Mike Read/Pages From The Past
100 Years Ago
April 1923
– To Build Own Home. Being the lowest bidder, Chas. P. Schuetz, builder of our Community House, was last week awarded the contract for the erection of an office building and residence for the Advance and its staff. Our new home, with its stucco finished front, will be of such an architectural character that no one need feel ashamed of their newspaper office. We have faith in Novato and its people, hence our nerve.
– Appearance of the Novato Salvage Co. is greatly improved since the erection of the new building with a square front. We understand the place is to be further improved and beautified. Let the good work go on all along the line.
– Gasoline 17 ½ cents a gallon at Samuels.
– Dedication of the Community House – The Presbytery of Benicia will hold a dedicatory service on Wednesday, at 2 p.m. After the dedicatorial service there will an intermission, and at 6:30 a fellowship dinner will be served to the visitors by the Novato Community Council. At 8:15 a moving picture program will be given, at which those attending Presbytery will be our guests. There have been delays in the progress of the building, and it is now expected that the work will be completed by April 11.
75 Years Ago
April 1948
– Wm. J. J. Smith, rural supervisor for northern Marin county schools has been engaged by the Novato board of trustees of the Union Novato school, as administrator and principal of the school, succeeding Miss Lulu Sutton, who has been the principal for the past 26 years who asked to be relieved of the duties of administrator due to recent illness. Miss Sutton will still teach the eighth grade in the school. Smith, one of the three men interviewed by the board, will at once assume the duties as his help is needed in preparing the school budget as well as engaging the new teacher needed. He will live in Novato with his family. Smith is well known locally, having spent much of his time while rural supervisor at the local school since his return from Okinawa where he was stationed during the last war. He is well versed in the problems confronting the present overcrowded school and plans for building the new school which should be ready for occupancy by September 1949, should the proposed bond issue carry at the election to be held May 17, 1948.
– Miss Sutton has made such good progress in recovering from a recent major operation that she announces she expects to be in her classroom the first school week in May.
– Jimmy Heidimer and Richard Nave were elected co-captains of the San Rafael high school track team.
– A.G. Raisch, well known highway paving contractor, has moved his yard from Ignacio to the tract he had acquired adjoining the railroad station reservation at Black Point. Bulldozers and other heavy equipment have been tearing down the hill and filling in low spots on the tract.
50 Years Ago
April 1973
– Novato voters yesterday rejected the $4.5 million flood control bond issue and elected James Casassa, Betty Machado, and Dr. John Kassenbrock to the Novato school board. The flood control bonds failed by only 142 votes. They got a 63.8 percent majority—a bit short of the needed 66 2 / 3 percent. The vote was 3,346 “yes” and 1,882 “no.”
– What’s going to happen to Hamilton Air Force Base? That was the question uppermost in the minds of Novatans this week as the long-expected news of the partial closing of the base filtered through the community. Yesterday’s formal announcement by the Pentagon, confirmed by local base officials, followed two years of incessant rumor that operating units such as the 84th Fighter Interceptor Squadron would be transferred, and the base converted as a center for Bay area reservists. By September most of the units on Hamilton will either be discontinued or transferred, and Hamilton will be one of three bases in the nation operated by the Air Force Reserve.
– Al Solini has sold his interest in the Octopus restaurant to his partner Israel Vilner who is now sole owner. Vilner has hired Richard Kawa to manage the restaurant which plans on staying open longer hours and increasing its menu. Kawa was formerly assistant manager of Negri’s restaurant in Occidental.
– The Oldtown Festival and Art Show will be held this year during the Western Country Fair celebration. The annual event, which takes place on east Grant Avenue, is scheduled for June 16, according to Shannon and Barbara Murphy of the Novato Art Center, who are coordinating it. It will be sponsored by the Novato Chamber of Commerce and Western Weekend Inc. The Oldtown Festival Committee is working on plans for the event. Some 2,000 entry forms for the art show have been prepared.
– Sylvan Circle, the Novato women’s unit of the United Ancient Order of Druids, will celebrate its 50th anniversary. The first Druid circle for women was formed in Novato in 1901, and a second was set up three years later. Both of these groups disbanded. Mrs. York recalls her mother going to meetings of that earliest circle and bringing her along in a baby carriage.
25 Years Ago
April 1998
– Mobile home park to close – Residents get bad news on Good Friday – Elizabeth Greiner got the bad news—that she’ll have to find another place to live—on Good Friday. The owner of the Redwood Mobile Home Park, where Greiner has lived for the past 12 years, will be closing the park a year from today. The park is home to 44 small mobile homes and a handful of RVs, some of them run down, most of them old. Over the years the park has seen its share of drug activity and been a frequent destination for police. The property owner, Taylor Investments, Ltd., has been buying up mobile homes in the park as people have vacated them. Taylor now owns 22 of the 44 units; most were purchased for $3,000 to $10,000 said David Kenyon, the attorney for owner. Kenyon said there are as yet no specific plans as to how the 4.2-acre site will be developed.
– Sonoma candidate? – Editor: I have been reading in the paper about how hard Cynthia Murray has been working to get funding to widen the “Novato Narrows,” that stretch of road north of Novato. Most of the Novato commuters travel south on Highway 101. Why would they want to spend Marin County money to widen a road that will only benefit Sonoma County residents? Why should I pay taxes so that Sonoma County drivers can drive south faster and completely jam up the bottleneck at San Rafael. Is Murray running for Sonoma County Supervisor or Marin County Supervisor? If this is the way she wants to spend my tax dollars, then she won’t get my vote. Bob Burke Novato.
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