Marin Women's Hall of Fame

Caroline Sealy Livermore

      Moving  into  her  new  home  in Marin County, Caroline Livermore realized the beauty  of  Marin  could  not  last  forever without protection  and  planning.    With  the  impending opening of the Golden Gate Bridge, "...it was time to forget our own gardens and start  working  to  keep  Marin  from becoming a string of hotdog stands...."   she  was  quoted  as  saying.    Without  her early commitment to  preserve the beauty of Marin, one wonders what the county would look like today.

     Born in Galveston, Texas in 1885,  she was  a member  of a family with a  proud tradition  of civic  service.   Her father was very active in the movement to get  a sea  wall built  on the  Gulf of Mexico, to  save Galveston  from the  devastation of floods.  Her mother was active in  the  movement  to  beautify  the  city with flowers and other landscaping.  Commitment to civic service and a love of nature's beauty were certainly  to take  hold in Caroline Livermore.  The skills which were to be so crucial to the budding conservation movement  in  California  were  evident  almost from Caroline's  start.    As  a  girl  of eight, she was described as "...generous,  patient,  and  persistent...."    Later,  when she attended Vassar  College, she was elected president of her class.  Under her yearbook picture is the caption, "Born  to Lead  and to Command".

     Upon marrying Norman Livermore, a professional hydraulic engineer and a member of a well-known California family,  she came  to San Francisco in  1910 .   She  quickly adopted  the city as her own. She  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Planned  Parenthood  in San Francisco, and had the opportunity to bring Margaret Sanger, that organization's famous pioneer/founder,  to  San  Francisco  for a round of  meetings and public forums.  She was the first woman to serve on the Standing Committee of the Episcopal  Church, and was one of  the people  responsible for  the fundraising to construct what was to  become  San  Francisco  most  notable  church, Grace Cathedral.   She was  also active  in efforts to get church women the right to vote at Episcopal Church Conventions.

      During this period, Mrs.  Livermore also  started a  family, with five sons  - Norman, Jr., George, John, Putnam and Robert – being born, each over twelve  pounds  at  birth.   The  family  had a "summer home"  in Ross,  where the boys remembered spending their time off from school enjoying the countryside.  Marin was  a more pastoral area  then.  Putnam Livermore remembers his father could gallop on horseback all the way from Sausalito to Fairfax on open land.  The family made Marin their permanent home in 1930.

     As an  adult, Caroline  Livermore loved  to garden; so she joined the Marin Garden Center.  When she then attended the Garden Clubs of America  convention in  1934, she heard a lecturer speak about the need to create  county  plans  and  to  set  aside  lands for different uses.   Mrs.  Livermore returned  to Marin  with a firm resolve.  Knowing the  impact that  the completion  of the Golden Gate Bridge  would have  on Marin, she and a group of like-minded women - Helen Van Pelt, Sepha Evers, Mary Summers Gillicky, Verna Dunshee and  Portia Forbes,  among others - joined forces to plan for Marin's future.

     They formed the Marin  Planning Survey  Committee.   This was the dawning of  conservation concerns  as a political issue.  It took time for their plan  to  gain  widespread  local  support.   But, within a  few months, they had organized a successful campaign to obtain funds to pay for a planning consultant, surveys, etc., and for the  creation land use zoning ordinance.  Marin County was to be one of the first counties in the United States to have its own Planning Director.

     Mrs.  Livermore  and  her  group  did not stop with that victory. They began efforts to  secure land  to be  used for  parks in the county.  To  assist  their  efforts they created a conservation organization, the  Marin  Conservation  League  (MCL).   Caroline Livermore was the organization's second president and was to lead it for almost twenty years.  Her ability  to galvanize volunteers into action became legendary.  "From the beginning Mrs. Livermore inspired us with enthusiasm,"  Helen Van  Pelt has  been quoted as saying.   The  MCL  and  its  growing  legions experienced great success.  One of their first projects was  the securing  of money (both county  money and  private donations)  to purchase the land that became Shell Beach and Jepson Park (now part of  Tomales Bay State  Park).    Whenever  someone  tried  to stop their efforts, Caroline Livermore remained an  undaunted  optimist.   She would never let  obstacles stand in her way.  According to her son, her favorite saying was:

"If you never start 'til you know the way,  You'll never stir "til Judgement Day."

     To find  out  which  pieces  of  local  land  were  available for purchase,  she would arrange for someone (or go herself) to check the Tax  Assessor's Office  to find  out what  pieces of property had taxes  owed on the land.  For example, in 1940 when she found out that a large piece of  land in  western Marin  was being held for back  taxes, she  found out where the owner lived.  The owner turned out to  be  a  widow,  living  in  grand  style  in  a San Francisco  hotel.    The  widow,  Elizabeth  Taylor  Rodgers, had  decided to let the land be sold off by the county to  pay for the county taxes she owed, in small parcels if needed.  But, Mrs. Livermore wanted  to see  the entire parcel of land turned into a park.  She decided to go to San Francisco each day and sit in the hotel lobby,  hoping to  "casually bump into Mrs. Rodgers".  When she finally passed through  the lobby,  Mrs. Livermore approached her and struck up a conversation.

     The next  five years was an endless series trips to Sacramento to arrange for  purchase  funds,  meetings  with  Mrs.  Rodgers, and negotiations with  the county  on the  land.   The end result was that Mrs.  Livermore succeeded  in in  having the  entire plot of land  purchased  by  the  state  and  finalized the deal with Mrs. Rodgers by having  the  new  state  park  after  named  after the widow's late  first husband, Samuel P. Taylor.  As most Marinites know, Samuel P. Taylor  State Park  is one  of the  largest parks within the county's boundaries.

     Caroline Livermore and the Marin Conservation League also helped to halt development on  Mount Tamalpais  to preserve  its use for valuable  local  watershed  in  conjunction  with  the  new Marin Municipal Water District.   She  later  took  an  active  role in having   Mount   Tarn   and   its  surrounding  land  formed  into California's first state park.   "They  weren't anti-development.  They just  wanted to see the best possible use for the land, with housing and business developed in  areas  according  to  a plan," says son  Putnam.   They made  successful efforts to save Stinson Beach for  public  use,  including  fundraising  for  the $20,000 needed to  obtain matching  state monies  for Stinson's purchase. Later she worked with the Kent family (donators  of the  land) to have Stinson become the state's first state beach park.

     "She loved  the struggle.   Her  attitude was always, 'What's the next thing [project] coming?'."  says Putnam.   A  young boy when many  of  these  issues  were being settled, Putnam remembers his mother being  on the  telephone a  great deal,  seeking the votes needed on  the matter at hand.  "I didn't have 'Sesame Street' on television to watch," Putnam states with a smile,  "but I  had my mother on the telephone.  [They were] all wonderful characters."

     Husband Norman Livermore was also involved with conservation.  He served on the first board of the Marin  Municipal Water District.  He was  president of  the Save  the Redwoods  League.  And, while president of the California Academy of Sciences, he arranged for the donation of the Morrison Planetarium to that facility.  Mrs. Livermore's  reputation as the forceful "ring leader" of the local conservation movement began to grow.  Someone once told her family  that  the  president  of  Pacific Gas & Electric had been heard to say, "If Mrs. Livermore asks you for anything, just say 'Yes,' right  away.     Because  she'll  get  it  sooner  or later anyway."

     When  her  son,  John,  was  out  of  state attending a  conference, he was asked by a man where he came from.   When John told him  he was  from Marin  County, the man said, "Oh, that's a terrible county."  When John asked him why, it turned out the man was  in  the  billboard  business.   The billboard man explained, "There's some crazy woman down there, Mrs. Livermore is her name. And she's  getting this  anti-billboard ordinance done [to outlaw billboards on open highways]."   John's  reply  was,  "That crazy woman is  my mother."   Marin  County went  on to  pass the first billboard  ordinance  in  the  country,  forever  keeping Marin's beauty  from  being  despoiled  by  billboard  advertisements and paving the way for similar legislation all over the country.

     In 1940, when the  Kittle family  in Ross  decided to  sell their large piece of land, Mrs. Livermore offered to buy it in order to establish a site for a local  art and  garden center.   A friend, Judge  Martinelli,  helped  her  to  draw up the legal documents. With persistence and time and intense  fund-raising, she gathered the  funds  for  the  Kittle  property.  The Marin Art and Garden Center (MAGC) thus came into being.  The  art gallery  that is on the  premises  was  donated  by  a  Mrs. Young, with the donation being arranged by Caroline Livermore.  The grounds  of the  Marin Art  and Garden  Center was  to be the location for the county's first fair - again another idea of Mrs. Livermore and her group. Once they settled on July to insure good weather, the  success of  the annual  fair was established.  Held for many years at the MAGC, the fair was eventually  moved to the current Civic  Center Fairgrounds.  Surrounding the MAGC now is a brick  wall  modeled  on  the  brick  boundary  fence  at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, always a favorite of Mrs. Livermore.  The wall was constructed in Mrs. Livermore's honor.

     Caroline Livermore did not limit  her  interests  to  gardens and stunning park vistas.  She was also concerned with wildlife.  She helped to found the Marin Chapter of the Audubon Society.  In fact, it  was her involvement  with  the  Audubon Society that assisted her in the  efforts  to  create the Richardon  Bay Sanctuary.  The land  adjacent to Richardson Bay on Tiburon was owned  by the Utah  Construction  Company  all  the way  from Strawberry  Point  to  Belvedere.  Concerned about the company's intention to bulldoze down the Tiburon hills to fill in  the Bay, and create  a "canal-like"  system of  homes, Caroline Livermore, the local Audubon Society and the  MCL had  to move quickly.  To purchase  the  land  away  from  Utah Construction would cost two hundred thousand dollars, (a  very large  sum of  money in those days).

     First,  Mrs.  Livermore  was  able  to  get  twenty-five thousand dollars committed from the  National  Audubon  Society.    Next a matching grant  of twenty-five thousand dollars was obtained from the Board of Supervisors.  They next convinced the Belvedere Town Council to  put an open space bond issue on the ballot to finance another hundred thousand dollars.  This bond issue was one of the first open  space bond  issues in  California history.   The bond campaign was successful.

 Next,  they  approached  the   state   highway   department  and guaranteed them  a strip  of land  for a highway right-of-way for another hundred thousand dollars.  With the money to buy out Utah Construction, and  the with  the backing  of local politicians to keep the bay  untouched,  the  sanctuary  was  established.   The Richardson Bay Sanctuary is, of course, one of the most beautiful areas on Richardson Bay.  If  you walk  along the  pathway at the sanctuary,  you  will  come  across  a  bench,  with a dedication inscription to Caroline Livermore  in recognition  of her efforts to save  the area.  The bench's quote reads: "With Deeds, My Life Was Filled." (Ovid)

     Later, upon seeing the move to  raze the  historic Lyford mansion at  Strawberry   Point,  Mrs.  Livermore  immediately  began  the movement to stop its destruction.  She later  led the  group that  provided for  the mansion's  relocation by barge (by her friends, Thomas Crowley & Son, barge owners) and its eventual restoration. The  Lyford  mansion  is  now  a  Marin  landmark,  part  of  the Richardson Bay Sanctuary.   The Richardson  Bay Foundation, which supports  and  maintains  the  Sanctuary,  was  also  founded  by Caroline Livermore and her ever-growing cadre of supporters.  Above the Richardson Bay Sanctuary is a large  hill.   For years, developers had  been after its owner. Rose D. Verell, to sell it.  Ms. Verell had been given the land by  John Reed,  a descendant of one of  Marin's pioneer  Anglo families.   (The Reed family at one time owned an immense tract of land in southern Marin.)   Because Ms.  Verell  allowed  goats  to  roam on her hill, she was kindly referred to as the "Goat Lady".  Mrs. Livermore and the Goat Lady got  to  be  friends  over  the  years.  Finally, when Ms. Verell became frail in health, Caroline Livermore and the  Marin Audubon Society came up with the idea of having her deed Goat Hill to the Audubon Society,  in return  for that  organization insuring that she could  live on  the land  until her death, with provision for her medical expenses and a pension.  Goat  Hill is  now preserved in its natural state forever.

      Once when  Putnam and his mother were driving into San Francisco, they began talking about Angel Island.  Mrs.  Livermore announced her plans of preserving the island from development and having it turned into a park.  Putnam  remembers saying,  "Why bother?   No one goes out there."  But his mother had a vision for the island.  She replied to him, "Someday boats will go there and thousands of people, too."   Putnam thought she was crazy.  But Mrs. Livermore had decided that this would be  her next  project.   It took time and patience,  but Mrs.  Livermore - as been before - was not one to give up faith.

    It was the late  1940's, and  Angel Island  belonged to  the U.S. government.   A Mr.  Ather had started an Angel Island Foundation to look into possible future land use, but  the project  had come to no  positive result.   This  was because the Army still had an interest in the island; in fact, it later installed Nike missiles there.  But these developments did not discourage Mrs. Livermore.  She started a new Angel Island Foundation.   She studied possible alternative uses  for the island in case the government ever lost interest in the site.  She discovered that due to  Angel island's size,  neither  the  San  Francisco  Board of Supervisors nor the Marin County Board of Supervisors were  interested in  the island as  a  future  county  park  location,  mostly  because  of  high estimates of  maintenance costs.   Mrs.  Livermore next contacted Aubrey Nisham, the California State Historian to see if there was any potential for the island as a historic treasure.  In fact, by working with  Mr. Nisham,  Angel Island was declared a California State Historic Site.

      That historic declaration changed  the  island's  status,  for it saved it from unchecked commercial development.  When the federal government  (under  the   auspices   of   the   General  Services Administration)  decided  to  auction  off the land in 1946, Mrs. Livermore, the  MCL, and  four other  individuals and  put down a seven  thousand  dollar  deposit  to "hold" the island until they could gather enough information to prove to the state that it was in  California's  interest  to  have  the island declared a state park.  (Mrs. Livermore never did get her deposit back, but instead donated the  money to  the Angel  Island effort.)  Mrs. Livermore next convinced the Army to dismantle the Nike missile sites.   In 1954, Angel  Island was purchased by the state with the intent to establish a park. in 1970, it  was declared  a both  a state park and  a  national  landmark.    The fifteen years of labor and the frustrations of  working with  all the  various bureaucracies and pessimists had finally paid off.

     As Mrs. Livermore predicted,  small boats now sail off to enjoy its unspoiled shoreline.  And thousands  ferry out  to experience its beauty every year.  The highest peak on the island is named Mount Livermore, in Caroline Livermore's honor. When Mrs. Livermore got older,  she slowed down a bit in her level of  activity, but  not in her level of commitment.  She was involved in the creation of the Point Reyes National Seashore and and  helped   to  set   up  the  Point  Reyes  National  Seashore Foundation.  She lobbied to save  the Tiburon  Net Depot property on Paradise  Drive.   While others  now led the MCL and the other organizations she  helped to  found, Mrs.  Livermore discovered a another new  outlet for  her pragmatic  leadership skills and her remarkable persistence.

    With Supervisors Vera Schultz and Peter Behr, she  co-chaired the efforts to  get the  necessary two-thirds vote of county citizens to finance the construction of the Marin County  Civic Center, to be builit  according to  the plans  designed by  the world famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.  Mr. Wright was not necessarily an easy man  to deal  with, and  many key county "power figures" had been alienated by him toward the project.  But Mrs. Livermore was astute at mediating the conflicts.  (She held the belief that you could disagree with  someone,  but  once  you  "got  up  from the table",  you  shook  hands  and  remained  friends.)    With  her enormous personal influence, and  some  savvy  politicking  by the pro-Civic Center forces, the measure passed.

     In  her  final  years,  Mrs.  Livermore  retired  from  community service.  But she still served  as  best  she  could.    Her son, Putnam, recalls  the time  when someone  called his mother to ask her to please attend a Board of Supervisors meeting.  She replied that, "I  don't get  in those  fights anymore. I'm too old."  But the response back to her was, "We don't  want you  to get  in the fight.   Just come  over and put on your best dress and your hat.  Because we find that if you sit in the first row, the supervisors vote better!"  She went.

     She had  become a  powerful symbol.  When she died in the 1970's, Marin and the conservation movement lost a potent ally.   She had come from  a family  of. great wealth and prestige; she could have lived a life of ease.  Yet  she  had  decided  to  use  her time, influence and resources on behalf of the people of Marin, the Bay Area, and beyond.  She did not spare herself from constant, often grueling effort.

     Her legacy  continues both with the work of the organizations she helped  to  found  and  with  her  sons.    For  example,  George Livermore, a  landscape architect,  works with the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Putnam was the first  attorney in the west  to  represent  the  Nature  Conservancy, and is a member of Attorneys for Conservation.

 When Putnam was asked what his mother would be involved in now if she were alive, he did not hesitate to list: 

1.  Air and water pollution.

2.  The future of Yosemite Park.

3.  Who would be Governor Wilson's state parks director.

4.  Land use issues.

5.  The Presidio's conversion from army base to park.

      It has been said that "No  one  ever  successfully  said 'No!' to Caroline  Livermore."    Because  of  her commitment, talents and energy, people from around the  world  can  enjoy  the  beauty of Marin,  visit  its  famous  Civic  Center,  and  sail  out  to an unspoiled island sitting in the  middle  of  one  of  the busiest commercial  bays  in  the  world.    With  all  of  the  pressing environmental concerns and land  use issues  that we  face in the coming years, we could still all use her help.

 Miscellaneous Notes