Save Druid Heights
Working to preserve a beautiful and historic place
Category: Uncategorized
With DRUID HEIGHTS JUST A QUARTER MILE AWAY…
In 2022, according to National Park Service data, 798,625 visitors came to Muir Woods National Monument. If they parked in the overflow lot seen in the photo they would have been just 1246 feet as the crow flies from Elsa…
Read MoreSADLY SO VERY COMPARABLE TO DRUID HEIGHTS
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/cape-cod-dune-shack-artist-eviction/index.html The National Park Service continues to amaze, and too often not for good deeds when it comes to historic structures. In this case they are evicting a 94 year old artist from a “dune shack” while simultaneously putting other…
Read MoreTHE BBC COVERS DRUID HEIGHTS
Author Melanie Haiken is a Mill Valley native that I have known since the late 1970s. I first urged her to write about DH several years ago if she found an interested outlet. Given Druid Heights’ connection to the UK,…
Read MoreNOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: THE ENTIRE WALKING TOUR OF DRUID HEIGHTS WITH GERD STERN AND FRIENDS, 5/24/18
On May 24th 2018 Beat Generation poet and pioneering multimedia artist Gerd Stern, his partner Judith, the author of this post, Michael Toivonen and photographer David Keaton took a walk through the history nocvupied portions of Druid Heights. To make…
Read More“SIDE CANYONS, DEER TRAILS, CLIFFS & THICKETS”
The poem below from short term (several months, fall 1969 through early/mid 1970 ) Druid Heights resident Gary Snyder was dedicated to Druid Heights resident Alan Watts following his death on November 16, 1973. I believe their time at DH…
Read MoreA DEEP DIVE INTO THE STAGNANT STATUS QUO AT DRUID HEIGHTS
If you want to get a better sense of the situation at Druid Heights you need to read the article “America’s Only LGBTQ Historic District Is Falling Apart” linked to below all the way through to the end. Unfortunately the…
Read MoreA MAN OF MANY TALENTS: ROGER SOMERS IN HIS DRAFTING STUDIO AND MUSIC ROOM AT DRUID HEIGHTS
This early 1970’s photo captures Druid Heights original resident Roger Somers playing the conga. On the left and behind him are his drafting table and books on architectural subjects, while on the right are several of his other favorite instrument,…
Read MoreSPRINGTIME AT DRUID HEIGHTS, 2018
I doubt it is looking this lush and green out there now given the terrible drought, now in its second year. I took this photo of poet and artist Gerd Stern and his partner Judith on one of the two…
Read MoreMAGNUM OPUS, 1975: DRUID HEIGHTS’ ROGER SOMERS $400,000 BUS REBUILD FOR NEIL YOUNG
Druid Heights’ Roger Somers caught up with rock star Neil Young in an east coast hotel room while Young was on tour and pitched himself as the designer /craftsman more than capable of taking a standard bus and converting it…
Read MoreThe California Preservation Foundation presents a webinar on Druid Heights
At the invitation of the California Preservation Foundation Save Druid Heights co-founders UC Berkeley architectural historian Greg Castillo and Michael Toivonen presented a webinar on Druid Heights in August of 2020. It is now available for viewing on Youtube without…
Read MoreDRUID HEIGHTS RECEIVES FRESH PRESS COVERAGE
The Marin County California weekly The Pacific Sun has just (1/19/21) published an article on Druid Heights that emphasizes the need for preservation. This is the first traditional media coverage Druid Heights has received for some time, and the first…
Read MoreNot your typical old airstream trailer
Along side one of the smaller structures at Druid Heights is an aging airstream trailer. Nothing about its exterior stands out, and when I took this photo of it in 2016 I saw no reason to look closer. Not looking…
Read MoreTHOUGHTS, IDEAS AND TIME TO WRITE ABOUT LIFE
“And most important, one had time and quiet days and nights (at Druid Heights) to mull over thoughts and ideas and how to implement them, or time to write about life.” ——–Margo St James, in her August 12, 2009 oral…
Read MoreNEW CONCLUSION: ED STILES’ WOOD WORKING SHOP AT DRUID HEIGHTS IS ELIGIBLE FOR THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES
The results are in, meaning we have seen the final determination of eligibility for the National Register of Historic Places report for Druid Heights. The final version extended the period of Druid Heights significance through the year 1979, the year…
Read MoreROGER SOMERS ON THE STEPS OF THE TWIN PEAKS HOUSE, MAY 1968
Roger Somers (1926-2001) was the Druid Heights resident most responsible for the radical transformation of the built environment of the former Haapa Family homestead. Here he is, dressed in work clothes including a carpenter’s apron, on the west steps…
Read MoreVIEWS OF DRUID HEIGHTS CIRCA 1954, 1968, AND THEN THROUGH 1979
It was late winter or early in the spring of 1954 when Elsa Gidlow and her partner Isabelle Quallo ran into Roger Somers and his toddler son Tagore at a picnic in Berkeley, CA. This was not a first meeting,…
Read MoreBACK TO THE TWIN PEAKS “SPA”
While we do not have it’s exact dimensions the Twin Peaks house at Druid Heights is not a large house, and in fact it is really quite small by the standards of your typical American home, which for homes constructed…
Read MoreRESIDENTS AND VISITORS OF DRUID HEIGHTS
What follows is a list of people who either lived at or visited Druid Heights during the years of its greatest cultural significance, 1954, the year when the former the Haapa family homestead was bought by Elsa Gidlow, and Roger…
Read MoreWHAT IF DRUID HEIGHTS WAS RESTORED TO HOW IT WAS IN 1973?
At the Laird’s Landing historic site in the Point Reyes National Seashore 30 miles north of Druid Heights the National Park Service (NPS) has decided to remove the additions to the buildings that were made after what has been judged…
Read MoreA PICNIC FOR MICHAEL TOIVONEN’S SAVE DRUID HEIGHTS FRIENDS
Michael Toivonen, co-founder of Save Druid Heights, is holding a picnic on Sunday September 22nd from noon until 5 pm at Paradise Beach Park, 3450 Paradise Drive, Tiburon, CA and is inviting his friends who favor preserving Druid Heights’ history…
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