Jane and Joel Rosenberg already had an offer pending on a house in San Francisco in the early 2000s when they ran across a particularly enticing residence for sale in the charming Marin County city of Mill Valley, about 14 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge. The entrepreneurial couple—known for co-creating Mashuga Nuts, cinnamon- and sugar-spiced pecans packaged with Yiddish witticisms—went to see it and discovered “a home deeply connected to the land and full of possibility.” They immediately withdrew their San Francisco offer and doled out $2.9 million for the circa 1907 property.
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They weren’t the first to be lured in by 8 Laurel Street. Oscar-winning filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola put down stakes there from 1970 until the early 1980s and wrote much of the screenplay for The Godfather in a detached cottage affectionately dubbed the Nest. His close friend, director George Lucas, also edited the 1973 hit American Graffiti with his ex-wife, Marcia, in a carriage house above the garage. Jefferson Starship musician Pete Sears and his family even occupied the place at one time.
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