Mike Read/Pages From The Past
100 Years Ago
January 1924
— Quit Paying Rent – Buy this 3-room home place for $500 cash and $10 a month. Large lot, gasoline engine, garden, berries, etc., near Boulevard. Whole price only $1450. Lot 50×300: House wired. See A.H. Anderson. Flatiron Building.
— Those who received a greeting card from H. Pini & Co. saw a sample of the two-color printing done at the Advance office. This business firm saved a dollar or so by having the work done at home and the Advance made that amount, thus both were benefited. This is the kind of co-operation that builds communities and which this paper preaches. Let everybody give home-patronage in all lines of business a test this year and note the effect.
— A. Firenze sold his interest in the Novato bakery to L. Romitti.
— Burglar Caught – The number of burglaries in Novato will probably cease for some time, as the young man who wandered from the path of rectitude is now in the hands of the law. Clarence Crawford, a youth of 22 summers and who formerly worked in L.J. Nave’s garage, was caught at Petaluma after burglarizing a candy shop there and securing $35. His arrest is directly due to Constable DeLucchi, who suspicion Crawford for having committed the Novato burglaries and asked the Petaluma police to keep him under surveillance. Constable DeLucchi judgment was correct, and a surprise was sprung when the young man was arrested. He acknowledged robbing DeBorba’s ice cream parlor. He is placed under $2500 bonds to answer before the Superior Court of Sonoma County.
75 Years Ago
January 1949
— Formal organization of the new St. Francis Episcopal Mission in Novato was accomplished at a meeting held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Nelson on Vineyard Road. The Rev. Noble Owings, rector of St. Paul’s Church, San Rafael, represented the Right Rev. Karl Morgan Block, bishop of California, and conducted the meeting.
— Last minute report of finance chairman, Judge Geo. C. Faulkner, this week revealed that title to the Novato Community House can now be considered a reality. Only $1,300.00 more is needed to clear the bank loan which was necessary to meet the final payment due on January 15th.
50 Years Ago
January 1974
— Marin Treasures and Trophies is the name of a new family operated business located at Grant Avenue and Highway 101 in the building formerly occupied by Perry’s delicatessen. Owners are Jack and Peggy Lloyd, and their son Michael. The firm opened for business last week and offers a complete line of trophies, medals, ribbons, pewter and gifts. Mrs. Lloyd does the engraving, an art she learned from relatives in Salinas. Michael, a college student who also works the night shift as a clerk at Mayfair Market, says the new store will stress “personalized service” and welcome orders to either the store or their home on a 24-hour basis. The Lloyds have lived in Novato since 1965 and Jack Lloyd is a wholesale grocer.
— “Village Clip Joint” is the name of the new establishment to be located at 809 Grant Avenue where Michael Letsos operated Michael’s Barber Shop for the past 18 years. Owner of the new shop, which will feature cutting and hair styling for both men and women is Robert Boultier A native of New York, Boultier has worked in many shops across the country including Sassoon of New York City. He’s currently making some alterations in the shop and expects to be open for business “soon.”
— K Mart, a nationwide regional department store chain and a division of &. S. Kresge, is the “potential anchor” of the 35-acre commercial center planned for the Hanna ranch It was announced this week. Paul E. Frank, new vice president of the Novato Center Inc., the development company for the Hanna ranch, said K Mart will go in at the site “subject to approval of the master plan” by the city of Novato. The total area of 120 acres is located at the intersection of Highway 101 and Rowland Boulevard, east of the railroad tracks. Novato Center also plans to build a golf course west of the railroad tracks and Frank says he hopes to get that “firmed up in the near future.”
25 Years Ago
January 1999
— Anthony T. “Tony” Nunes, whose family came to Marin in the 1880s, died Sunday, Jan. 10, 1999 at a Petaluma hospital. Mr. Nunes, who was 95, had been in failing health for the past two years. Mr. Nunes was born in Tomales, the son of Manuel A. Nunes and Maria R. Gonsalves Nunes, both natives of Sag Jorge in the Azores. He grew up on the Nunes Home Ranch in Novato, a large dairy at the foot of Mount Burdell in the area that is now the home of Fireman’s Fund. He began working on the ranch at age 6; he completed his formal education when he graduated from the eighth grade at the old Grant Avenue School. His mother died in 1940 and his father in 1946; Mr. Nunes continued to operate the family ranch with his brothers Manuel and Joe. In 1951, he married Mary Silveira of Bolinas. He retired in 1982 and he and his wife moved to Petaluma.
— Mr. Nunes had been a parishioner at Our Lady of Loretto Church in Novato and St. Vincent’s in Petaluma. He was a past president of the IDES and very active in numerous Holy Ghost and fraternal societies in the North Bay. He was a member of the Nicasio Parlor of the Native Sons of the Golden West and of the Lusitania Band of the North Bay.
— Mr. Nunes leaves his wife, Mary S. Nunes of Petaluma; his daughter, Mary A. Nunes, also of Petaluma; his brother and sister-in-law, Joseph A. and Maria Lea Nunes of Novato; and numerous nieces, nephews, and grand- and great-grand- nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his sister, Mary N. Azevedo and his brothers, Manuel, George and Thomas Nunes.
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