"Life in Belvedere and Tiburon, 1890-1900" (by Hillary Don)
Reviewed by John Colver - Club Historian
Hillary Don is a retired physician who has lived in Tiburon and Belvedere for over thirty years. He previously authored "Old St. Hilary's", a Landmarks Society publication about that historic church; collaborated on "Both Sides of the Track" and "A Pictorial History of Belvedere"; and currently writes an amusing history column for The Ark. Now he has just published "Life in Belvedere and Tiburon 1890-1900", a 486-page hard bound collection of entertaining and amusing articles which appeared in the Sausalito News during that period.
What is particularly interesting, is the clever way in which they are arranged and edited alphabetically according to subject matter, so that this in fact becomes a fascinating reference volume, quite literally of life on the Peninsula in that decade. Everyone with an interest in the history of Belvedere and Tiburon should have this book in their library – but none more so than Corinthians. Corinthian Yacht Club was the focal point of Tiburon in that era and there is a wealth of information here about the Club and its activities: annual meetings, cruises, regattas, parties, opening day, members and their yachts, election of officers, social events and so on.
If there is one criticism to be made, this gives us only a "snapshot" of life in the late 1800's and simply whets the appetite for more. Don frequently cross references the CYC Centennial History which Dick Slottow edited in 1986 and Life in Belvedere and Tiburon fills in a lot of additional detail for the first full decade of our Club's existence.
One thing of interest concerns the Cooks and Waiters' Annual Dinner. I pointed out a number of years ago that we had our numbering wrong, since the Cooks and Waiters did not come into existence until some years after the Club was formed; and there was also some question as to when the first Annual Dinner was actually held (certainly not in 1886). The Sausalito News reported that the Third Annual Dinner was held on September 30, 1892. Of course, we do believe everything we read in the papers, don't we? But I think they are right. So who is going to renumber all our Cooks and Waiters' badges?
$35.00 per book plus $4 shipping and handling. To order, contact Hillary Don at 435-3783 or email BellaVistaBooks@aol.com and you will be billed on delivery. John Colver - Historian