In 1905, the Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway built a feeder line from upper Blithedale Canyon to the North Shore Railroad Depot in downtown Mill Valley. This not only served residents’ local needs but also connected them with the North Shore Railroad trains that ran south to Sausalito where riders could connect with the ferry to San Francisco.

Nestled in the hills just west of Fairfax is the Bothin Youth Center (Camp Bothin), a Girl Scout summer camp that has been in existence since 1948. However, in the first few decades of the twentieth century, the site was partially home to the Arequipa Tuberculosis Sanatorium. It owed its existence to the remarkable work and dedication of caring nurses and doctors and their philanthropic friends who wanted to provide long-term, quality care for wage-earning women suffering from the early stages of tuberculosis.