling anything. Chief Biggy
Biggy came here by Police Launch, the San Francisco Police Launch. And it had an operator and
they operated it from the wheelhouse. It was quite a story. The newspapers were full of it at the time.
Although he had quite a blow on the back of his head, it could have happened from hitting the
gunwale going down. But the interesting story is that the Chief of Police of a major city has this
happen to him, and there is no investigation. There’s nothing. Anyhow, these are the little things that
sort of make the place where we’re sitting now interesting.
When my grandfather acquired this land, it was bare, not much growth. Now this would be before
my time, but there were scrub oaks on it, you know. Most of the foliage was planted here, and most
of the trees were brought from Menlo. I think Aunt Tee did a lot, and of course my wife has done an
awful lot too.
I was born in San Francisco. As a boy, I came over for weekends, and then for about two years we
lived here more or less on and off. In the late 30’s my uncle, being alone, was here. My father had
died, and I was always very close to my uncle, in spite of our age differential. We took trips together.
I had a very good relationship with my father too, excellent.
Anyway, Uncle Hugo asked my wife and me to come over here and build so we’d be near him. And
the price was just exorbitant to build a house, you know. We were a newlywed couple. We had quite
ambitious ideas. When we got the bids on the house, it was over $5,000 to build this beautiful, big
house, so we had to abandon that right away. So we fixed up the barn, which cost about $5,000. My
son is there now. It’s sort of pleasant to keep it in the family. We remodeled it, and still I think it is
one of the most attractive houses done by Paul Ryan.
Paul Ryan was the architect of the Roman Catholic Cathedral, and he also worked on the Grace
Cathedral. This was his first job out of Beaux Arts. When we did this house over, we were first going
to tear this down because it was old. It’s four stories high.
You know this old house, it just sort of wanders on. It’s like
James Adams in its frame.
But anyway, we discussed it with Paul Ryan, and he de-
cided that it would be worth saving, and by that time my
family was coming along, and we needed the extra rooms,
so we fixed up this house. We never did build on the Point,
which is, I think, one of the finest lots in the area, because
you can look all the way up to Vallejo and all the way
around. It is completely encircled by water.
There is a lake that is fed by the springs. The original maps
called it Salt Lagoon. That was dredged out. I have pictures
here of the steam shovels that were in there digging it out.
My grandfather’s idea mostly was to build a reservoir. You
see, we had no water here. Marin Municipal Water wasn’t
here so, we had to be self-sufficient.
The thing that you should remember, first of all, is that this
was where the water came for the ships in the bay, so there
was water on the hills. The second thing that was rather Early map showing Keil’s Cove
interesting was that up until a few
years ago, the Steinhardt Aquarium
used to come into this place to pick up
fish out in the bay, right in the front, in
the cove. I asked them why they
wanted to do it here, and they told me
that this particular fish lived in that
area, right out in Keil Cove. It lived in
an environment of low salt. And the
reason for that was there were so
many springs under the bay at that
point, fresh water springs. So they are
coming up, and there are about three
or four of them coming up in the lake.
The lake is about a five acre surface
lake. It also drains all the hills you
notice around here. It drains down, so the majority of the time the water, in the winter, is running
directly into the bay. We just cap it and catch it, because the lake originally was six to seven foot
deep. It held a lot of water for the gardens, and we could pump it.
The little pier and gazebo was built by Warner Brothers when they made a picture here once. That
was a movie called Petulia. I’ve forgotten who the stars were in it. Joseph Cotton would be about my
age, you see, but the younger ones I don’t recall. They liked this setting, and let’s be frank, they had
125 people which they serviced in the tennis court. In other words, they fed them and all that. The
crew came every morning. And they were here - well, we were gone for almost a month during the
time. And when I said, “let’s be frank about it,” what I meant was they could get security here.
I don’t think we’ll ever do it again, because it takes a lot out of a place. Oh I must say, they painted
the whole thing, and they were excellent. I simply said, “Look. I will loan you the place provided
anything that is not the way I want it when I come back, you will have to fix. And I will be the sole
judge.”
They said, “Well, nobody has ever asked us to do a thing like that.”
And I said, “I never asked you to come here. And I’m not getting anything for it. I’m doing it just out
of goodwill, so why don’t you look somewhere else.”
Well, he came back, and he said, “All right, we’ll take it, because we’ve looked into you, and we
think you’re a reasonable, honorable man.”
I said, “Don’t believe it.” But they did, they came back, and there were a few minor things hap-
pened. They took hundreds of pictures before of just the way the house was, and they put it back
exactly that way or as close as they could. There were a few minor things. I called their attention to
them, and they were taken care of immediately.
They just said, “You take care of them and send us the bills, no questions asked.” So I’m adding this
because I want you to know it was very friendly. I don’t want to leave an impression that there was
anything bad. It was kind of a fun thing, but I won’t do it again.
Tiburon, early 1900’s
My son, Russell David Junior, lives in that house. There is another house on the property where you
came down which is my daughter’s. Her name is Molly Keil Heinz, and she married Bill Heinz who
was the young patent attorney. He’s the son of very old friends of ours, Adrian and Zabina Heinz
from Piedmont. They were looking around to build a home. He was a patent attorney, and he was
going into business in San Francisco. They lived in the East Bay, and I said, “Well, we have on the
driveway coming down about three hundred feet of beach frontage which no one even knows is
there. So why don’t you just cut it through and build a house there?” which they did. And when they
built the house I gave them the land, that’s all.
So it’s nice now. My wife and I were feeling so sad one time when everybody left. Gabriel, Gay, is
our oldest daughter. She is living in San Francisco and is unmarried. Molly was away, and Russ had
just got married, and they were all gone. Vern and I were just sort of rattling around in the place with
swimming pool, tennis court and so on, which we didn’t use too much. We were actually thinking of
maybe giving it up. Just about this time these things happened that I’m telling you about. Russ came
back and decided he would like to live in back of the Cove. He was raised here, which was great,
and we have a very fine relationship. And Molly then decided to build a house, or before, I forget
which way, and so they’re all back and now the grandchildren are here. So it’s really wonderful
because the place can really get some use now.
As you most likely know, the property is designated on the master plan of Marin County as a future
park, which has put a cloud on the title. Of course, this has a tendency also to keep my taxes down,
which isn’t too bad. This was once on the ballot in Marin, and it was voted down by the people. It
was in a group of locations to be purchased, under a bond issue which was voted down. And I don’t
know, it’s the old story. I think these things happen. I’ve lived long enough now and been in enough
civic things to know that when these things occur, it’s like a baby being born. It will be born you
know. It’s nothing you really direct, if it’s needed.
When I was a young boy, there was still railroad activity down in Tiburon. I did travel on the Marin,
which was a little ferry that ran to Sausalito and connected up with the North Western Pacific. I
traveled it many times. I always thought North Western Pacific had something to do with it. But
James F. Donohue was a little bit ahead of my time.
James F. Donohue arrived here, and I’ll tell you one little story now. James F. Donohue wanted to
build the railroad in here from Donohue’s Landing and change the name to Donohue, but they
decided not to because it was too confusing. They kept the station at Donohue Landing in Petaluma,
and they didn’t want this to be Donohue and then have Donohue Landing. It was too much. So they
asked him if he’d leave the old name Tiburon and not change the name to Donohue. Otherwise we
would be living in Donohue now.
Donohue had a son-in-law. He was a champagne salesman in San Francisco by the name of Baron
Von Schroeder. Donohue had the Hotel. And the Hotel was built just like Del Monte was with
Southern Pacific. It was built at the railhead to bring traffic, to bring pedestrians. And when the
railroad was coming through, he tried to get the right of way from the Garcia’s, (the Lyford’s) and he
couldn’t get it from old Hilarita. So he sent his son-in-law Von Schroeder, who explained to Hilarita
that Donohue was coming anyhow. Now he was a German, I should get out of any Irish there when
I say that. He was a German, so he explained that the railroad was coming anyway, so please let his
father-in-law get the rights.
She wouldn’t give it. So Von Schroeder finally figured out, being a good salesman, he figured out
this little antidote. He said, “Now he’s going to build the railroad anyhow and those workmen that
are here and their families will not have their spiritual lives attended to. And you are a good Catho-
lic, and you know that you have a responsibility, a spiritual responsibility. I can say this. I’m a papal
knight so I can say this.” And so he
said, “Look, regardless of where Mr.
Donohue builds the railroad, you
should build a church to take care of
the spiritual needs of the workmen and
their families.”
Of course, this was very, very hard on
Hilarita, because she had given away a
lot of money and land already - places
on Strawberry Point to the sisters from
St. Mary’s and to the Franciscans or
whomever they were. Baron Von
Schroeder said, “I can get my father-
in-law to build the church if you give
the lot and if you give the right of way
to come through direct, otherwise you
have that on your conscience.” So the piece was given which was sort of a rocky promontory to
begin with. It wasn’t worth much and the Northwestern Pacific Railroad was true to their word. They
built St. Hilary’s Church for the right of way. I don’t know if that’s been written down, but I think it
should be.
When we took the old bell down there, we thought it was a bell from one of the steamships, the
ferryboats. And it wasn’t. It says on the bell - “gift from the Baron and Baroness Von Schroeder.”
They must have been up at the Hotel Rafael, running up there at that time. So that’s a little story
about landmarks.
Oh, I remember something of the Hotel Belvedere, but I think most of it was from hearsay, you
know, of people who lived there. I remember a very good friend of mine by the name of Jay
McEvoy was born there. They were people that had come after the earthquake and fire, that’s what
they were doing. The cottages are still standing you know. Yes, some of them are, and people are
living in them, those little shingle cottages that come right down towards the end.
I recall the Arks floating in Belvedere Cove and the Night in Venice. The family would come over
and stay during that week, or that weekend, and then we would go over and there was just one big
open house. We knew most of the people in the old days in there, and most of the house boats were
out of the lagoon by that time.
These houseboats were anchored outside, and some of them were pulled up on the beach. In fact,
mine, the Crockers and the Keil’s had one houseboat up on the beach. And it became rather a rough
neighborhood. It was a place where, let’s say, the yachtsman came, and the yachtsmen weren’t quite
as dignified a group as they are today. So the word went out that no respectable woman would set
foot on the Island of Belvedere. For that reason it had a very bad name for a long while. Then that
St. Hilary’s Churck, built in 1888
There were lots of Japanese lanterns, all over and on the boats, it was really a lovely time. The
lanterns were on there and of course the net base was here, and, at least in my day, the coaling
station. And the coaling station, by the way, was able to coal a ship in, I’ve forgotten, six or eight
minutes. And the Pacific fleet usually could get deep water there so - I’m getting back and off my
subject - but to go into the Nights
in Venice, the band would come
over in a launch, and we’d have
that and all the open houses. Before
this was connected here, Belvedere
and Tiburon, there was an opening
there and a bridge and then in the
winter the houseboats and the
yachts would seek shelter in the
lagoon.
This was when the problem was
going on with the Belvedere Island.
The soldiers were on top of the
Island, and we didn’t know
whether it belonged to the govern-
ment as an Island, an inland body of water, or whether it belonged to the original Corte Madera Del
Presidio grant. That was one of the sore points along the line of the fact that it wasn’t an Island as
long as it had a Lagoon. It was a problem. I imagine they never wanted to reestablish once they got
the ruling that it was a peninsula.
Because you see what the Garcia’s had done was they had given quit claim deeds, not true deeds, to
the property, because they didn’t know whether they owned it or not. So a quit claim deed merely
says, if I have any interest, I’m assigning it to you. So they made no misrepresentations, but nobody
knew how secure their title was until the courts had decided in favor of the fact that it was part of the
original Garcia’s and then the title flowed correctly to the people. And when the Belvedere Land
Company had finally, I guess, sold off what they thought was the available land or the good land,
then the Allen’s stepped in and did a beautiful job on it. I think just magnificent after that. Because
people wondered what was going to happen to the residue.
I have over 1,000 feet of water frontage in this Cove. But between myself and the Net Depot is the
old Tilly house, which is now Schellebarger. You can see those stone gates. And you might remem-
ber the Tilly’s because they were fascinating people. The Tilly’s, they came from Long Island, and
they used to come here in the summer. There was the daughter and granddaughter. Well, Mr. Tilly
was deaf and dumb. I was about to say a deaf and dumb mute, but he’s not. He’s a deaf and dumb
Boat race in the 1880’s
was overcome by this advertising in England and so on. A lot of the original people that came to the
Belvedere Land Company, which was long before the Allen’s took it over, were solicited in England,
and they came here.
We knew quite a few people that were afraid of the San Franciscans. The reputation that the City
had, it wasn’t too great. But the houseboat was sort of a Bohemian type of life. What was that great
party came here from Washington D.C. that used to live over here, that used to row out to the house-
boats when she was a little girl, she talks about them in her - what was her name? Elsa Maxwell.
person, and Mrs. Tilly was also. They were
quite wealthy, and he used to come out here
with a quite large retinue of servants, but
most of them were charity cases, because
they were also deaf and dumb. So the whole
household in there, except for the children,
were deaf and dumb right here.
We would always run up and wave flags and
everything because the family wanted to
welcome the Tilly’s. And they arrived in
these three cars that they had set out from
Long Island with the sloping fronts, the old
Franklin air cond-car and the chauffeurs, I
can still remember them. He invented the
flying mail sack. He was an inventor, and he
invented the tamper proof mailbox. Every time you lift down a lip and put a piece of mail and drop
it, it goes click. You’re paying him a royalty, at least in those days. Anyhow they had quite an
establishment there. It was very interesting.
You mentioned the Coaling Station, and my mother still tells the story about going over there to the
‘Tilly’s one day and having to write on these little papers and what she wrote to be very nice was,
“Doesn’t the noise of the Coaling Station bother you?” So Mr. Tilly thought that was very funny,
because it did make quite a racket. We didn’t hear it but when that ship came in and they would let
the coal down the chutes, it made quite a noise. There was six or eight places at once, you know, and
the roar was just terrific. It took six or eight minutes to coal, but that didn’t count the tying up and so
forth.
There used to be enormous mountains of coal here for the ships. And you know the interesting thing
was there was one ship in the
United States Navy that wasn’t
converted. I shouldn’t say one
ship in the Navy, I should say
one ship on the Pacific Fleet. I
have to be careful here. And
the purpose of it was to use up
the coal in the California City.
But you see that was another
interesting story, the California
City routine. Well, the reason
that that was called California
City was this fellow (Benjamin
Buckelew) patented it years
ago, because he felt that
Kansas City, Kansas was a big
name. New York City, New
York was a big name, and if he
Ark
Keil Family Boating on the Bay
owned California City, California he could sell it. He almost sold it to Oakland. The Council voted
it down by just a matter of one or two votes,, this was quite in the early days, to be called California
City, California. And there is now a California City, California somewhere in the south, but for years
he controlled it.
He designated the area, had
the name applied to it. I
suppose you could do it by
filing in those days, and he
then preceded to be sole owner
of the right to that name, and
he tried to sell it. You could
see it, New York, New York,
California, California, you see.
So anyway for years, that has
been known as California City,
and that was where the Coal-
ing Station was. And then
during the War, there right
next to the Coaling Station, we
spun cables, and we had the net tenders kept there. And the net tenders used to come over here.
They had the nets across the straits there, the Golden Gate.
During WWII, there was quite a traffic of Navy ships in and out through Raccoon Straits, going on
their way to Mare Island and back. My only relationship with the military was my dogs used to
break up the dress reviews over there by licking their hands. Of course, they had all the steaks and
the cornucopias and everything over there, so I couldn’t keep them away. I was breeding those
Chesapeake Bay Retrievers at that time, and they’d go over. The first thing I know the Chief would
come in through those gates there and say, “Compliments of Captain Layton Sir, your dogs.” And
he’d pull the dogs out and hand them back to me, and I couldn’t handle the god darn dogs. The jeep
would turn around and go out through the gates, and the dogs would go over the hill before I knew it
they were back at the military base.
I remember we used to use the dairies, I mean we would permit the cattle to go on our hills because
we wanted them to take the grass off, you see. We would permit them to pasture and for that we were
paid in manure, which was wonderful. You know there was no tax in the exchange. We went over
and got loads of manure, and then we allowed them to graze, and it was a wonderful system.
Pete Albertini was our gardener. He came over here right after the First World War. We called him
Pete. His son works for the Marin Municipal Water Department. The son was born right on the place
here, Ray. And Pete was with us for 55 years or more, and he took loving care of this garden. He
came over as the second or third gardener, (I don’t know what) and he stayed on. Naturally we’ve
cut down considerably on help, but Pete was here until just a few years ago. He died in Marin at the
convalescent home right up there behind the Civic Center.
There weren’t very many stores in the early days. There were a lot of saloons. The railroad men and
the bad reputations. The old Round House I remember quite definitely. The Chapmans ran the store,
and (Roy)/Sam was quite an athlete at the University of California. He played for the big leagues
U.S. Navy Coaling Station, 1909
afterwards. I think he was a football player or baseball player, and then he went into professional
baseball. I don’t know whether there’s any of them left or not. The other ones were the Beyries that
ran a little place. You see these were small stores. There weren’t too many people here.
(Mrs. Kent: The little Marin that you mentioned I think really did belong to all of the people in
Belvedere. It was their private affair, and I think only you people in Belvedere and Tiburon had the
right to go on it. It was really like a private yacht. I wish I had gone on it, I wish I had.)
The old Eureka used to come in, I think. once a day, you know, to take the milk and so on because
these were dairy farms. I never was on the Marin, but I heard that the people commuted on the
Marin. They bought whatever they needed in the City, and they came home on the Marin.
The residents here didn’t need Marin County. They didn’t have a good road out to Marin, and they
didn’t want it. They were absolutely independent. Goldburg Bowen made deliveries here every day, I
believe. So we did all our ordering by
phone. We lived very compact.We
never went out.When we got here,
we were isolated.
There was a fellow by the name of
Maury Gale, I remember him very
definitely. You went to his house. He
had motion pictures every Saturday
night, and you sat on the floor with
the young people and some of the
older people from Belvedere. They
all came there. There was no need of
having the movie house, you know,
because he brought the movies. He
had something to do with the movies. And I remember, it was a wonderful way to entertain your
girlfriends, you know. You could bring them over, and it cost you absolutely nothing.
My wife Bernadette came from San Francisco and our families knew each other for years. But the
romance was started after we both graduated from college. We were both in Washington D.C. I was
in Foreign Service School, and she was taking her Masters in Social Services. Bernadette was a
Social Service worker. Her maiden name was Millerick. I’ve gone to the Rodeos and the Millerick
Ranch, when we were young, and all the uncles look just like Bernadette’s father to me. I mean they
all look alike.
I’m not a yachtsman. I have my own mast puller in case I ever have a boat. I have a mast puller,
that’s as far as I go. But I have a sort of theory, at least I had a theory a long time ago, that you’re
either a family man or a yachtsman. You have to make a choice. Knowing myself, I figured I get
enthusiastic about a thing, and I’d start with a rowboat and try to trade up to the Queen Mary, and I
figured somewhere along the line I’d be overboard, and I might as well not start, but we do still have
a trophy on the Bay. The perpetual trophy was started by my Uncle.
I took the pier out at the request of my insurance people, because boats were tying up there at night
and something might happen. A person could be bitten by a dog. It might not be even by my dogs.
Tiburon Main Street
Related Links:
• History of Keil Cove, by David Russell Keil
• Tiburon/Belevedere: Railroads and Codfish
• Belevedere/Tiburon Landmarks Society
And so they warned me. They said it was an attractive nuisance, and you’d better get rid of it, so I
did. It is bad in a way, but this is part of the things we pay for having a bigger population.
I was educated at St. Ignatius and also at University of San Francisco. I hate to think about that St.
Ignatius. I just got my golden diploma there. Fifty years. My class was 1927.They had a very nice
little commencement, and they marched you up with all my fellow classmates. There wasn’t a very
big class, but there was a Marshall someone, Garret McInery and a whole lot of people you might
know. Then I went on and took my degree from the University of San Francisco and then to Foreign
Service School in Washington D.C.
I was more or less encouraged, I guess, by the family to go into the Foreign Service. They had
certain connections at that time. It was more or less Germanic before the time that Hitler got into the
act, although most of my friends back at that time in the German Embassy were young lions as they
called themselves. They were young, the original start of the young Nazis, so then the relationship
got very cold, and it was better for me to come back and fix the plumbing in the buildings. It was
safer. I hate to think of what could have happened.
In World War II, I was in the Coast Guard. We appraised all that land for the ammunition. Remember
when we were putting the ammunition here? In fact they were bringing in the Atomic Bomb in here,
That was the Army engineers, and we did quite a bit of work on that. Most of the hillside was ap-
praised at $200 an acre. Now that was practically at the end of the war, so you can imagine what the
increase has been.
Yes we’re so much ahead of our inflation, you know, I still can’t keep up with it. Well, I think now I
can just change the decimal point. In other words, the meal that used to cost me $1.50 costs me
$15.00, the hotel room that I used to rent for $6.00 is now $60.00, so all I do is change the decimal
point, and it doesn’t bother me. But when I come to your Marin houses, I find something else hap-
pening. It’s more than just changing the decimal. We used to appraise by a simple method. We used
to get out on the curb and look at the building, and we’d start well below it, and we’d keep raising it
by $1,000 or by $5,000, and when the hair stood up in the back of our neck, we knew we’d gone far
enough, and we’d say that’s the value. Now that’s my old system of appraising, and I don’t think it
stands up to the computers and the calculators that they’re using now.
You may also enjoy reading the complete transcription of this oral history interview.