Mike Read/Pages From The Past
100 Years Ago
December 1923
– Chicken Thieves – Several chicken houses in this valley have been raided and that of R.H. Trumbull is the latest, several hundred birds being stolen. There seems to be a gang who propose to thrive off the industry of others. In the early days this kind of person was often made the principals at necktie parties, which had a salutary effect on others in like business.
– H. Pini and Mrs. M. Bazzini went to Napa and on December 3 were joined in matrimony. The contracting parties are well-known business people of Novato.
– Street Improvements – Machin Avenue, from Grant Avenue passed the Community House, has been graded precisely to the line as staked by County Surveyor Oglesby. The street is 56 feet from curb to curb, leaving a 12-foot sidewalk on either side. This work has been done through the efforts of the Chamber of Commerce and under the direction of Supervisor Sweetser, who agrees to gravel the same and thus give the community a good road to the Community House. D. Freeland had the contract and did a fine job. If the property owners on the east side would now lay concrete sidewalks a public service would be performed besides enhancing the value of their holdings.
– A burglar forced the safe door of Nave’s garage early Wednesday morning of last week with a sledgehammer and secured about $60.
– H. Pine & Co. have moved their grocery store into the building recently vacated by the post office. The building has been remodeled and affords commodious quarters and an up-to-date store.
75 Years Ago
December 1948
– Mrs. Alma Stevens is now the sole operator of the “Novato Snack Shop”, which she was operating in co-partnership with Mrs. Nellie Bertucci and son, Charles, under the name of Doug’s Fountain. The shop is situated on west Grant Avenue.
– The St. Francis Episcopal church members held their services at the Hill Top Ranch of Paul and Marie Brindell. Bishop Karl Morgan Block officiated. This was the first meeting to be held in Novato by the Episcopalians. On December 5 they met at the Novato Community House for the first time, with an attendance of 28 members.
– The contract for the construction of the relocation of Highway No. 37 between the Petaluma River bridge and Crest Road has been let and a start on the preliminary work has been made. The state has already taken over the property of Mrs. Bobo and the Dempsey family have vacated it. The state has also taken over the property of J. Horvath and it is offering the cottage and garage for sale.
– The Novato Druids are making plans to celebrate their Golden Jubilee on January 15, 1948.
Mrs. Laura Rodoni, who with her two sons operates the service station and motel on 101 highway and Grant Avenue, is having a sidewalk put in the length of her property.
– It will be a Merry Christmas after all for the veteran’s family of seven children whose plight was told in last week’s “Advance.” Thanks to the efforts of the American Legion and W.E. Cole, the father has found a job in Marin City and the family moved from their tent near Novato to Cabin No. 150 in the Marin City Housing Project. Additional gifts of clothing and food still are needed however and may be left at the Perrott Cage with Legionnaire Sam Aiken.
50 Years Ago
December 1973
– Now it’s the men claiming equal rights with women. The Novato Teachers Association is proposing that male teachers be entitled to paternity leave. Up to six days off any time between the birth of the child and its first birthday. A teacher could claim it for any child “he has fathered” —a New Morality way of expressing it.
– A Taco Bell restaurant– an architectural horror or a symbol of the free enterprise system depending on one’s point of view – will soon grace the corner of Grant Avenue and Machin Street on Novato Square. The city planning commission granted by a vote of 4-2 Ben Ostlind’s appeal of the plan review committee’s decision denying the architectural plans for the restaurant at the new Novato Square site. The planning commission had previously turned down Ostlind’s plan to construct the restaurant on the square across from the Community House. It did, however, approve the new site further removed from the city civic center late in October. But the plan snagged again in the-plan review committee which objected to the restaurant’s architecture, termed incompatible with the downtown plan. The two “no” votes came from commission chairman Richard O’Connell and Gail Wilhelm. Mrs. Wilhelm argued that franchise restaurants tend to “homogenize the entire country to its lowest common denominator.”
– Kerrick Anderson recently took over as owner of East Side Auto Parts, 874 Grant Avenue. He formerly was parts manager at Novato Auto Sales. Under the new management the firm has longer hours. The business formerly was operated by a corporation headed by Robert Buchholtz.
– These are some of the actions the city council took last week MUSEUM—Approved an agreement that makes the city owner of the building that houses the Novato Prehistory Museum. The museum will have sole right to use it as long as it continues to conduct educational and historical projects and is open to the public at least 20 hours a quarter.
25 Years Ago
December 1998
– It has been 20 years “since Frank McGovern and his 16- year-old daughter, Julie, hauled 300 Christmas trees from farms near Mt. Lassen National Park and sold them to friends, neighbors and anyone else they could attract to their home at 563 McClay Road. At that time, it was McGovern’s Christmas Tree Lot. Now—thanks to one lone pine growing on their property—it is, by Frank’s estimation, McGovern’s Christmas Tree “farm”. What started for the McGoverns—Frank, wife Gretta and their four children—as a way to supplement Frank’s income as a general contractor, has grown into a thriving business and a Novato institution. Today, many adults who visited McGovern’s two decades ago, now bring in their own children to enjoy the sights, smells and wonders of the McGovern’s “farm”. Just one day after arriving in Novato with his load of trees 20 years ago Frank became, by his own acknowledgement, “an instant expert on Christmas trees.”
– The county’s gain is Novato’s loss, and the city council will have to come up with a way to make itself whole once Cynthia Murray steps onto the Marin County Board of Supervisors in January. Murray, who was elected to the board of supervisors in November, will leave the five-member Novato City Council with a year left on her term. She would have been up for re-election in November. The council has three options —it can appoint someone to fill the vacancy, it can hold a special election and let the voters decide or it can do nothing and function for a year with four councilmembers.
– A funeral Mass was celebrated at Our Lady of Loretto Church for Richard N. Doolittle, a former longtime Novato resident. Mr. Doolittle died in Stockton, where he had been living since his recent retirement. He was 67. Mr. Doolittle owned and operated Doolittle’s Paint Mart in Novato from the late 1960s through the 1970s. During his years in Novato, he was a parishioner at Our Lady of Loretto Church.
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