TELLING THE STORY
Marin History Museum ready for comeback exhibit
The Marin History Museum begins a new chapter Saturday as it celebrates its return to the Boyd Gate House in San Rafael with its first exhibit in about seven years.
Museum staff and board members said the “Great Heights” exhibit at the landmark 1125 B St. property repositions its place in the county as the keeper of Marin’s past, after years of rebuilding from financial troubles.
“Never again,” board member Ann Batman said of the controversial decision of the previous board in 2015 to sell off donated artifacts to make ends meet.
“Our main message is we’re back and we’re going to continue to promote our organization,” Batman said on behalf of the board governing the museum’s $200,000 annual budget, staff and volunteers. “The board is determined to keep this museum moving forward, doing new things and raising new money. Marin has a fabulous history and we need to keep telling that story.”
The property itself has a storied past, and the museum has ties with the building lasting more than a half-century.
The house was built in 1879 as a gatehouse and overflow guest house on the estate inherited by famed Arctic explorer and photographer Louise Arner Boyd. The estate is set into a hillside, surrounded by landscaped grounds and a granite and iron fence.
The house and its grounds were donated by the Boyd family to the city, which dedicated it as a park in 1905. In 1974, the house was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Marin History Museum previously leased the building for $1 per year. In exchange, museum staffers were in charge of maintenance costs. The museum hit financial troubles in the early 2000s after spending more than $7 million on staff, consultants and failed projects.
In 2014, the site was abandoned and operations were moved to the museum’s research center in Novato. The museum temporarily closed for a year after the controversial sales were halted.
A new board headed by Al Boro, a former San Rafael mayor, took control of the museum in 2016, pledging to give the organization
a fresh start.
The staffers began moving back to the property earlier this year after the San Rafael City Council approved a three-year lease. The agreement requires an annual payment to the city of $14,400, or $1,200 a month.
“It’s a great accomplishment to be back at Boyd,” said Boro, noting that the board has plans to hire a general manager and someone with fundraising expertise. “We’re building a budget toward that goal. We’ve got a real obligation to sustain and improve what we’re doing.”
Heather Powell, the collections manager and curator of the opening show, said they have plans for a permanent exhibit on Louise Boyd. There is also a research library on the property that would be available by appointment only and a children’s program for third-graders.
The museum’s collection of approximately 200,000 photographs and 25,000 artifacts will remain in temperature-controlled storage rooms at its Novato center, she said.
As for the open exhibit, it features 18 rarely seen black-and-white photographs from the Ed Brady/ Aero Photography Collection taken between 1955 and 1965.
Brady was not a trained photographer but a pilot who was able to capture Marin from above, documenting development and changes across the county. Grethe Brady donated her husband’s collection of 10,000 negatives and prints produced over 40 years in 2006, Powell said.
“Looking back in this way, from an aerial viewpoint, has potential to change our perspective,” Powell said. “It could change our perception of what’s around us and how we imagine our future.”
The exhibit opens from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and is expected to run for the next six months. Guests on Saturday will also be invited for a history walk to the top of Boyd Park with historian Marcie Miller, set to begin at 2 p.m. at the entrance of the park.
San Rafael Mayor Kate Colin said she plans to join the opening celebration.
“We are delighted they are returning to the Boyd House and being part of our downtown again,” Colin said.
Colin said with the new 54-foot tall, 140-room hotel being built at 1201 Fifth Ave., the museum is bound to be a great attraction.
“There’s a dedicated group of volunteers making sure that Marin History Museum continues to have an important place here in San Rafael,” Colin said of the board.
The museum’s regular hours are 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.