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East Corte Madera Another day on Paradise Fire Stn Par ad i s
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Corte Madera
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ast Corte Madera is a relatively recent Marsh State development in the 150-year suburbanization of Marin County. Prior to the Ecological Reserve postwar strip-mall/tract-house building boom that defines the neighborhood, Corte Madera in toto was the hilly, redwooded region to the west where loggers, farmers and cattlemen flourished for decades and artists attracted by the nice weather and lovely bay views settled in little bungalows on Christmas Tree Hill. Out toward San Francisco Bay was undeveloped marshland where generations of native Miwok had supplemented their venison-and-acorn diet with fresh seafood and C.H.P. the Larkspur steamboat stopped to load up on the town’s abundance of beef, lumber and produce on its San Clemente way to San Francisco. Dr Park Fire This idyllic existence ended with the country’s entrance Stn Par adis into World War II and the creation of Marinship, the e bustling 24/7 shipyard built on reclaimed marshland north Dr of Sausalito. Welders and riveters from around the country Paradise is San Clemente Creek, streamed into the area looking for a place to live, and new a tidal slough that was navigable Granada Skunk Hollow residential neighborhoods of tightly packed tract houses by pleasure craft until the surrounding Park Park sprang up overnight. After the war, thousands of returnmarshes were filled in 60 years ago. (In ing soldiers decided to settle here permanently, exponen- 101 honor, perhaps, of those long-ago seafartially increasing the region’s population base for always. ing days, nearby streets have names like Practically all of the Bay Area’s salt marshes east of 101 Ebbtide, Tradewinds and Seamast.) There and west of the Nimitz were filled and covered with are two parks here as well: the Bayside Trail, a linear housing and shopping centers to shelter and feed this park running along San Clemente Drive, and San Clestaggering influx of humanity, and by the time it was mente Park with its softball diamond, volleyball court and picnic all over, 95 percent of our wetlands had vanished. grounds. South of Paradise you’ll find more “yar, matey!” street names Today, East Corte Madera has a certain cachet distinct from like Privateer, Buccaneer and Golden Hinde and two pocket-sized its older municipal sibling across the highway. Bracketed by Ring municipal parks, Granada and the charmingly designated Skunk Mountain on the south, San Francisco Bay on the east, the VilHollow, plus the Audubon Society’s Triangle Marsh project and the lage shopping mall on the north and Highway 101 on the west, the wild splendor of 602-foot Ring Mountain. neighborhood is removed enough from the rest of the county to give The 45-year-old Paradise Shopping Center has gotten a new lease it a faraway, uncongested ambiance. Paradise Drive, the main drag, on life from star tenant Paradise Market, one of this tony county’s is the region’s dividing line. North of toniest resources for gourmet goodies. Nearby is the internationally renowned Terwilliger Nature Education Center, a tribute if ever there was one to the area’s restored shorebird-friendly wetlands. There’s lagoon living in the old ranch houses along San Clemente Creek, and winding streets and footpaths meander up Ring Mountain, rewarding hiker and homeowner with splendid views. Recently, Corte Madera has been mulling over a new general plan that would add 300 housing units to the town’s east side and allow the Village shopping mall to expand by another 185,000 square feet, presumably in the general direction of the surrounding wetlands. Isn’t this where we came in? —MATTHEW STAFFORD Hwy
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FIRE STATION 342 Tamalpais Dr. FI LIBRARY 707 Meadowsweet Dr. LI PA PARKS Corte Madera Town Park, Pixley Ave. & Redwood Ave.
lands were filled to make way East Cor te Madera’s marsh boom. post-World War II population
26 Pacific Sun - Marin’s Best Every Week
for the
PO POST OFFICE 7 Pixley Ave. PU PUBLIC SCHOOLS Neil Cummins Elementary, 58 Mohawk Ave.