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MHA
Marin City Public Housing - Nomination to Nat'l Register of Historic Places
The following letter has been submitted to the California State Historic Resources Commission, regarding the decision about whether to include Golden Gate Village on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dear Commissioners:
I write in support of the publication and nomination of Marin City Public Housing, a.k.a. Golden Gate Village, to the National Register of Historic Places. The 29 buildings and landscaped site are well qualified for nomination due to their historical, cultural, and social significance as well as their association with an extensive list of important people.
The well-defined link to WWII shipbuilding is a qualifying event. The direct associations with Frank Lloyd Wright, Aaron Green, Vera Schultz, Lawrence Livingson, Jr., Lawrence Halprin and John Carl Warnecke represent eligibility in a second category. The highly visible structures and planned campus retain historic integrity in design, materials, and feeling. These are reasons enough to merit designation.
Additionally, Golden Gate Village is living documentation of the social and cultural significance of population movement and social development in California’s Marin County: egress of whites from blighted, temporary wartime housing and restrictive racial covenants facing black families are important to remember as a part of our history. That Golden Gate Village evolved as integrated, low-cost housing, and remains as affordable public housing may be its highest significance.
As a resident of Marin County, I find the Marin Housing Authority’s agency’s lack of support for this nomination shameful. Even more reprehensible is the agency’s citation of benign neglect as the ostensible cause. In your determination, I urge the Commission to disregard the Marin Housing Authority.
To preserve and restore Golden Gate Village is statement about equality, and the human right to live in a graceful and pleasant community. Placed on the National Register, Marin City Public Housing, a.k. a. Golden Gate Village, will stand as an education about our past, a statement about our present, and an expression of faith in our future.
This is a monument worthy of recognition by Nomination.
Thank you for your consideration of my comments.
Garril G. Page