The Mill Valley Historical Society installed a new and improved map in the same location as its predecessor on November 15, along with updated historic signage telling its story.
The old trail map, painted on redwood siding in 1946, had been protected for approximately 50 years hidden away under siding in its previous location at Clark’s Grocery. When the store was demolished for new development, MVHS procured the map and in 2018, after obtaining agreements from Mill Valley stakeholders, a restored trail map was installed on the wall of 34 Miller.
It did not hold up well to weather in its new location, however, and a team of volunteers, including MVHS member and architect Jill Benton, researched several options. It was determined in summer 2024 that it wasn’t feasible to save the original map and replicating the original with new protection was our best choice. The Mill Valley Historical Society hired local muralist Llewellyn Ludlow to recreate it.
The bright new map, with fresh painted trim, positively pops. Now our popular 78-year-old Mill Valley landmark will live on for many more years.
Big thanks to all MVHS volunteers who contributed to this restoration project, particularly Jill Benton, Matt Mathews, and Llewelyn Ludlow. (Pictured below on installation day.)
MVHS will hold an official unveiling event to celebrate many more years of our Hiker’s Trail Map, so keep your eyes out for an announcement here soon!
The wooden map, approximately 15 feet wide and 10 feet tall, has been installed on the side of the building at 34 Miller Ave. that contains Urban Remedy and the Equator Coffees commissary kitchen. It recognizes the historic importance of hiking in Mill Valley.
For a bit of less-recent history, in 2004, as construction workers were demolishing the former Old Mill Market building near Old Mill Park prior to the eventual construction of the Old Mill Cottages, a four-unit residential complex, they found something within a layer of siding that stopped them in their tracks.
For those unaware of the location, here’s the exact location, in the alley between Gravity Tavern and Urban Remedy.
But because what they’d found was so large – a decades-old, approximately 15-feet-wide and 10-feet-tall painting of a map laden with informal hiking trails – it took them a bit to figure what exactly they’d uncovered.
Fourteen years later, the massive, painted trail map that spans the trails of Mount Tamalpais State Park, Muir Woods National Monument and beyond, has been restored and installed on the outside side wall of Urban Remedy (the old locksmith shop) and the commissary at 34 Miller Avenue facing the driveway opposite the Gravity Tavern (former Balboa Café.)
Mill Valley Historical Society and City of Mill Valley officials held a public unveiling and dedication of the 69-year-old, billboard-size Mt. Tamalpais Hikers Trail map. Historical Society board members were joined by Mill Valley Mayor Stephanie Moulton-Peters and Councilmember Jessica Sloan to unveil the map, as seen above and at right in its pre-unveiled state.
According to Historical Society officials, the map was originally commissioned and painted in 1949 on the wooden side wall of Clark’s Grocery (which later became Old Mill Market, which was affectionately known as Thran’s) that stood across from Old Mill Park at the corner of Throckmorton Avenue and Old Mill Street. The commission stemmed from the fact that Norman D. Clark, the proprietor of Clark’s Grocery, got tired of answering questions and drawing crude maps to hikers who used Throckmorton Avenue to approach the mountain. Officials say he hired Walter Finn, custodian of Muir Woods National Monument, and Melville Whittaker, chief ranger of Mt. Tamalpais State Park, to help design an oversize map of the hiking trails on Mt. Tamalpais.
The map was visible on the west side of the building. But by 1960, the map had disappeared, having been covered by shingles. The market had changed hands many times, later becoming a fix-it shop.
When the map was discovered, members of the Historical Society got permission to remove it. They stored it in pieces for 14 years and painstakingly reassembled and restored it behind the leadership of board member and architect Jill Benton-Tardy. who contacted the master lease holder of 34 Miller Avenue, Helen Russell, co-founder & CEO of Equator Coffee. Russell jumped on the opportunity and approved the installation of the historic map on the outside of the building. Longtime Mill Valley resident Guy Palmer, who regularly visited Clark’s as a child, installed the map.