San Anselmo · Marin County · 1934–1942

The Sleepy Hollow
Golf Course

Marin’s first public links, and the valley it lay in

The Hotaling mansion as the golf clubhouse, 1937. Courtesy of the San Anselmo Historical Museum

From 1936 to 1942 the head of Butterfield Road above San Anselmo was a golf course: eighteen holes along the creek in Richard Hotaling’s old Sleepy Hollow, Marin’s first public links, with the Hotaling mansion for a clubhouse and a floodlit driving range open day and night. The fairways were plowed for potatoes in 1943 and became the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood. This site gathers what survives of the story: the newspaper accounts, the photographs and maps, and the people. Start with the history, or wander.

The HistoryThe Links at Sleepy Hollow

The full illustrated history, from the Hotaling estate to San Domenico, in six chapters, with footnotes to every source. About 17,000 words.

The Short StoryHalf the length, every photograph

The same story told in half the words, for a single sitting. All the photographs, footnotes and pop-up bios are kept.

The Timeline104 dates

From the Hotalings to the homes on the old fairways, with the course record, photographs and sources.

The People36 profiles

Builders, operators, pros, champions and landowners, their lives footnoted from the papers of the day.