Blithedale Hotel, Mill Valley, 1880-1890
Owning Institution: Marin County Free Library
About this Collection
These images are from a photograph album documenting visits to the Blithedale Hotel, circa 1888-1890.Blithedale was built by San Francisco homeopathic physician, John Jenckes Cushing, in 1873 and intended as a health retreat. The property, situated in today’s Mill Valley, totaled about 342 acres. When Dr. Cushing died in 1879, his widow Harriet and their son Sydney re-established Blithedale as a hotel, the first hotel in Mill Valley. Advertisements from this time announced “Furnished cottages, rooms single and en suite. Tents on raised platforms, furnished complete, electric lighted, with shower baths. Tennis, bowling, billiards, saddle horses. Convenient summer home for San Francisco businessmen with their families .... Perfect climate; no fogs; first class service; moderate rates.” After several decades as a known destination for San Francisco society and beyond, the hotel experienced a decline in patronage and ceased operations in 1912. The main hotel building was demolished and the land was subdivided into 70 lots, which in some cases included the original hotel cottages. View this collection on the contributor's website.
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