Summer 2010 Jack Mason`s West Marin

Under the Gables
Volume XVI, Number 4
Summer 2010
Jack Mason’s West Marin
AN APPRECIATION AFTER 25 YEARS
and a new exhibit featuring Mason and his writing contributions to Marin history
Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History
Inverness Way at Park Avenue, Inverness
Phone 415-669-1099
www.jackmasonmuseum.org
In this issue of Under the Gables, we provide an introduction to our new
exhibit (opening Fourth of July) about Jack Mason; his and Jean’s historic
home The Gables; and the first quarter century of the revived Jack Mason
Museum of West Marin History since Jack’s death in 1985.
Jack’s books and articles on the history of West Marin, as well as
his two Marin County histories, are a gift that few communities are
blessed with. Add to that his arrangement to leave his collection and
house to the community for future education and enjoyment, and we
can realize our luck in living in such a unique area that has been cared
for for so long.
Jack Mason, as you will see in these pages and in the exhibit, was
a strong-willed and diligent reporter, whether his beat be the streets of
Oakland in the 1950s, the battlefields of Italy during WWII, the sometimes-contentious meetings of the Inverness Improvement Association
in the 1970s, or the kitchens of old-timers as he coaxed the family histories from his hosts. He was a lifelong lover of Tomales Bay. He fought
censorship in the U.S. Military. He was willing to make fun of himself,
as long as he could also comment on the foibles of others.
Enjoy this issue of Under the Gables, and see you at the Museum.
Around 1893, Alexander Baily showed off the first wing of his new Inverness home,
soon to become The Gables and almost a century later the JAck Mason Museum.
THE JACK MASON MUSEUM
JACK MASON
MUSEUM COMMITTEE
Robert Kroninger, Chair
Tom Branan
Andrew Buckingham
Carola DeRooy
Mary Kroninger
Meg Linden
Dewey Livingston
Jenefer Merrill
Michael Mery
ADVISORY COMMITTEE
Sue Baty
Henry Buckingham
Mary & Ken Cardwell
Dian Carpenter
David Donlon
David Elliott
Dorito Marringa
Vivian Mazur
Linda Mendoza
Maidee Moore
Connie Morse
Kathy Munger
Ann Read
Kerry Rose
Marcia Strom
HONORARY MEMBER
Barbara Mason McClellan
ALWAYS NEEDS VOLUNTEERS FOR ARCHIVAL,
ORGANIZATIONAL, OUTREACH, AND
COMPUTER-RELATED TASKS.
PLEASE CALL DEWEY AT 669-7706,
THE JACK MASON MUSEUM
OF WEST MARIN HISTORY
IS AN AFFILIATE OF THE
INVERNESS FOUNDATION
OR THE MUSEUM AT 669-1099.
Editor & Layout:
Dewey Livingston
ON THE COVER
Editorial Assistance:
Michael Mery
Molly Livingston
Jack Mason plays the piano as an always-amused Jean looks on.
2
Jack Mason’s West Marin
AN APPRECIATION AFTER 25 YEARS
by Dewey Livingston
It was only fitting that, in the 1960s, Jack Mason became the
Point Reyes Historian: his grandmother was a West Marin old-timer,
her family being one of the early settlers on the Inverness Mesa; he
spent summers swimming and sailing in Tomales Bay; he took a history
degree at Cal; and he knew practically all the people in the area.
So when he retired after a long career at the
Oakland Tribune, Jack and his wife Jean (oh, I forgot another tie: he had also married the daughter
of the longtime Point Reyes dentist) moved to
Inverness where he took an interest in old buildings and old friends, bought and sold houses,
and rented summer houses in the old Inverness
tradition. It must have been when Jack and Jean
opened a café, which they called The Station
House (another clue to his interests), and he had
time to shoot the breeze with all the pioneer residents, that Jack decided to write down as much
as he could of the history of West Marin.
And so Jack Mason took notes, borrowed old
photographs and documents, studied records at
the county courthouse, searched for old-timers
near and far, and started writing a weekly column
for the Point Reyes Light. The columns were his
first drafts for an eventual eight books about the
people and places of West Marin.
Jack partnered with the Light’s publisher,
Don DeWolfe, to set type and print his first tome,
Ben’s Auto Stage. This delightful letterpress book
chronicled the life and work of Ben Pedranti, the
affable man who drove the succession of stages
between Point Reyes, Inverness, and beyond.
3
Jack’s grandmother Barbara Mason bought property on
the Inverness Mesa in 1899. Her son William married
Geraldine Strickland, pictured at right in a happy moment.
Ben’s career reflected the passage of time as he
started with horse-drawn wagons, retired from
smoke-spewing auto stages, and saw in his old
age freeways and sleek cars. Ben’s passengers
spanned generations of local residents, summer
people, and visitors.
Next, Jack tackled the history of the Point
Reyes Peninsula in Point Reyes: The Solemn Land.
He tracked the complicated history of the Shafter
family, owners of dozens of successful and notso-successful dairy ranches, those credited with
creating one of the largest dairy operations in the
country. He wrote of the exploits of the U.S. LifeSaving Service surfmen and the early lighthouse
keepers, and brought it all up to date with the
creation of a new National Seashore. The book
was not as much a personal memoir as Ben’s Auto
Stage had been, but it was full of personality and
it was also the first book on the subject.
There followed six more books, all selfpublished in DeWolfe’s garage print shop at his
Second Street house behind the Western. He wrote
of the Tomales Bay communities in Earthquake
Bay; Inverness traditions in Summer Town; collected favorite stories in Point Reyes West; took on
our southern neighbors in Last Stage for Bolinas
(with Tom Barfield); and wrote the first comprehensive history of Marin County since 1880 in two
volumes, Early Marin and The Making of Marin
(in conjunction with Mill Valley historian Helen
Van Cleave Park).
Through this period, Jack Mason continued
writing for the Point Reyes Light, not only history
but reporting local news. In his almost twenty
years at the Light he worked for DeWolfe, Michael
Gahagan, and Dave and Cathy Mitchell. He had
famous scraps with Peter Whitney over his coverage of Inverness Improvement Association meetings, and let his opinions be known in his column,
Funny Old World, and occasional editorials. He
was a professional journalist but took delight in the
carefree days of retirement by riling people up and
taking controversial stands (Jack’s lonely campaign
against a popular school bond shortly before his
death actually lost him some friends). He also took
on civic projects, from beautification to local fairs.
He was a talented pianist and loved to tinkle the
keys whether at home or in the local bars.
It could very well be that the project Jack loved
the most was his quarterly history periodical, the
Point Reyes Historian. The first issue appeared in
the summer of 1976, with stories about railroading,
town characters, creation of the federal park, and
4
Mason served in the U. S. Army as the
editor of the Mediterranean editions of
Stars and Stripes; he refused a medal
after being threatened with censorship.
after friends had warned me that he could be a
nasty curmudgeon; the tall old man who answered
the door showed me a genuine welcome with his
first look. I asked for his help as a newly minted
history writer and he was pleased that someone
so young was interested: my life changed that
instant. Soon Lynn Murray, longtime Point Reyes
librarian, joined me in helping Jack organize his
things as he devised plans to make his house into
the Inverness Library after he was gone.
Lynn and I were shocked at the location of
Jack’s priceless history collection: what wasn’t in
the blazing attic was in a closet next to the wood
stove in the tinder-dry ancient house. But he had
decorated his Victorian parlour for visitors, with
old framed photos, artifacts, and curious objects
flanking a Chickering square grand piano. The
dark redwood walls were littered with West
Mariniana, lovingly captioned and cleverly arranged. Although private and unpublicized, it
was West Marin’s history museum.
And then the community took over. Jack died
in January 1985. He had set into place his dream
of transforming his and Jean’s historic home into
the Inverness Library, with room for his historical
collection to he shown. The Inverness Association went to work, with people forming a Gables
even a little local gossip. In subsequent numbers
Jack profiled Inverness boatman Brock Schreiber,
Point Reyes landowner Oscar Shafter, lighthouse
keeper Gustav Zetterquist, and he told us who the
Druids were and what the RCA people did. He
told tales of Teddy Roosevelt at the country club,
of Dwight Eisenhower inspecting troops at the
Laguna Ranch, and of John F. Kennedy’s fateful
change of plans in November 1963. Jack looked
at historic buildings, shared memories of faithful
readers, wrote of shipwrecks and train wrecks,
and highlighted the unknown working people of
West Marin in poignant vignettes.
The Point Reyes Historian was published
four times a year by his North Shore Books until
cancer and age caught up with Jack Mason. He
produced the last volume in 1984. Jack had opened
a storefront on Point Reyes Station where he sold
his books and promoted the Coastal Post (he had
had a falling out at the Light). Despite his illness,
you could find Jack, now a widower, shambling
down Main Street, stopping to catch up with his
old friends and meet new babies.
One of those babies was mine—Molly made
an impression on him as they compared enthusiastic smiles. I had, some months earlier, knocked
on Jack’s door at The Gables, full of trepidation
5
Jean (left), and Jack show an
East Bay friend the pleasures
of Tomales Baywith their boat,
Sea Biscuit.
Jack researched, wrote and published the wonderful
Point Reyes Historian four times a year for eight years.
room bright and clean, with the walls painted and
the fireplace removed. And the rest is history!
The all-volunteer Museum Committee of the
Inverness Foundation has worked for these past
25 years to offer our community and those beyond
our boundaries a place to learn about and celebrate
our past. We have mounted at least 50 exhibits,
published Under the Gables, collected plenty of
additional historical materials, held special events,
hosted children and adults, enlightened researchers. The cabin in back returned as Baily’s Cottage,
committee to plan and raise funds. Marin County
Library joined the effort, as the current Inverness
Library was one of the smallest in the country. Jack
and Jean’s daughter Barbara graciously cooperated;
without her support, nothing would have happened.
Lynn and I participated in most aspects, while making sure the priceless collection was safe.
It took some time, but in the fall of 1986 amid
great fanfare, the new Inverness Library opened,
with the Jack Mason Museum proudly filling the
old parlor. Remodeling had made the museum
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Jack loved to write clever poetry, and his writing skills
enhanced his many book on Marin history. He and Jean
welcomed visitors, especially descendants of early West
Marinites, to their home and museum at The Gables. Today
their house is the Inverness Library and Jack Mason Museum.
even a few fine old paintings. But of Inverness,
Jack’s favorite place, we preserve a trove of photos of houses and scenes, boats and beaches, hills
and trees.
We all like to think that Jack would be happy
with the events following his death. His patient
work built a museum and research facility, and
provided Inverness with a fine library in a historic
old home. And we are committed to another 25
years, and more after that, of sharing local history
with the people of West Marin and beyond.
home to the Mason collection with its fireproof
safe, up-to-date cataloging program, and sturdy
shelves to hold treasures.
We always remind people that the collection
is about West Marin, not only Inverness: we have
valuable photos, maps and documents about
Point Reyes Station, Marshall, Olema, Bolinas, the
ranches, the bay, the natural landscape. We have
planning documents, and complete sets of the
Baywood Press/Point Reyes Light and the West
Marin Citizen. We have hard-to-find books, and
7
By Jack Mason
“Funny Old World”
“I’ve got an idea,” Don DeWolfe said.
I laid his medium-rare
hamburger on the counter in
front of him. “If so, it’s the
first time,” I said, in the kidding tone one uses with an
old friend, even if he is the
local editor.
He didn’t bother to parry the thrust, but handed me
a mustard container he had
been fiddling with. “This
one’s empty,” he said.
I gave him another from
under the counter.
“What’s your idea?” I
said. My interest was only
lukewarm. Certainly I was
not flattered that he would
ask me for my opinion. Editors do that — ask everybody
in the place what they think,
then do their own thing regardless. It’s the way Great
Battles have been fought and
lost since the dawn of time.
He squeezed some of the
brown stuff onto his hamburger patty, then pressed down
hard on the bun as if afraid the
meat might get away. Those
were quarter-pound hamburgers I served at the Station
House in 1966 — and the buns Jack Mason pours a cup for a customer around 1967. He and his wife Jean ran the
all had sesame seeds on top. Station House Cafe in Point Reyes Station during those years.
“The coffee will be ready
in a minute,” I said. “We had a couple of customers said, “these checks you wrote Farmer Brothers and
in her awhile back, and they drank it like it was Schwartz’ Meat Company last week. What do you
going out of style.”
expect me to do with them?”
“You mean you have other customers?” Don
In red-faced confusion I told Bob it was good
exclaimed. He dug into his burger, reaching for a of him to call, and said I would be right over to take
napkin. “This napkin holder is empty,” he said.
care of it, as soon as I got rid of my customer.
I pushed one towards him from further down the
“You have a customer?”
counter, just as the phone rang. “Probably Willi Rein“Yeah, Don DeWolfe.”
hardt,” I said. “The toilets are plugged up. That ought
“Well, tell Don for me, will you, that I think
to take care of your crack about other customers!”
his new idea is great!”
But it was Bob Vilas at the bank. “Jack,” he
I was really taken aback. “You mean he’s tried
8
the idea out on you! What is it?”
“Don’t you know?” Bob cried. “I thought
everybody on the street was in on it.”
I hung up, stung, and stood there for a moment letting my anger cool. Here I’d been writing
a column for DeWolfe — free. Writing editorials in
my spare time — absolutely free of charge! And
I’m the last one on the street to know about this
great, world-shaking idea of his!
“What is it — I mean your idea?” I demanded.
He was whipping his hands on four paper
napkins at once. Finally he rolled them up into
one big ball and dropped them in the green hamburger basket..
“Oh,” he said, “the idea.”
“Yeah, you told everybody else. How about
telling old Jack?”
He worked his way off the stool, and pulled
some small change out of his pocket — and I mean
small. “How much is a hamburger?”
“Did it have cheese on it?”
“No, I can’t eat cheese.”
“Fifty cents. And don’t bother leaving a tip.
I dropped his five dimes and three pennies in the
cash drawer. The spring was broken, so we always
left the drawer open.
“My idea,” he said, “is to change the name
of the paper.”
I felt let down. “What’s wrong with The
Baywood Press? It’s been called that for 18 years. It
has tradition behind it. People are used to it. Why
change it?
“I thought Point Reyes Light would tie in
better with the area,” he said. He inspected me
momentarily for my reaction. “I’ll think it over,”
I said.
He had to bring all his weight to bear against
the door before he could let himself out — the
pneumatic catch was stuck. Then he stood there for
a moment screwing his mouth into an odd shape.
“This is the only hamburger joint I was ever
in,” he said, “that didn’t have toothpicks by the
cash register.”
Inverness was full of real estate bargains in
the 1940s and 1950s. Jack and Jean Mason
took advantage of the slump, buying a
number of properties including the old Hotel
Inverness annex and The Gables. They fixed
the places up, decorated them with antiques,
and rented them out as summer homes and
vacation rentals. The brochure printed
below features Mason’s on Park Avenue, in
the formerly imposing hotel building that
Jack and a volunteer crew had cut in half by
dismantling the upper two stories.
The name Baywood Press was changed to Point
Reyes Light with the issue of Sept. 8, 1966 — Ed.
Thanks to Dave Mitchell for submitting this article.
9
The Mel Family and their Historic House
by Michael Mery
Howard Mel, his wife Nancy, and their
eldest daughter Amelie sat down with me
last November at the Mel house for a couple
of hours to fill in the story of the Mel family
in Inverness, a history now spanning more
than 100 years.
The life of a small town is often influenced dramatically by a few people, those
with interest and the means to do so, in ways
uncommon in larger places. It’s a matter
of scale, really, and the influence can be for
good or ill depending on the personal qualities of the people. Charles and Florence Mel
have had a very strong impact on Inverness
beginning with their purchase of the Chamot
House on Elgin Way in 1939 for $1700. That
purchase eventually came to include the
northern half of the block, likely in excess
of an acre. After some initial repair work
was done, during which time they rented
various houses in the summer months, the
Mel family began using the house. Florence
had come to Inverness as a young woman Amelie, Howard, and Nancy Mel pose at their historical house
on the Inverness Mesa (photo by Michael Mery).
around 1900 and it was from that history that
Charlie’s interest arose after he and Florence
married. The Chamot House had not been used the basic repair work on the house putting in a
and was somewhat vandalized and as well was foundation, replacing windows and the like. The
known locally as ‘the haunted house,’ so it was task was a major one – it is a very large house,
only after World War II that the Mel family began one of the largest in the village, three stories tall
to use it frequently. Howard along with his elder with elaborate detail work inside and out. A tensister Barbara and younger sister Dorothy would nis court was also installed, the paving of which
come to Inverness where they got to know lots was held up until after the war, and the Inverness
of people, played tennis and went sailing with Tennis Club was allowed to use it for the Labor
other summer residents, and came to love the vil- Day Tournament. Howard competed often in
lage as have many. They joined a long history of those tournaments, as did I as a youngster. (Long
Berkeley residents with those summer ties. As has ago one neighbor complained about the noise of
been the case with many, a public spirited interest all those tennis balls being hit!)
As the reader may remember from an earlier
came along with the more personal affection and
issue of Under the Gables, the public spirited interinvolvement.
Joe Gomes, long an Inverness fixture, did est in the case of the Mel family, Charlie Mel specif10
In his Point Reyes Historian, Jack Mason wrote of the Chamot House and its occupants on a number of occasions.
ically, took the form of buying the Inverness Lodge
from the Nels Johnson family and turning it over to
Milan and Manka Prokupek and their two children,
Elena and Milan, Jr. Charlie carried the mortgage
on what became Manka’s, the restaurant, small
hotel and guest cottages. According to Howard,
Charlie thought it was a good idea to explore having a good restaurant in town and the Prokupeks,
an immigrant Czech family, were prepared to take
the opportunity, thus an informal partnership was
formed benefitting many. Charlie subsequently
bought The Drake’s Arms in the village, what we
now know as Vladimir’s. Vladimir Nevl married
Elena Prokupek, thus due to Charlie’s generosity
or spirit and entrepreneurial interest, the village
came to have two Czech restaurants.
The Mel family went on to buy the building
that housed the original Inverness Store, what
we know as the former Bellwether, Priscilla’s and
the Post Office. They also owned the Boatel and
it expanded significantly under their ownership,
then bought the Inverness Valley Inn enabling
Vladimir to have space for his horses, plus a couple
of other houses, one for Dorothy and one for older
sister Barbara. Through all these years, the Mel
house on Elgin was the center of family interest
and activity.
Howard, Nancy and Amelie agree that Charlie
was an energetic man, very generous and fun loving, not an especially public person, but very active
in Rotary. He spent his childhood with his many
siblings on a ranch in the Santa Cruz Mountains
and his father worked in Mexico for the railroad.
The 200 plus acre property was long sold when
Dorothy bought it back and lived in Charlie’s boyhood home for a few years. What comes through
strongly to me about Charlie is his interest in others,
his wide ranging interests in many aspects of life
and a generosity of spirit we would all do well to
emulate. Many remember him with fondness as do
I. Summers and weekends in Inverness continued
to be enjoyed by his decendents.
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RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED
Jack Mason Museum of West Marin History
P. O. Box 94
Inverness, CA 94937
www.jackmasonmuseum.org
Jack Mason’s West Marin
Opening at
the Museum
on the
Fourth of
July
Non-Profit Org.
US Postage
PAID
Permit No. 5
Inverness, CA
94937
Opening reception
Fourth of July Sunday