In this 1957 photo, a once handsome Victorian house is being barged across south Marin’s Richardson Bay. The four-bedroom, two and a half-story structure was built in the late 1870s and for 30 years it was the pride and joy of Dr. Benjamin Lyford and his wife Hilarita Reed Lyford, daughter of John Thomas Reed, a land grant recipient of the Tiburon Peninsula and part of Mill Valley. Then in the early 1900s, when both the Lyfords passed away, the Victorian dwelling was bequeathed to descendants and, over time, began to deteriorate. One of those descendants, John Paul Reed, eventually went on to befriend one Rose Rodrigues, the daughter of a tenant farmer whose family had lived on farm land that Reed had inherited and overlooked today’s Tiburon Boulevard. Some historians claim theirs was more than a friendship, but let them debate that. However, in 1919 when John Paul passed away, he didn’t do so without transferring to Rose (for $10) the 11 acres of land that she and her family had been living on since Rose was an infant.
Now let’s return to the forlorn Victorian property atop a barge. By the mid-1950s, it had been vacant for years and reputed to be haunted. When developer Sam Neider threatened to bulldoze it, heritage enthusiasts were aghast – they wanted to save the formerly stately Victorian, but where? Where could they put it? By now Rose was nearing 60-years-old and busy herding goats on the bayfront land that had come her way thanks to a long ago friendship with John Paul. Acting quickly, heritage enthusiasts talked with environmentalists who talked to Rose who agreed to donate her 11 bayfront acres to the Audubon Society – provided, that is, she and her goats could live there for the rest of her life. BINGO! That was where to put the Victorian!…