The Marin Art and Garden Center is a

botanical garden A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

Ross, California Ross is a small List of municipalities in California, incorporated town in Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States, just north of San Francisco. Ross is located west-southwest of San Rafael, California, San Rafael, at ...

. The site is 11 acres and features gardens and historic buildings, including the Barn Theater, which is home to

theater company Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

Ross Valley Players. Admission to the gardens is free.

History

The land where the Marin Art and Garden Center sits was part of

Rancho Punta de Quentin Rancho Punta de Quentin was a Mexican land grant in present-day Marin County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to John B.R. Cooper. The grant comprised not only the San Quentin peninsula, but also present-day Ross, Kent ...

, a 10,000-acre

Mexican land grant The Spanish and Mexican governments made many concessions and land grants in Alta California (now known as California) and Baja California from 1775 to 1846. The Spanish Concessions of land were made to retired soldiers as an inducement for ...

purchased by James Ross in 1859. A few years later, the property went to Ross's daughter Annie and her husband George Worn. The acres that make up the current Marin Art and Garden Center were eventually owned by the Jonathan Kittle family, who put the land up for sale in 1943. The Marin Art and Garden Center was founded in 1945 by women members of the

Marin Conservation League The Marin Conservation League is a environmental organization based in Marin County, California. History The League, first called the Citizens Survey Committee, was founded in 1934 by four members of the Marin Garden Club: Caroline Sealy Liverm ...

. This project was led by the League's president,

Caroline Sealy Livermore Caroline Sealy Livermore (7 August 1883 – 2 February 1968) was an American conservationist with emphasis in environment planning and protection. Livermore was mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area in both Marin County and the shore areas, du ...

, who organized fundraising to obtain the $25,000 needed to buy the property. The site was the location for the Marin County Fair from 1947 to 1970. The property was added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2022.

Gardens and features

The Marin Art and Garden Center's master plan was designed by

landscape architect A landscape architect is a person who is educated in the field of landscape architecture. The practice of landscape architecture includes: site analysis, site inventory, site planning, land planning, planting design, grading, storm water manageme ...

Thomas Church. It contains several different gardens, including those focused on

roses A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be e ...

edible plants Edible plants include: * List of culinary fruits * List of culinary herbs and spices * List of culinary nuts * List of edible cacti * List of edible flowers * List of edible seeds *List of forageable plants (edible plants commonly found in the wil ...

, plants used in

basketry Basket weaving (also basketry or basket making) is the process of weaving or sewing pliable materials into three-dimensional artifacts, such as baskets, mats, mesh bags or even furniture. Craftspeople and artists specialized in making baskets ...

, and

native plants In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equi ...

. There are three species of

redwood Sequoioideae, popularly known as redwoods, is a subfamily of coniferous trees within the family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affini ...

on the site, including the

dawn redwood ''Metasequoia glyptostroboides'', the dawn redwood, is a fast-growing, endangered deciduous conifer. It is the sole living species of the genus ''Metasequoia'', one of three genera in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. It now ...

. A

giant sequoia ''Sequoiadendron giganteum'' (giant sequoia; also known as giant redwood, Sierra redwood, Sierran redwood, California big tree, Wellingtonia or simply big treea nickname also used by John Muir) is the sole living species in the genus ''Sequoiade ...

on the property was brought in from

Yosemite Valley Yosemite Valley ( ; ''Yosemite'', Miwok for "killer") is a U-shaped valley, glacial valley in Yosemite National Park in the western Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada mountains of Central California. The valley is about long and deep, surroun ...

during the Worns' ownership. Buildings on the property include modernist buildings and the

Octagon House Octagon houses were a unique house style briefly popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada. They are characterised by an octagonal (eight-sided) plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round. Their unusual shape and app ...

, which was once a

pump house Pumping stations, also called pumphouses in situations such as drilled wells and drinking water, are facilities containing pumps and equipment for pumping fluids from one place to another. They are used for a variety of infrastructure systems, ...

and later the José Moya del Piño Library. There are also an art studio by Gardner Dailey and the "Bottle House" by Ray Oleson, both built in the late 1940s. The property's border is marked by crinkle-crankle brick walls. Pixie Park Playground, designed by

Robert Royston Robert N. Royston (1918 – September 19, 2008) was one of America's most distinguished landscape architects, based in the San Francisco Bay Area of California in the United States. His design work and university teaching in the years followi ...

, is located at the Center. It was founded in 1952 by Elizabeth Terwilliger and

American Association of University Women The American Association of University Women (AAUW), officially founded in 1881, is a non-profit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education, and research. The organization has a nationwide network of 170,000 ...

as a space for MAGC volunteers' children.

Ross Valley Players

The Barn Theater is the headquarters of the Ross Valley Players. The barn was built in 1860 on the farm later owned by the Kittle family. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the community in Ross began using the barn as a theater. The Ross Valley Players assisted in the effort to turn the land into a garden in 1945.

References

Gardens in California Botanical gardens in California Parks in Marin County, California Octagon houses in California Bottle houses National Register of Historic Places in Marin County, California Barn theatres {{US-garden-stub