Title: West Point Inn Collection

Dates: 1943-1999, bulk 1970-1999

Collection Number: MS.1984.015

Creator/Collector:

Extent: 4.5 linear feet, 5 boxes

Repository: Mill Valley Public Library

Abstract: A collection of administrative documents, letters, publications, photographs, and artifacts associated with the West Point Inn, the West Point Inn Association and its membership from 1943 to 1999.

Language of Material: English

Collection is open for research. Original materials may be viewed with permission from staff. Digital copies of materials may be available. Materials in this collection do not circulate.

West Point Inn Collection. Mill Valley Public Library

The West Point Inn was built in 1904 at the request of Mill Valley and Mount Tamalpais Scenic Railway board president Sidney B. Cushing for a cost of $2,500, and opened on September 3 of that year. It was once the penultimate stop along the Scenic Railway, which terminated at the no-longer-extant Tavern of Tamalpais. The Inn is so named because it marked the farthest western progress of the railroad before it made its final eastward turn towards the tavern. The Inn was run by the railroad, and was occasionally offered for sale or briefly closed when the stage traffic slowed and summer service ended. In 1916, the Inn reopened with a new front porch after the Tamalpais Conservation Club convinced the railroad to focus on hiking, and arranged for volunteers to make improvements. In April of 1920 a new dining room was added. After the railroad closed in 1930, the Inn came under the ownership of the Marin Municipal Water District (MMWD). Hiking clubs saved the Inn from closure by encouraging members to patronize the Inn, and organizing hiking groups from the San Francisco Bay Area. The MMWD leased the Inn to various innkeepers until 1943, when the Water District determined it a fire hazard and planned to demolish it. The West Point Club, a volunteer association, was created to preserve and manage the Inn. The Club changed its name to the West Point Inn Association in 1978. The West Point Inn is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and at the time this finding aid was written, was still using gas lighting exclusively.

This collection comprises 22 bound volumes of ledgers and logbooks, financial records, personal papers, correspondence, and general information about the West Point Inn. There are also minutes and board information, and two bound volumes and two cartons of general ledgers, membership cards, and hostess schedules from the West Point Inn Association.