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Description
William "Bill" Provines was born on July 4th, 1908 in Willits, California. His father was a locomotive engineer on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad operating from Sausalito to Willits. In 1916, they moved to Mill Valley to provide more advantages for the family. Bill attended Summit School and Old Mill School and was part of the first eighth grade graduating class from Old Mill School in 1921. He then attended Tamalpais High School and Marin Junior College, ultimately graduating from the University of California, Berkeley in 1932 with a Bachelor of Science in Economics. Bill went on to work for the Royal Globe Insurance Company, where he stayed for 39 years. In his oral history, Bill recounts working during high school and college on the Mount Tamalpais and Muir Woods Railway as a fireman, brakeman, and gravity man. He shares thorough, technical knowledge and vivid accounts of railway operations, as well as his memories of early Mill Valley, including the Fire of 1929, the layout of downtown and school experiences. Bill's detailed descriptions bring to life a vision of what Mill Valley was like in the earlier part of the twentieth century, when the train ran up the mountain and East Blithedale Avenue was the "disreputable" part of town. Bill lived in Mill Valley for over ninety years, and passed away in 2009 at 101 years of age. Editor's note: The transcript for this oral history differs slightly from the recording and appears to have been modified for narrative flow.
Identifier
96B5FEBC-0E1D-49D7-BE6D-878923263329 2017.047.001
Subject
1929 Fire Arden, Eve Automobiles Business - Mill Valley - History College of Marin Depression (economy) Developments, Housing Downtown districts Electric railroads Fishing Golden Gate Bridge Gravity cars Grocery stores Mt. Tamalpais Mt. Tamalpais & Muir Woods Railway Muir Woods National Monument MV history - Interwar years MV history - WWI and WWII Nagel, Freddie Northwestern Pacific Railroad Oral history - Railways Practical jokes Prohibition Quedens, Eunice Road construction Sausalito Smith, Charles Streetcars Suey Kee Tavern of Tamalpais Taverns Tourism Trains Transportation World War II
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