​The Marin Theatre Company's production of The Legend of Georgia McBride has been a smash hit, and now the Miller Ave. theater company is reciprocating the love, unveiling a "pay what you can" performance set for July 4. 

The play, which has drawn rave reviews, tells the story of Elvis impersonator Casey, who performs his act for an audience of zero in a Panama City, Florida dive bar. After encountering a seasoned drag queen, he trades in his sequin jumpsuit for a sequin dress and achieves stardom in Matthew Lopez’s fierce, fabulous and heel-toting comedy. Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Tix. $10-$60. MORE INFO.

As the Mill Valley Philharmonic embarked on its first-ever MVP Local Parks Tour nearly a month ago, a fee, all-American concert program tour of three of most gorgeous destinations in the Bay Area, the organization had two primary goals: deliver great free orchestral performances, and find a way to pay for them via crowdfunding.

Organizers say they aced both of those tests, achieving something that few orchestras attempt with showcases at Golden Gate Park, Angel Island, and Fort Mason. The organization exceeded its $20,000 fundraising goal and garnered acclaim from  the Association of California Symphony Orchestras (ACSO), which featured MVP as a crowdfunding model for other California orchestras.    

The tour kicked off May 31 with a free kickoff concert at the Mt. Tamalpais United Methodist Church in Mill Valley, allowing neighbors and friends to be the first to hear the bang of timpani and the calls of trumpets in Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man. 
 
The second stop was San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park Band Shell on June 3, allowing visitors to the DeYoung Museum to hear the playful bounce of Florence Price’s Juba, a dance-movement from her 3rd symphony, or the shouts of French horns asserting the beginning of Edward MacDowell’s Indian Suite No. 2.
 
One day later, MVP headed to Angel Island, loading the ferry with timpani, xylophone, instruments and musicians and performing in front of Angel Island’s Visitor’s Center. MVP is the first orchestra to have performed on Angel Island in its 62-year existence as a State Park. Audience donations in the violin case amounted to over $500, all of which was donated back to the Angel Island Conservancy. An enthusiastic standing ovation from Angel Islanders and calls for an “encore” was happily fulfilled by the sea-voyaging philharmonic. 

The final stop for the group was on June 11 at Fort Mason's Gallery 308 with Samuel Barber’s Overture from the School for Scandal and Copland’s Rodeo serving as the soundtrack for Fort Mason’s weekly farmer’s market, the Western Crafts Fair and Escape from Alcatraz triathlon.
 
After 17 years at the helm, MVP founding artistic director Laurie Cohen announced her plans to retire in May 2018, and she'll celebrate the occasion with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (with Dominican University Chorus and Throckmorton Chorus) at the 18th Season finale.

MORE INFO ON MILL VALLEY PHILHARMONIC.

By Mill Valley Little League Staff

All-Star season is off and running, and Mill Valley’s 12-year-olds, 11-year-olds and 10-year-olds are engaged in District 3 pool play before the playoff round begins next week. District 3 pool play continues this week, with games at various sites around the county. Check millvalleyll.org for the latest in scores and game times and locations. 

12s
Twin Cities 7, Mill Valley 2 — Mill Valley fell to 2-2 in pool play on June 28 at Joe Wagner Field as Twin Cities plated five runs in the first inning.

Tiburon 5, Mill Valley 2 — A tight game between two of District 3’s best went Tiburon’s way when Chad Goodman hit a tie-breaking grand slam in the 5th inning on June 26 at Boyle Park. Mill Valley received fine pitching from Thomas Harrison and Caden Maas, while Emmet George homered and Carson Frame tripled for MV. Brad Burnes homered for Tiburon and pitched 5 and 2/3 innings.

Mill Valley 10, San Rafael 0 — At Glenwood Field in San Rafael on June 25, the 12s notched their second win in less than 24 hours, a four-inning mercy rule win fueled by home runs from Colin Lam, Grant Selig and a walk-off dinger from Will Bennett. Shane Patel was tidy on the mound, allowing only one hit in 3 and 2/3 innings.

Mill Valley 12, West Marin 1 — At Boyle Park on June 24, the 12s jumped out with eight runs in the first two innings, and cruised to a five-inning win. Nick Ferraro smashed two home runs and drove in four runs for Mill Valley, while pitchers Grant Selig and Thomas Harrison combined for for five innings on the mound. Selig also hit a home run. Jack Fierstein had a key three-run hit in Mill Valley's first inning. For West Marin, Anton Delle Valle notched two hits.

11s 
Mill Valley 13, West Marin 3 — Miles Gensler doubled, tripled and drove in four runs, while Brendan King threw three shutout innings on the mound and Mill Valley improved to 3-0 in pool play on June 29 in Fairfax. Ryan Burns doubled and drove in three runs.

Mill Valley 5, Ross Valley 4 — Bryn Kramlich capped a thriller at Boyle Park on June 27 with a walk-off single in the bottom of the 6th for Mill Valley. Mill Valley rallied for two runs in the 5th inning to tie, setting up Kramlich’s game-winner.

Mill Valley 10, San Francisco National 0 – Mill Valley scored 10 runs in the first inning at Boyle Park, fueled by two hits in the same inning from both Miles Gensler and Tyler Buxton, including Buxton smacking a two-run home run. Kaiden Dossa struck out six in two innings of work, and Buxton threw two scoreless innings as well. 

10s
San Francisco National 11, Mill Valley 8 — Ryan Simon smashed a grand slam at Boyle Buena Vista on June 29, part of a three-hit, six RBI day, but Mill Valley dropped its first game of pool play.

Mill Valley 7, Ross Valley 4 — Elliot Dasovich threw 5 innings of one run baseball to help Mill Valley overcome Ross Valley on June 27 at Bacich Elementary in Kentfield. Hugo Barberie got Mill Valley on the board first with a soaring two-run triple in a four-run first inning, and Tito Fierstein drove in the go ahead run in the fourth on single up the middle in the fourth. Mill Valley added two more runs in the fifth. Cam Tarkenton and Mo Jacoby had two hits each for Ross Valley.

Mill Valley 6, San Francisco American 4 (7 innings) — At Treasure Island on June 25, Mill Valley squeezed out two runs in the extra frame to improve to 2-0 in District 3 pool play. Ryan Simon led Mill Valley with three hits, and Jackson Van Til closed it out with a scoreless inning in the 7th. For San Francisco, Amelia Thomas was a standout defensively and on the mound.

Mill Valley 10, Dixie-Terra Linda 0 -- Bennett Dammann threw four scoreless innings at Boyle Park, and added two RBIs at the plate for Mill Valley. Henry Stoll had three hits and two RBIs for the winners. For Dixie-TL, Luca Benassini tossed three solid innings on the mound.

9s
Novato South 6, Mill Valley 5 (7 innings) — A thriller at Glenwood Park on June 19 went to Novato South when Novato’s Matt Baldino stole home to close out a District 3 semifinal. The final score belied a terrific outing from Mill Valley pitcher Henry Pearson, who struck out five and walked only one in 4 and 1/3 innings. Gus Grumet capped an outstanding All-Star campaign with three hits, including a double, and two RBIs while Pearson added two hits and two RBIs, and Declan Murphy smacked a double. Cooper Mitchell fanned three in 1 and 2/3 innings of fine relief work. Devin Perkins scored two runs, and Hank Murray reached base three times for Mill Valley. For Novato South, Baldino had three hits.

It’s 1981, and after spending several years in Southern California under the tutelage of the likes of John Iloulian and co-owning a small chain of high-end custom flooring shops, Richard Habib moved to the Bay Area and eyed his next opportunity.

Habib, who ran his own consulting business for estate sales and auctions, identifying and certifying the attributes of high-end rugs and carpets, got a frantic call from an importer whose truck had been hijacked and recovered by the San Carlos Police Department. The man needed someone to accompany his firm’s vice president to match the recovered contraband with the inventory list of dozens and dozens of rugs.

“I called every single rug correctly – even those that were misidentified on the inventory list,” Habib says. “I have a gift when it comes to the structures, designs, colors, origins and histories of rugs.”

That home run, and the fast-rising reputation that came from it, landed Habib a gig running a studio at the San Francisco Design Center and laid the foundation for Alexander’s Artisan Rugs, the business he’s owned for 26 years and recently brought back to Mill Valley – along the landmark brick walkway at 1 El Paseo Lane.

Although Habib has remained deeply connected to the 94941 in a variety of ways – regularly running the Dipsea Race, fundraising for the new Mill Valley Community Center in the early 2000s, serving as an auctioneer at events for the likes of of the Rex Foundation, the Mountain Play and Blue Star Music Schools and DJing at benefits and events all over town – relocating his business back to the heart of Mill Valley brings him full circle.

“It has been amazing to re-open our doors here in Mill Valley,” Habib says of the town where he and his wife Sheila have lived for decades. “I always loved this space, and I’d walk by and fantasize about being here – just gorgeous architecturally with great ambiance. I wouldn’t have opened again in Mill Valley if it was a plain vanilla box.”

The journey of Alexander’s Artisan Rugs back to Mill Valley has been a circuitous one, and serves as yet another example of perseverance and flexibility in an ever-turbulent retail industry dealing with the disruption of the Internet and an increasingly fickle customer landscape.

That turbulence began in 2006, when Habib started feeling like he was “trying to outrun a huge wave – very rough financial waters.” He closed his famed local shop at 383 Miller Avenue, a space he completely remodeled and transformed into a community gathering spot that hosted Mill Valley Film Festival events. Habib steadied his overall business, consolidated his focus on his San Francisco space took steps to sell assets, occupy smaller retail spaces and reduce risk.

“I’ve gone from a severe drought in my last year at the Design Center to a steady light rain here – but I am grateful,” Habib says. “But in a world of information overload, I know there’s still great value in my approach. I’m not a traditional salesperson. I’m a consultant, and an educator, and I approach rugs in the context of the customer’s overall design.”

Looking around his cozy space lined with an array of rugs sourced from all over the world, Habib adds, “This is not just some inventory. This is my collection, distilled down from thousands of carpets. My goal is always to listen to the client, educate them and help them identify what is best for them.”

That process is vastly different than it was in past decades, with customers regularly browsing before dashing online to comparison shop on sites like Amazon, Habib says. “I do in a month  what I used to do in a day,” he says. “But I have far more managed overhead now.”

Born and raised in Canarsie, Brooklyn, Habib relocated with his family to the Miami area, where graduated high school. He later moved to the Laguna Beach/Dana Point area in southern California, running Thai Teak Flooring & Rugs before moving to the Bay Area in 1981.

The aforementioned encounter with the San Carlos Police landed Habib at the Design Center, where he remained, first as a studio manager and later with his Alexander’s Decorative Rugs business, for decades. He’s also the founder of both rug manufacturer Artisan Looms rug care concierge service RugWerks, and often hosts industry workshops and educational events.

“I’m committed to academia and scholarship in carpets,” he says. “I feel like I have a responsibility to continue to inform people’s consciousness when it comes to carpets.”

He met his wife Sheila, a surgical nurse at Marin General Hospital, at a party in Berkeley, and they’ve been married for 27 years. “She’s just an amazing human being, with me every step of the way,” he says.

Getting his start in southern California before moving to Marin allowed Habib to rub elbows and collaborate with everyone from Hollywood stars and filmmakers to the North Bay’s cadre of rock stars and tech entrepreneurs.

Whether it’s his expertise in the rug world or his seemingly ubiquitous presence at fundraisers and community events as an auctioneer or DJ – he serves on the board of Sara Wasserman’s Music Heals International and says “Music is just in my DNA” – Habib’s roots run deep in Mill Valley. He’s also hard to forget, draped in dapper threads that he accessorizes with hats and scarves.

“I’ve been dressing like this since I was a teenager,” he says with a laugh.

Habib’s shop was named Mill Valley Business of the Year by the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce in 2000, and he often spearheaded local events and promotional campaigns. “I’m really excited to get back to that,” says Habib, who is hosting, along with his neighbors at El Paseo, The Makery Mill Valley and Bossa Nova Clothing, the Chamber’s September 21st Mixer, and event that will serve as the local business kickoff for the 40th Mill Valley Film Festival, set for Oct. 5-15.

“I’m thrilled to be in this space and have an opportunity to continue to give back to my community,” he says.

The 411: Richard Habib’s Alexander’s Artisan Rugs is at 1 El Paseo Lane. MORE INFO.

​From music producer and promoter to arts facilitator and musician, Daniel Patrick wears many hats, both literally and figuratively, in Mill Valley and all over the Bay Area.

The longtime music impresario has added another hat to his repertoire in recent years – that of a landscape photographer. Along with his life and Murphy Productions partner Erma Murphy, Patrick moved from Mill Valley to Stinson Beach a few years ago, and he was immediately taken by the beauty of Stinson, so much so that he began taking photos on his iPhone, often stunned by the gorgeous results.

A collection of those photos, under the moniker "Reflections: The Wonder of Stinson Beach," will be on display at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout July, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on July 11, 6-8pm.

Mill Valley's monthly celebration of local art features a host of venues, including the O’Hanlon Center for the Arts, Seager Gray Gallery, the Mill Valley Public Library, Dolls and Dandy Nail Lounge, Terrestra, the Depot Bookstore & Café, City Hall, Famous4, the Mill Valley Community Center and the Throckmorton Theatre. (GO HERE for a full list of artists and venues).

​"I was struck by the natural beauty and the contemplative nature of Stinson," Patrick says. "As I walked the beach, I took special notice of how the reflections of sand, water and sky combined to celebrate the natural beauty and wonder of this magical place. These photos are a small glimpse into this remarkable region." 

"The iPhone has provided everyone with the ability to become photographers," Patrick adds. "It can fit in your pocket and be taken anywhere. It also has great opportunities to modify photos in unique and beautiful ways. Some of the photos here are modified taking the image to a new place, while others are not."

The 411: Daniel Patrick showcases his "Reflections: The Wonder of Stinson Beach" paintings ​at the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center (85 Throckmorton Ave.), throughout July, with a wine reception set for the Mill Valley Arts Commission’s First Tuesday Artwalk on July 11, 6-8pm.

​Fresh off a blockbuster 60th Anniversary Celebration in 2016, organizers of the 61st Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival are laying the groundwork for the next edition of the landmark local arts event, hunting for dedicated volunteers that are critical to the event's success. The 61st MVFAF is set for  the event, set for Sept. 16-17 in Old Mill Park.

"Just as we need air to breathe, the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival needs volunteers to make this milestone event a huge success," says Erma Murphy, the festival artist liaison. "The long and rich history of this event is a tribute to the fabulous community of people who are resolved to squeeze every last drop of pleasure and enjoyment out of life in and around this extraordinary place we all call home. This event is all about community and continuity and we hope very much you share our pride in this festival."

​Prospective volunteers can visit Volunteer Local to review the positions available, select the date, time and area that interests you. 

Festival organizers say that approximately 90 percent of the slots are filled by repeat volunteers, so new volunteers should sign up soon. If you have any questions about the Festival or the process of volunteering, please call Phil Garratt, Volunteer Coordinator, at 415-505-6564 or e-mail him at philbrit@aol.com or  volunteers@mvfaf.org.

On the hunt for just the right blue paint for "The Wall," her Resist-themed upside-down Stars & Stripes painting, Tiburon artist Diane Green stopped by Louise Dockstader's Once Around arts and crafts hub at 75 Throckmorton Avenue, and the women kept the conversation going beyond the checkout stand. 

The result is a July 11th event at which Green will unveil "The Wall" at Once Around, meeting attendees to discuss the painting during the Mill Valley Arts Commisson's First Tuesday Artwalk (6-7:30pm). The painting will be unveiled in Once Around's window gallery on July 4th.

​In addition, the local group of "pink pussy hat" knitters that regularly meets at Once Around is creating a huge version of the hat to cover the electric box outside the store. Attendees are invited to wear their pink hats contribute to the group "knit-in" on July 11.
​
"My canvases were pretty-to-look-at Mediterranean seascapes and still lives " Green says. "I grew into doing larger abstract pieces that were more intuitive and color driven. Then the presidential election happened. When you paint, what’s in your head comes out on the canvas ... hence The Wall. I grew up in Texas. Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall feels personal to me and decidedly crazy. The Wall is message art clear and simple; it evokes the absurdity and violence of trying to physically divide our country and Mexico. What a dark place we reach when fear and hatred reign. In time, The Wall may live in some attic—akin to the Confederate statues removed from their pedestals in New Orleans. Those sculptures will be replaced by American flags. The inverted flag in my painting stands for a government in distress, memorials to a time in our country’s history that must never be forgotten. My hope is that my painting will become an image that causes a lot of head-shaking and reminiscing over thememory of NOW. If our country can right itself, and we—as a nation—can collectively return to our better natures...let us rejoice as patriots (maybe I’ll go back to aesthetically pleasing artwork). But for now, I want this canvas to shout loudly for a not-so-happy Independence Day!"

RSVP: oncearoundstore@icloud.com

In curating the lineup for the 2017 edition of Sound Summit: A Benefit for The Mountain, a day-long music festival to benefit Mount Tamalpais State Park, producer and Mill Valley resident Michael Nash sought to strike a balance between two overarching goals: celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love and the landmark Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival that took place at Tam's Mountain Theater, and bring in younger artists who innovate on the creativity of those sonic pioneers.

It's safe to say that Nash did just that, knocking it out of the proverbial park with a lineup that features two of the biggest names from the Summer of Love – Grateful Dead legends and Marin residents Phil Lesh and Bob Weir – but mixing them in with solo sets from My Morning Jacket's Jim James and former Rilo Kiley front woman Jenny Lewis, as well as the ever-evolving Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Bay Area rock band Vetiver. KNBR radio personalities Murph & Mac (aka Brian Murphy and Paul McCaffrey) return as the day’s dynamic Masters of Ceremonies.

Sound Summit – Nash's double entendre moniker for the festival – is set for Saturday, Sept. 9 (11am–7pm) in the 3,750-seat Cushing Memorial Amphitheater, home to the Mountain Play.

“Sound Summit continues to fulfill what we’d envisioned – a spirited community gathering in a stellar location with a great soundtrack,” Nash says. “It’s also throwback to a more grassroots, time-out-of-mind experience. There’s a certain synergy in the amphitheater between the artists and the audience, an intimate gathering amidst an expansive landscape.”

Produced as an annual celebration of and fundraiser for Mount Tamalpais State Park by Roots & Branches Conservancy, the one-day festival has raised $100,000 for Mount Tam in just its first two years. 

Previous acts have included Wilco, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Los Lobos, Dr. John & The Night Trippers, Bill Frisell, The Mother Hips, and many more. Fans variously make the journey up to the mountain venue by foot, bike, car, and bus.
 
“Getting there and back is a spirited adventure in its own right,” adds Nash. “An ascent of winding roads and wooded trails with incredible vistas. There’s a tangible sense of getting away from it all for a day and getting back to nature, distinctly different from a down-on-the-ground event.”
 
Here's more info on Sound Summit’s lineup:

Phil Lesh & Friends
Phil Lesh is in his 19th year of playing with a rotating mix of Friends, both old and new. Phil began playing under the moniker Phil Lesh and Friends in 1998, after he’d returned to performing following the death of his friend and bandmate Jerry Garcia in 1995. With a varied mixture of some of the best performing musicians in the live music universe, Phil has kept his musical journey fresh by constantly and consistently putting together bands featuring dynamic, exciting musicians and singers working together toward keeping the music of the Grateful Dead moving forward into the future.
 
Bob Weir
Bob Weir is one of the founding members of the legendary Grateful Dead, which received a GRAMMY Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. The band has also appeared on Forbes’ list of top-grossing entertainers and in the early ‘90s were the highest-grossing concert attraction in the U.S. Since establishing the band in 1965, Weir has become one of rock’s finest and most distinctive rhythm guitarists. Earlier this year he received the inaugural Les Paul Spirit Award. Weir is currently a member of Dead & Company and has also performed with many other acts including The Other Ones, Kingfish, Bob Weir Band, Bobby and the Midnites, Scaring the Children, Ratdog and Furthur, co-led by former Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh. His first solo album, Ace, was released in 1972. 
 
Jim James (Solo)
Jim James has spent the better part of almost two decades as the lead singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist of My Morning Jacket.  Through seven studio albums, My Morning Jacket has grown into one of the most acclaimed rock and roll bands in the world. The New York Times heralded the band as, “…the new kings of expand-your-mind, religious-experience rock…” Their last three albums, received Grammy nominations for Best Alternative Album -- the latter debuting at number 5 on the Billboard 200 chart.  Alongside the band's recording and touring, James has maintained a steady, bordering on voracious, flow of work.
 
Jenny Lewis
One of the most celebrated and respected performers of her generation, Jenny Lewis got her start as the dynamic frontwoman of influential LA group Rilo Kiley in 1998. She has since released three albums under her name, most recently 2014's The Voyager. Lewis has collaborated with Beck, Elvis Costello, Ryan Adams and M. Ward, among others. She has also written music for films.
 
Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Preservation Hall Jazz Band has held the torch of New Orleans music aloft for more than 50 years, all the while carrying it enthusiastically forward as a reminder that the history they were founded to preserve is a vibrantly living history.
 
Vetiver
Vetiver is the long running stage and recording name of San Francisco's Andy Cabic, who since 2003 has released over 6 albums and toured around the world supporting artists such as Wilco, The Shins, Fleet Foxes and Beach House.  Vetiver craft nuanced, understated songs that reward careful listening, building a rich duality; a space where sunshine is only a chord away from melancholy, an introspective lyric underlies an extroverted chorus and subtlety tries to be outgoing in an effort to connect the dots of life’s ellipsis.
 
About Roots & Branches Conservancy
 
Roots & Branches Conservancy is a San Francisco Bay Area-based non-profit organization dedicated to the conservation of natural resources, both physical and cultural. The broad arc of its efforts ranges from regional environmental and educational work to the preservation and evolution of artistic and cultural traditions – musical, narrative, and beyond. Wherever possible, the organization aims to create intersections between the environment and the arts to their mutual benefit. 
 
​The 411: Tickets for Sound Summit go on sale on June 21. Adults are $110, children 12 and younger are $55 and kids under 2 are free. More info.

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Series from the Mill Valley Chamber, Mill Valley Recreation and the California Film Institute expands to four FREE screenings in Old Mill Park this year, starting with a 30th anniversary screening of the Rob Reiner classic.

When the Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce, Mill Valley Recreation and the California Film Institute launched the free Movies in the Park series in 2014, it did so with one thing in mind: gather the community to celebrate film in one of the most gorgeous settings in the Bay Area: the redwood grove of Old Mill Park.

The response has been fantastic, with hundreds turning out in 2016 for a mix of new hits like "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and classics like  “Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.” So the 2017 edition of Movies in the Park is building on that success, expanding to four free films, starting on July 7 with a 30th anniversary screening of “The Princess Bride,” Rob Reiner’s hilarious film about the quest of farmhand Westley, accompanied by newly befriended companions along the way, to rescue his true love Princess Buttercup from the odious Prince Humperdinck.

The series continues on August 4 with the Pixar’s Oscar-winning “Inside Out,” which was just named one of the 25 best films of the 21st century by the New York Times. The story takes place inside the mind of a young girl whose five personified emotions lead her through life. 

​On September 8, the series takes on “Beauty & the Beast,” this year’s blockbuster tale of Belle, a young woman from a small village, and the Beast, a young prince trapped under the spell of an enchantress. 

​​Movies in the Park closes its 2017 season on October 6 with Disney's “Moana,” the tale of a strong-willed Polynesian girl chosen by the ocean to reunite a mystical relic with a goddess. She seeks out the legendary demigod Maui. The "Moana" screening will be part of the late of the 40th Mill Valley Film Festival, which runs Oct. 5-15.

The free film screenings are set in the redwood grove adjacent to the playground in Old Mill Park. Seating is general admission, and attendees are encouraged to bring a blanket and/or low beach chair. The main feature begins at sunset.

Don't miss this chance to see three amazing films in the beautiful Old Mill Park – FOR FREE! Old Mill Park is at the corner of Throckmorton Avenue and Cascade Drive.

Want to know what's happening around town? Click here to subscribe to the Enjoy Mill Valley Blog by Email!

Heather Ferguson’s nearly two decades in the food and hospitality industry might not seem like a typical precursor to running a cemetery.

But Fernwood Cemetery in Tam Valley is anything but a typical cemetery.

Ferguson has been leading Fernwood for two years, and says that although it was founded in the early 1890s as a resting place for lumbermen and Portuguese dairy farmers, few in Mill Valley, Marin and beyond know anything more about it than its pioneering role as an environmentally conscious green cemetery over the past few decades.

“Quite a lot of people in the community know about Fernwood as a funeral home and cemetery but just don’t know how beautiful the property is,” Ferguson says. “There is often a stigma or fear that people have about going to a cemetery unless one of their loved one is there. But Fernwood is far more than a cemetery.”

How so, you ask?

It starts with the grounds, a gorgeous, sprawling, 32-acre property that blends very much into the neighboring lands of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. “We’re a certified wildlife habitat and we encourage the community to use this as an open space for hiking, biking and meditation,” says Ferguson, who connected via her brother-in-law, who is also in the funeral business. “Fernwood is very sacred and magical.”

And lest you shiver at the possibility of walking amidst row after row of tombstones in a typical cemetery, Fernwood’s green burial grounds use boulders instead of headstones, making the cemetery seem much more like the open space that surrounds much of Mill Valley and Marin.

Then there’s the physical structure. Fernwood turns the staid, morbid stereotype of a funeral home on its head, with a modern look and an overarching tone of tranquillity. The building was designed by Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, a renowned architectural firm whose portfolio features some of the most striking buildings in the world, including the world’s tallest building, the 7-year-old Burj Khalifa in Dubai, as well as One World Trade Center, which opened in 2014, as well as Chicago’s John Hancock Center, which was the second tallest in the world when it was built in 1969, and the Willis Tower, which was built in 1973 and was the tallest in the world for more than 20 years.

The interior spaces, particularly the onsite crematory, were modeled after modern European and Japanese crematories, allowing for ceremonies and small services to take place in a variety of flexible gathering spaces with catered receptions and memorials.

“The public has also used the gathering room for educational conferences, yoga classes, retirement parties, and “Death Café” gatherings,” Ferguson says.

It’s also critical to understand what Fernwood is not. Fernwood is owned by TYO LLC, a partnership between Yogu Kanthiah and Tyler Cassity, whose properties also include the Hollywood Forever cemetery in Los Angeles. The pair bought the two cemeteries from Forever Enterprises in 2009. But the Hollywood property stands in stark contrast to Fernwood, as it is regarded as “one of the world’s most fascinating landmarks,” where “visitors come from all over the world to pay respects to Johnny Ramone, Cecil B. DeMille, Jayne Mansfield, Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, and hundreds more of Hollywood’s greatest stars.”

“This place is very much about tranquillity and being surrounded by nature,” Ferguson says.

Finally, and most importantly, Fernwood’s services have long been regarded as forward-thinking, and quite distinctive, including green burials where graves are hand-dug and caskets are optional but must be biodegradable if used. “Our services are more ‘spiritual’ than religious, especially the natural burials,” Ferguson says. “Services often consist of friends and family forming a circle around the burial site and sharing memories and then helping to close the grave.”

Those services include the relatively new Gan Yarok (meaning green garden), America’s first Jewish green cemetery, built around the principles established by the founding rabbis of the cemetery, representing all streams of modern Judaism.  

“At Fernwood, in many ways, funeral and burial traditions have come full circle, embracing simplicity and natural beauty,” Ferguson says.

The 411: Fernwood Cemetery is at 301 Tennessee Valley Road. MORE INFO.