Marin County CA Archives History - Books .....VII Belvedere - High Point 1958
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Book Title: Shark Point - High Point

VII
Belvedere-High Point

ALTHOUGH the story of the coves belongs equally to Tiburon and Belvedere, the
lagoon is considered part of the peninsular island of Belvedere.

  The first arks came to the area in the late 1880s. By 1930 there were about
thirty of them. One was sixty-two feet long, forty feet wide and had a
seven-foot porch all around. In the center was a glass-roofed garden and patio.
This special deluxe ark was owned by a religious fanatic named Wellington who
wanted to ride out the "second flood". Though there were some few simple
houseboats among the arks, most were the homes of the wealthy. One man, Ed
Newhall, is reported to have rented his plush ark for $400 a month in the 1920s
and 1930s.

  One of the attractions of the arks was that they were mosquito-free. The
double flooring kept them from being damp. All of the hardware was rustproof and
waterproof. Scavengers rowed among the arks twice a week to collect garbage. The
laws forbade dumping anything overboard. Most of the arks had four anchors, the
largest of which was dropped on the southwest quarter where the winds were
strongest.

  Most of the arks had two hogsheads on deck, one of wood, for drinking water,
and one of metal for wash water. When the water ran out, the hogsheads were
rowed over to Belvedere for filling. There was a charge of ten cents made at the
water works to have the water turned on. At one time, water was so scarce on
Belvedere that the community laid pipes acress the shallows of Richardson Bay to
Sausalito. This was not a total success, however. The Tiburon well was used to
furnish what the Belvedere wells couldn't provide. Wellington's ark had its own
unique way of keeping a water supply. There was a long hose which was hauled
over to land and attached to the water main. When the barrels were full, the
line was just unfastened and hauled back to the ark.

  Once a year, the owners of the arks (who called themselves "The Descendants of
Noah") put on a show: "The Nights of Venice". The first one, as nearly as we
have been able to discover, was in 1899. Traditionally, the invitations read:

  "The Venetians of the West, realizing the attractions of their city of the
sea, and desirous that their friends should share in these attractions, have set
apart the evening of June 16th, when the Queen of the Night is in the zenith of
her splendor, to show what a night in Venice is. . . A perfect night will be
enhanced by an open air concert, interspersed with fireworks, a general
illumination, open house by the descendants of Noah on their arks, and by the
hospitable residents of Belvedere, a grand torchlight pageant of open boats, and
water parties in the many beautiful Corinthian gardens".

  A fee of $1.00 was charged to come over on the ferry from San Francisco and
included a seat on Corinthian Island which served as a gigantic grandstand. The
dollar also paid for the trip home, but many people, afraid of missing the
ferry, paid many times the price of the ticket to guarantee home passage.

  The boys who lived in the arks could earn extra money by hanging lanterns from
the masts of the yachts if the owners were too-busy or too old or tired to do it
themselves. There were fireboats spraying water, with colored lights centered on
the stream. Homes were decorated with coal oil lamps and Chinese lanterns. The
judges sat on Corinthian Island, awarding prizes for best decorations. The band
from Angel Island and the soldiers from Fort McDowell would often come over and
play for singing and dancing.

  For many of the Belvedere parties, Will Ponding was official caller. To round
up the guests he would go around in a dray drawn by four black horses. On the
back, a man in a red coat and high silk hat blew a horn as a signal to come to
the party. This was called "The Tally Hi Ho."

  In mid-October, the arks would be taken into the lagoon for the winter. A few
days ahead of time, the police chief would be notified, for he was in charge of
the operation. The bridge at the foot of Corinthian had a movable span which
lifted for the arks to be towed in to winter anchorage. The lagoon was more
sheltered than the cove and the flat-bottomed arks couldn't take much of a
beating. It was April or May when they were brought back out into the Cove.

  Half a century ago (1898-1913) the San Francisco Olympic Club kept its racing
shells along the cove (where 90 Beach Road is now) and members practiced rowing
here for races on Lake Merritt in Oakland.

  In the early 1900s, three ships were floated into Belvedere Cove and
abandoned. One, the China Queen, had its cabin made into the blue-green house
which still stands on Beach Road (the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Zelinsky).
According to the Curator of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, Karl Kortum, the
"China" belonged to the Pacific Mail Steamship Company and was one of the last
sidewheelers to make the crossing from China.

  When a permanent road from Belvedere to Tiburon was completed the movable span
was taken out. No longer able to pass from the Cove to the Lagoon, many arks
were put on stilts or pilings along the cove and turned into permanent housing.
Some were towed into Corte Madera and Greenbrae. The receding waters of the
lagoon were also a contributing factor to the end of this era.

  In the early part of the year 1939 the twenty-four arks on stilts in the
Lagoon were doomed. They had to go with progress as the new land around the
lagoon was developed. There are still six of the original arks on Cove Road,
Beach Road and Laurel Ave. One ark was hauled to the top of Corinthian Island.
These are memory-provoking remnants of the romantic past of the lagoon and cove.

  It hasn't always been a romantic story, of course. On December 25, 1921, a
savage storm shook the helpless boats as they lay at rest. Boats were torn from
their moorings and hurled up against buildings. Several large boats were thrown
into houses along Beach Road, causing severe damage and a number of injuries.
Snow covered Mount Tamalpais. The concrete sea wall on Beach Road was knocked
down like a child's plaything. Vicious winds tore branches from surrounding
trees and covered the streets with debris. The tide rose to a dangerous level.
There are many stories of the storm. One of our favorites is about the surprised
woman who woke up to find the bow of a boat in her bedroom.

  Such was the storm of 1921. But we are ahead of our story. Long before the
arks came to Belvedere or abandoned hulks of old wrecks were towed in to clear
the cove, a young man tried to build a hunting and fishing resort on the inside
shore of Belvedere. This first white settler on Belvedere was Israel Kashow
(sometimes spelled Kershaw or Kashaw). He and his family had a goat farm and
planted an orchard of fruit trees. The pear tree about fifty feet north of the
Belvedere Community Hall is the only tree left- but it still bears fruit. In
February of 1954 we stood underneath its gnarled branches and looked at one lone
pear on a tree that may date from 1868.

  The Kashows settled on the island by squatter's rights in the 1850s. Later,
Kashow claimed the island, saying it was public land and he had resided there
seven years. Since the island was generally known as Kashow's Island by this
time, he probably expected no trouble when he entered his claim in the early
1880s. Since the original Belvedere Land Company was formed in 1888 and the
Corinthian Land Company is believed to have been even earlier, we can guess why
Kashow was trying to clarify this ownership.

  The Reed heirs, however, claimed the land was a peninsula, part of the Rancho
Corte Madera del Presidio grant. They also claimed that Kashow himself had dug a
channel through the mud-flat spit so that there would be a short-cut from
Richardson Bay into San Francisco Bay past his "resort". In 1884 Mrs. Lyford had
clarified claims to most of the grant. It may be that the question of Belvedere
already had come up, for the 1884 map reaffirms that grant with "Peninsular
Island" (Belvedere) and locates the Kashow house on the "island".

  In any event, the United States government stepped into the case, claiming
that if this were an island, it was government land and would be held by the
government, as were the other islands in the bay. There is a story that a
government launch removed Kashow from "his island" and that for a brief while
the U. S. flag flew from the summit of Belvedere. There is a story, too, that
Kashow appealed his case, then returned to his home on the island. When the
government inspectors came to re-list the "islands of the San Francisco Bay",
Kashow arranged a party at low tide so that the inspectors could "walk" to
Kashow's shack. After several drinks, the inspectors were taken back by water
"another way". Washington received a report on "Kashow's Peninsula". This
playing it both ways did not keep the land for Kashow, however. It was filed as
a part of the Reed estate. And actually Belvedere was lost within a year or so,
when John Joseph Reed put it up as bail for a friend, as nearly as Reed's great
granddaughter, Mrs. Inez Mills, remembers hearing the story. A map by a British
navigator, Beechey, who surveyed the bay in the 1820s, was introduced as
evidence to prove that Belvedere was a peninsula, according to attorney Edgar M.
Wilson, who was associated with the original Belvedere Land Company.

  The legal case which ended Kashow's Island gave life to the old dream of some
San Francisco speculators to build a "suburban paradise". The original Belvedere
Land Company was formed and sold lots. For these early residents, it must have
seemed like a summer paradise. Even years later, a San Francisco newspaper
columnist calls Belvedere "six miles from the city for business, six thousand
miles from the city in leisure living". The Belvedere Land-Company was started
in 1888 and laid out roads and building sites. The company also planted the
fast-growing eucalyptus and pine trees, for only oaks are native to Belvedere.
Harry B. Allen, who developed San Francisco's Sea Cliff and was instrumental in
buying the land company in the 1930s, saw Belvedere as a model suburban
residential area. He believed that "Belvedere's status as a privately owned
island distinguished it from all other islands in the bay".

  In the early days of development, there were no gas, lights or phones. A well
was sunk on San Rafael Avenue about one-fourth mile south of Beach Road but so
many "cats" got in that the water wasn't usable. For years that side of the
island, the sheltered cove side, was known as "Skunk Hollow". Most of the
residents there used the Tiburon well located by the present entrance to the
Corinthian Yacht Club.

  1891 to 1906 were the boom years for the exclusive summer homes and elaborate
arks. There were eighty homes, including twenty arks, at this time. Ten years
later only two or three more buildings had been added. Islanders liked being
remote and exclusive.

  The roads were very bad and it took four horses to pull the stage m Beach Road
in the winter months. In the summer, keeping the dusty roads watered was an
expensive problem. Wells Fargo Express delivered goods from the San Francisco
stores. Orders were given on Thursday for Saturday delivery. Older residents
remember watching the "vans" drive the narrow dirt roads on the island.

  At the turn of the century, Gordon Blanding, one of the wealthiest men in the
state, decided to buy an estate on Belvedere. There were already a number of
people living on the southern point but he just bought the whole thing and tore
down the buildings he didn't need. He moved into a large, imposing white house
at the end of Golden Gate Avenue, where he continued to live after his wife's
death in 1915. Blanding died in 1943 at the age of 95. For about ten years
before his death he rarely visited Belvedere. He kept a full staff of servants
there but lived in his fourteen-room apartment at the Fairmont Hotel in San
Francisco.

  One of Blanding's houses was the "Organ House", used for his collection of
paintings and a huge pipe organ. Noted musicians, including Paderewski, gave
concerts on the organ.

  Other Blanding houses were the "bedroom house", with seven bedrooms and seven
baths; a cottage for the head gardener, a carriage house and stable, and a boat
house and pier. Blanding commuted to the city from his private pier in a $30,000
cabin cruiser. Some of the other things for which he is remembered are his
twenty-five servants, the guards at his gate, and the coachman in full livery
who drove him around the island in a coach drawn by beautiful horses. But he
never entertained his neighbors on Belvedere, only people from the city.

  In 1940 Fred E. Palmer bought the entire Blanding property as a real estate
development and remodeled the carriage house for himself and his family. Mr. and
Mrs. Clarence M. Kretchmer bought the "organ house" and remodeled it. The W. F.
Booths now live in the huge white house on the point, always a landmark.

  There used to be a nine-hole golf course on the east side of Belvedere
extending from Oak Avenue to the north end of the island. Tennis courts adjoined
the club house, now a private home, which was designed by Albert Farr, an
architect who also designed several early Belvedere houses. The club was the
center of social activity in Belvedere until it went broke during the
depression. Many people recall driving by the golf course on the uphill side of
San Rafael Ave. Some residents of this area have dug up old golf balls in their
gardens.

  The Belvedere Hotel is important in the history of the town. The first hotel,
built in the 1890s, was a small one-story, gray building, which was later moved
and is now located on the water side of Beach Road.

  The second hotel was very luxurious and is evidently the one referred to in an
item in the Marin Journal, January 27, 1898, stating that Mrs. Annie T. Moore of
San Francisco planned to build a new hotel in Belvedere. Her plans were
described as being in the "old Dutch manner" and the article said that the hotel
would have fifty rooms and cost $10,000.

  The hotel was a large, dark red, shingled building, with four stories and
accomodations for four hundred guests. It had facilities for sailing and
swimming, and tennis courts at the corner of Beach Road and San Rafael Avenue
where apartment houses now stand. Besides the main hotel, there was a series of
cottages, painted to match the hotel. The present Belvedere Land Company now
owns these cottages along Beach Road next to the San Francisco Yacht Club.

  The hotel was a favorite resort around the turn of the century and was the
scene of many gay parties and dances in the huge ball room. But by the time the
San Francisco Yacht Club bought the property in 1925, the bank had foreclosed
and the purchase was made from the bank in San Francisco. The hotel was torn
down to make way for the new club house.

  Frank Ballard was the first U. S. Marshall in Belvedere and drove the first
car on the island, too. It was the bus for the Belvedere Hotel. There used to be
a grocery store, drug store and fountain owned by Mr. and Mrs. Lemuel Allen
(where the Belvedere city offices are now). There were a Japanese laundry, a
blacksmith's shop, boat works and an architect's office also between Belvedere
and Corinthian Island.

  The village green used to have fountains spraying, and even a few swans in a
pond. Belvedere did not have alarm clocks in those days so the fire bell was
rung at 6:30 every morning to awaken commuters who had to hurry down the hill to
catch the ferry. The roads were so winding that the commuters went down public
steps (still in use). Facing the green, across from the hotel, were the land
coniDany, the post office, and the telephone switchboard. Mrs. Henry Hilton had
the first phone in the Belvedere-Tiburon area.

  Belvedere was one of the earliest cities in Marin County, incorporated in
1897. How everything has changed since then, and how Belvedere has grown! The
population as of April 1958 was 2240. The full Tiburon Peninsula, including
Belvedere, now has a population of about 8500. Where once there was an expanse
of water, making Corinthian really an island, there now are roads, houses,
apartments, a shopping center, gas station, and a nursery school.

  Our chapter on Belvedere would not be complete without mention of the artists
who, through the years, have found it a fine place to live and work. The list is
too long to give more than the earliest and most prominent names.

  Among writers, there were Gertrude Atherton and Robert Louis Stevenson. Mrs.
Atherton escaped on a cattle boat from the San Francisco earthquake and fire,
and came to live with her daughter on Golden Gate Avenue. Across the street
lived AVilliam Keith, during the period of San Francisco's re-building. He is
known as the "Old Master" of California painters. Gordon Blanding was
Belvedere's first art patron and collected Keith paintings. Willis Polk,
well-known architect of that time, was often a guest in Belvedere homes and
designed several of them. Many architects have chosen to live in Belvedere and
neighboring areas.

  The "arks" of Belvedere had great appeal for artists; and the Codfishery, on
the south side, became a retreat for them after its commercial life was over.
There used to be many studios in its old buildings. Tenants were sculptors,
painters, writers and decorators. But piece by piece the original buildings have
been condemned - because of fire or flood - and the last landmark of a great
industry is slowly disappearing. Only the sculptor, David Lemon, and his painter
wife, Jerry O'Day, still live there, on the upper floor of the old cook house;
and there are several studios left in an old warehouse. But recent fill on the
beach, for a projected road, seems to threaten even these.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Shark Point - High Point
An Illustrated History of TIBURON  & BELVEDERE
IN
MARIN  COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

BY EIGHTH GRADERS OF THE REED SCHOOL
CLASSES OF 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958

PUBLISHED BY THE REED SCHOOL DISTRICT PARENT-TEACHER CLUB
BELVEDERE-TIBURON
MCMLVIII


Designed by Lawton Kennedy, San Francisco
3000 Copies 

Printed by R. G. Fontana & Son, San Anselmo


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