Mark Read/Pages From The Past
(Editor’s note: This feature from Marin’s past comes from stories in the Novato Advance and is compiled by Mark Read of the Novato Historical Society.)
100 Years Ago
July 1920
— The engagement has been announced of Dames B, Burdell, Jr., to Miss Irma Aspey, the charming daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Albert C. Aspey of San Rafael. The groom-elect is a descendant of one of the oldest and most prominent families in Marin County and his father established the Western Refrigerating Co. in Petaluma and for years owned the electric light system of Petaluma. Mr. Burdell, Jr. was for some time in the automobile business in Petaluma. He is a grandson of the late Dr. and Mrs. Galen Burdell and the late Mr. and Mrs. Sweetzer of Novato and is a nephew of Supervisor Fred Sweetzer of Marin County.
75 Years Ago
July 1945
A.E. Fulley who has purchased the former A.D. Scott building on Grant Avenue, corner Sherman, has leased the place to the Pini Hardware Co., who will take possession as soon as the present tenants find other quarters. Mrs. W.H. Busher has bought the A.D. Scott home on Sherman Avenue, in which she has an apartment. As soon as the Scott estate is settled the only surviving heir, Miss Jessie Scott, who occupies the family home, will move and make other plans.
Frank Valim, son of the A. Valims of Olive Avenue and one of Novato’s best-known young businessmen is training as a purser in the U.S. merchant marine. He has leased his lumber yard at Sweetser and Machin Avenue to Paul Rizzo, who took it over July 1st and will operate it as the Novato building materials yard.
50 Years Ago
July 1970
The proposed 85-cent Novato school tax ceiling increase endured a thumping defeat yesterday, losing by a decisive 3415 “no” votes to only 2182 “yes” votes. Yesterday’s negative 61 percent vote against only 39 per cent in favor of the tax hike in the Novato school district was a much worse defeat for the tax proposal than the tight 53 percent to 47 percent loss suffered in the first election on the tax measure April 14. But the “no” vote was virtually identical to the 3461 in April.
— Sambo Restaurants has signed a lease with Hoytt Enterprises for the northwest corner of Seventh Street and Novato Boulevard. Sambo plans to construct a 4,000-square foot building on the site. Seating capacity would be 125. Henry Hicks, local representative of the national restaurant chain, anticipates that the Novato unit will be open by the end of the year. Sambo Restaurants cater to the “local family trade” rather than the transient public.
25 Years Ago
July 1995
— On July I5, 1945, as night fell on Hamilton Air Force Base, Novato claimed its place in the A-bomb’s somber history. As Winston Churchill, Harry S. Truman, and Josef Stalin gathered in Potsdam, Germany to decide the fate of the post-war world, the two bombs destined for Hiroshima and Nagasaki were being taken from planes and loaded into trucks at Hamilton Field, said Novato resident Ira Sugarman, 80, who has been researching the history of the dropping of the atomic bomb since 1985. “I’ve been asking people at the bank, in gas stations, all around Novato, ‘Have you heard of the A-bomb coming through Novato?’ and many of them say “Yeah, I think I did hear something about that before.” There seems to be a local feeling of ‘This shouldn’t have happened in my backyard, but it did.’ ” said Sugarman. who plans to turn his research into a movie based in Novato. “He even asked the movers,” said his wife, Greta. The bombs were driven from Hamilton Field to the Hunters Point Navy Yard in San Francisco. It was there the bombs were welded to the cabin deck of the cruiser USS Indianapolis, which delivered its deadly cargo to Tinian Island to be picked up by planes that would drop the bombs on the Japanese cities. Hiroshima was struck Aug. 6, 1945, Nagasaki three days later.
— From the relative obscurity of a small shop located behind Donut Works on Redwood Boulevard, Novato Muffler & Brake has taken on a very high profile. Owner Steve Aiken has moved his popular shop into impressive and imposing new quarters at 7417 Redwood Blvd. The new building, on the corner of Redwood and Vallejo Avenue, has added another dimension to what has become a busting automotive corner which also includes Big O Tires and Goodyear, Aiken has owned the shop since he was 18, becoming sole owner at 20. Novato Muffler & Brake Service itself has been around for 23 years, offering quality exhaust and brake service.
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