Marincello
The land making up the Marin Headlands was purchased by the US military in 1851, shortly after California became a state, for the installation of coastal defense guns.
Environmentalists urged the military to give the land to the Department of Parks and Recreation to preserve its native and open quality.
By the 1960s, the rise of the suburb was in full effect in the United States, and it looked like the pristine land atop the Marin Headlands (only minutes away from San Francisco) would prove no different.
A developer from Bridgeport, Connecticut named Thomas Frouge[2] (March 16, 1914 - January 1969) came across the area and immediately had grand visions for the land, writing “It is probably the most beautiful location in the United States for a new community.
[5] Many local newspapers published articles supporting the grand city, including one from the San Francisco Examiner reporting the plan "could not be sooner nor could the site be better chosen".
[8] Even before Marin Supervisors approved the Marincello plan in November 1965, legal red tape started to slowly encompass the project.
In June 1965, Frouge was sued for misappropriation and false representation of a proposed street entrance to Marincello that trespassed upon private property of existing homeowners.
This entrance was off Wolfback Ridge Road (from the Spencer Avenue exit), and was very important to the value of the city since it allowed easy access to US-101 and the Golden Gate Bridge from Marincello.
This allowed Douglas Ferguson, Bob Praetzel, and Marty Rosen (three lawyers who were already actively following the development and enraged by the legal shortcuts taken by Frouge and his associates to accelerate the construction) to step in and file the most threatening lawsuit to face Marincello.
Huey Johnson, western director of The Nature Conservancy, met with the Gulf Oil Corporation about selling this valuable land to the park service in early 1970.
In 1972, the land was sold to the Nature Conservancy for $6.5 million and then transferred to the newly formed Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
[5] Although the Marin Headlands currently sits among thousands of acres of virtually untouched and protected open land, some remnants of the 1960s development project still exist.
