Mike Read/Pages From The Past
100 Years Ago
March 1923
– Judge Hermann Rudolff finds that his cheese factory building is not large enough for his business, and is building an addition. A concrete structure 30×40 feet will be erected on the west end of the factory, and it is expected that cement will be poured next week. This completed, Mr. Rudolff will make improvements on the present building, giving increased facilities for the manufacture of French cheese, known the country over for its excellence.
75 Years Ago
March 1948
– Mrs. James F. Wilson, realizing the need of kindergarten training for her three- and one-half-year-old son, Jimmy Wilson, has opened a nursery school for youngsters between the ages of three and six years, at her home, Park Lane, in the Meyers-Schilling sub-division. The home has been state inspected and approved for the school, and Mrs. Wilson has received the proper license.
– Novato “Go-Getters” is the name of the basketball team, chosen at the close of the contest of the Pini Hardware store. The judges, Mrs. Frank Jacques, Mrs. Naxter Hovis and Jack Sparrow, after going over 185 entry blanks, selected the name submitted by Mrs. T. E. Divon, owner of the former Elinor Mills property on Novato Boulevard. For her reasons given on the application bank as “To Why I Shop In Novato,” she was awarded a Bendix radio console and phonograph.
50 Years Ago
March 1973
– Pacheco School got a reprieve last night. The Novato school board voted 6-1 to keep the school open and reevaluate the situation in a year. Board President Ron Schenck cast the dissenting vote. Pacheco supporters came out in force to defend their embattled school—there was an overflow crowd of about 220. They didn’t have to say a word. The board, which appeared at previous meetings to be strongly in favor of closing, had come over to their side, and the arguments made by parents at the recent public hearing appeared to have a lot to do with it.
– The proposed Pinheiro shopping center development is healthy, well and alive, its developer Al Burns of Mill Valley, told the Advance last week and will be built as planned, weather permitting and once access is gained from Highway 101. Burns spoke to the Chamber last week at its monthly luncheon meeting and described the plans of the 230,000 square feet shopping project. Grant’s plans – to occupy a 50,000 square foot store and a second junior department store is to move in. In addition, there will be a bank, a supermarket, restaurant, a health studio, and a variety of specialty clothing shops as part of a mall complex. Burns told the Advance that the design of his shopping center will be rural in character and will blend into the countryside. Cost of developing the center is estimated at $7,000,000.
25 Years Ago
March 1998
– A Marin Buick Pontiac GMC dealership will soon join Novato Toyota near the Vintage Oaks shopping center. Plans for the new dealership will be discussed at a meeting of the Novato Planning Commission.
– Owners of the Marion Park Apartments have filed a lawsuit aimed at stopping the city from building a skatepark in the nearby Marion Park. The suit, filed last week, maintains that the city needs an environmental impact for the project that proposes to build a permanent facility for skaters and skateboarders in the park on Grant Avenue. The suit also maintains the controversial project is in violation of the city’s General Plan.
– The Rotary Club of Ignacio hosted Its annual Monte Carlo Night last Saturday. More than 1,000 guests showed up at Fireman’s Fund to party and help the club raise funds for Its community activities, such as support for the Novato Police Department’s Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education program.
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