Corte Madera Memories
  • WELCOME
    • HOW IT ALL BEGAN....
  • EARLY HISTORY
    • WHAT'S IN A NAME?
    • FIRST SETTLERS
    • RACETRACKS IN CORTE MADERA?
    • A VILLAGE EMERGES >
      • BITS & PIECES >
        • 1913 "BOOSTERS" >
          • RAILROADS
        • 1899 to 2014 VIEWS
        • VIEWS FROM EAST PEAK
    • CHURCHES
    • SCHOOLS
  • CORTE MADERA BECOMES A TOWN
    • LOCAL GOVERNMENT
    • CHRISTMAS TREE HILL HISTORY >
      • EARLY MAP - CHRISTMAS TREE HILL
      • HOMES ARE BUILT
      • HISTORIC PHOTOS
      • HISTORIC PLACES
      • CM WOMEN'S CLUB IN THE 2000'S >
        • CORTE MADERA WOMEN'S CLUB HISTORY
      • 1926 Aerial View from 15,000 Feet
      • MEADOWSWEET DAIRY
    • BIG CHANGES AFTER WW II >
      • 1952 MASSIVE GROWTH
      • BIG CHANGES AFTER WW II
      • BUSINESS BOOM
      • LIBRARY
      • SCHOOLS
    • CHRISTMAS TREE HILL HISTORY
    • REAL ESTATE AD
    • FAMILIES GROW
    • OLDTIMERS' MEMORIES SHARED >
      • WILLIAM ISAAC PIXLEY
      • HARRY RICHARDS
      • SONIA DELEW
      • SUE BIGALL
      • LLOYD REA
      • HAROLD & MARY BATES
      • LAURA ROWE RICHARDS
      • EDITH SCHLOBOM
      • ELSIE THIERBACH
      • AUDA BORDANARO
      • WILLIAM TALLEY
      • FRED MORRIS
      • EARL & DONNA HART FAMILY
      • LOUISE LAMB
      • KURT NORSTAD
      • ELVA WILSON
      • JAN VALK
      • LUIS KUBICHEK
      • BILL & PEGGY THOMAS
      • ALBERT & JEAN LEVESQUE
      • ANDY VIRENO
      • AUGUSTINE HALL
      • HARRY & ANNETTE SCHRIEBMAN
      • MARY SCHWERDT
      • GERALD GRANUCCI
    • MARINER COVE
    • VISTA DEL BAHIA
    • MIRA VISTA
    • BUSINESSES
    • MADERA DEL PRESIDIO >
      • NEW ZONING ORDINANCE CUTS DENSITY
      • PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
      • RING MOUNTAIN OPEN SPACE PRESERVE
      • CORTE MADERA NORTHRIDGE
    • OLD TOWN SQUARE
  • 50TH ANNIVERSARY
  • CORTE MADERA MARSHES
  • SHARE YOUR OWN STORY
    • A VISIT WITH DOROTHY MALMGREN
    • LUIS KUBICHEK & BOYS' SOCCER
  • CORTE MADERA ECOLOGICAL RESERVE
  • SCENIC VISTAS
  • MARQUART LAGOON REGATTA
  • CELEBRATIONS
  • 4th of JULY PARADES
  • WOMEN'S CLUB 100TH BIRTHDAY
  • CENTENNIAL YEAR EVENTS 1916-2017
    • 75TH ANNIVERSARY
    • NEW YEAR'S EVE KICKOFF
  • LOCAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS
    • LAURA ROWE RICHARDS >
      • PAGE 1
      • PAGE 2
      • PAGE 3
      • PAGE 4
      • PAGE 5
      • PAGE 6
      • PAGE 7
      • PAGE 8
      • PAGE 9
      • PAGE 10
      • PAGE 11
      • PAGE 12
      • PAGE 13
  • THE BOOK: A HISTORY OF CORTE MADERA
  • THE BOOK: A HISTORY OF CORTE MADERA
  • WELCOME
    • HOW IT ALL BEGAN....
  • EARLY HISTORY
    • WHAT'S IN A NAME?
    • FIRST SETTLERS
    • RACETRACKS IN CORTE MADERA?
    • A VILLAGE EMERGES >
      • BITS & PIECES >
        • 1913 "BOOSTERS" >
          • RAILROADS
        • 1899 to 2014 VIEWS
        • VIEWS FROM EAST PEAK
    • CHURCHES
    • SCHOOLS
  • CORTE MADERA BECOMES A TOWN
    • LOCAL GOVERNMENT
    • CHRISTMAS TREE HILL HISTORY >
      • EARLY MAP - CHRISTMAS TREE HILL
      • HOMES ARE BUILT
      • HISTORIC PHOTOS
      • HISTORIC PLACES
      • CM WOMEN'S CLUB IN THE 2000'S >
        • CORTE MADERA WOMEN'S CLUB HISTORY
      • 1926 Aerial View from 15,000 Feet
      • MEADOWSWEET DAIRY
    • BIG CHANGES AFTER WW II >
      • 1952 MASSIVE GROWTH
      • BIG CHANGES AFTER WW II
      • BUSINESS BOOM
      • LIBRARY
      • SCHOOLS
    • CHRISTMAS TREE HILL HISTORY
    • REAL ESTATE AD
    • FAMILIES GROW
    • OLDTIMERS' MEMORIES SHARED >
      • WILLIAM ISAAC PIXLEY
      • HARRY RICHARDS
      • SONIA DELEW
      • SUE BIGALL
      • LLOYD REA
      • HAROLD & MARY BATES
      • LAURA ROWE RICHARDS
      • EDITH SCHLOBOM
      • ELSIE THIERBACH
      • AUDA BORDANARO
      • WILLIAM TALLEY
      • FRED MORRIS
      • EARL & DONNA HART FAMILY
      • LOUISE LAMB
      • KURT NORSTAD
      • ELVA WILSON
      • JAN VALK
      • LUIS KUBICHEK
      • BILL & PEGGY THOMAS
      • ALBERT & JEAN LEVESQUE
      • ANDY VIRENO
      • AUGUSTINE HALL
      • HARRY & ANNETTE SCHRIEBMAN
      • MARY SCHWERDT
      • GERALD GRANUCCI
    • MARINER COVE
    • VISTA DEL BAHIA
    • MIRA VISTA
    • BUSINESSES
    • MADERA DEL PRESIDIO >
      • NEW ZONING ORDINANCE CUTS DENSITY
      • PUBLIC OPEN SPACE
      • RING MOUNTAIN OPEN SPACE PRESERVE
      • CORTE MADERA NORTHRIDGE
    • OLD TOWN SQUARE
  • 50TH ANNIVERSARY
  • CORTE MADERA MARSHES
  • SHARE YOUR OWN STORY
    • A VISIT WITH DOROTHY MALMGREN
    • LUIS KUBICHEK & BOYS' SOCCER
  • CORTE MADERA ECOLOGICAL RESERVE
  • SCENIC VISTAS
  • MARQUART LAGOON REGATTA
  • CELEBRATIONS
  • 4th of JULY PARADES
  • WOMEN'S CLUB 100TH BIRTHDAY
  • CENTENNIAL YEAR EVENTS 1916-2017
    • 75TH ANNIVERSARY
    • NEW YEAR'S EVE KICKOFF
  • LOCAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS
    • LAURA ROWE RICHARDS >
      • PAGE 1
      • PAGE 2
      • PAGE 3
      • PAGE 4
      • PAGE 5
      • PAGE 6
      • PAGE 7
      • PAGE 8
      • PAGE 9
      • PAGE 10
      • PAGE 11
      • PAGE 12
      • PAGE 13
  • THE BOOK: A HISTORY OF CORTE MADERA
  • THE BOOK: A HISTORY OF CORTE MADERA
Corte Madera Memories
Picture

view of corte madera from east peak of mt tam

on july 17, 1899

taken by a passenger on the mt tam railroad

(from the fred runner collection)

 For more than a hundred years, ever since John Reed received the first Mexican land grant, Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio, in 1834, all the permanent settlements in Marin were on the uplands above the vast tidal marshes that stretched out toward the bay. When California became a state in 1850, homesteaders established ranches and dairies on the grassy hillsides below the wooded ridgelands that flanked Mount Tamalpais. By 1875, communities began to form along the new railroad line, and speculators who bought the homesteaders' land  soon laid out streets and tracts for homes that can be seen in this 1899  photo taken from the east peak of Mt Tam. They were all well above the tideline, as bay waters often overflowed the tidal sloughs and inched toward the sloping upland areas.   Even when a two-lane highway was built across the marshes in the late 1920s, and the tidelands between it and the uplands were drained to be used as pastures during the growing season, there was no development on the tidelands until after the end of World War II -- a hundred years after the arrival of the first homesteaders. It changed everything.