some early photos collected by the

Corte Madera Heritage & History group

The train shown crossing the fields of "Owl's Wood" behind the first real Corte Madera School ran on tracks that stretched from Tomales to Sausalito.  Trains ran many times every day, carrying passengers and goods in the years before there were any roads through Marin other than the old Stage Road.

This first Corte Madera School was built on the cornfields of Frank & Amelia Pixley's country estate, "Owl's Wood," located along the Old Stage Road across from where Marin Primary School exists today in buildings that are the third Larkspur-Corte Madera School to occupy the same site where this first school stood. 

Mahood Brothers general store was the first long-enduring business in Corte Madera at the turn of the century in 1900.  Del and Foster Mahood sold ice cream, tobacco, baked goods, delicatessen items, and more, while running both the post office and the telephone exchange. 

Seen on the left in the photo is Holy Innocents Church, which was completed in 1901.  Decades later, the steep roof of the church was extended down as an A-frame, but the original building is still there, more than a century after it was built.

Click here to download this 1911 feature article about Corte Madera shown above and read it at full size on your computer.