The area in and around the Marin Academy High School campus in San Rafael has a long, rich, educational history dating all the way back to the early 1870s. Marin County Journal articles and advertisements from 1872-1877 mention “The San Rafael Academy”, a boys school run by Mr. Bates near 5th and E streets. In late 1874 the ‘Academy’ merged with “The Young Ladies Seminary” of San Rafael, moved down the street and was renamed, “Tamalpais Academy.” It was mainly a preparatory school for girls that taught, “French, German, penmanship and reading…and all the branches necessary for the qualification of public-school teachers.”.
The school was near the Tamalpais Hotel, one of San Rafael’s first luxury establishments. The Tamalpais opened, according to the Marin Journal, in March of 1871 and was, “handsomely furnished, with 56 rooms, a dining hall, and a billiard room, with an omnibus connection to the downtown train depot.” Small cottages for guests were added a few years later as the hotel went through a couple of renovations and proprietors, who leased the building from Michael J. O’Connor and his wife, Fanny, after his death in 1889.
On Sept. 16, 1890 The Mount Tamalpais Military Academy (MTMA) opened its doors to young boys at the corner of 4th & E streets. The Rev. Arthur Crosby, pastor of San Rafael’s First Presbyterian Church, was instrumental in raising the funds for the school and Rev. J.E. Wheeler was its first Principal. Annual tuition costs were $320/yr. for boarding and tuition and an additional $55-75 for two different academic programs. A year later the school
moved up to Fifth St. and the Tamalpais Hotel and cottages were purchased from the O’Connor family by local businessman Arthur Foster and donated to the school. The spacious building became the barracks for the students and is in the background of the photo above. By 1893 the MTMA had been accredited by U.C. Berkeley and boasted that it, “prepares boys and young men for entrance into the most advanced Colleges and Universities, for West Point and Annapolis, technical schools and civil service examinations.” The academy also taught students rifle and infantry drills and mounted artillery training. The school was the first of its kind on the west coast and fielded numerous sports teams that competed around the Bay Area and a large military band that played at local celebrations, holidays, and parades.
By 1925, decreasing enrollment caused the shareholders to sell the school and its facilities to Mr. A.L. Stewart, an administrator at the school who renamed it The San Rafael Military Academy (SRMA). He expanded the campus and brought four WWI dormitories from Mare Island to accommodate increasing enrollment. The old Tamalpais Hotel building was razed in the 1930s as a potential fire hazard. In 1959, the Episcopal Diocese of California purchased the school and it remained a military style academy well into the 1960s.
By the end of the decade, military and single-sex schools were experiencing falling enrollment. The Diocese was unable to form a consensus on how to proceed, closed the school, and dissolved their Board of Directors. A new Board was elected and the vision of establishing a progressive, independent high school came into being. In 1972 Marin Academy welcomed its first students with a curriculum based on high academic standards while incorporating athletics, fine arts education and experiential learning.
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)