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Description
In this oral history, Edmund Stiles recounts his more than 50-year residency at Druid Heights. Born in Michigan in 1939, Edmund grew up on the East Coast and attended Dartmouth College. Edmund describes how he first came out to the Bay Area in the early 1960s, just as he was discovering his vocation to make furniture. He recounts the first time he visited Druid Heights and his first impressions of Roger Somers, one of the founders of the community, with whom he would develop a close friendship. In 1965 Edmund and his wife Marilyn joined the community. Edmund discusses how his work as a furniture maker evolved over the years, such that he ended up building a number of structures at Druid Heights, as well as several in Marin and beyond. Besides Somers, Edmund recalls a number of other denizens of Druid Heights, notably Elsa and Thea Gidlow, as well as the more short-term residents Gary Snyder and Alan Watts. Edmund vividly describes the life of the community, and how its ambience changed in the 1970s, causing several relationships to deteriorate. Finally, Edmund explains how the land eventually came to be owned by the National Park Service, becoming part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, with the future of the property's structures at the time this oral history was recorded uncertain.
Identifier
EC8E1115-70CA-458D-A42C-951531569556 2018.030.001
Subject
Architecture Art Artists Building construction Buildings Buildings - Marin County Carpenter, Art Communal settlements Dartmouth College Design Drugs Druid Heights Furniture Gidlow, Elsa Gidlow, Thea Golden Gate National Recreation Area Intellectuals Isaacs, Budd Klyce, Al Music Musicians MV history - Music and counterculture (1960s and 1970s) Nash, Graham National Park Service No Name Bar Oral history - Spirituality, philosophy, religion Oral history - Visual, performing, literary arts Philosophers Philosophy Sausalito Snyder, Gary Somers, Roger Stiles, Ed Stiles, Marilyn Travel Watts, Ala Woodworking Workshops
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