Ella May and George Breck were the largest property owners in Yolanda Court. Between 1912 and 1917, they purchased five lots in the subdivision, which included the homes today at 100, 106 and 110 Alder.
George Breck was born in 1866 into a pioneer family of Portland, Oregon. He was an avid mountaineer and had a keen interest in photography.
Breck married Ella May Shipley of Roseburg, Oregon in 1890. In San Francisco, George was employed by J.B. Colt Company, a New York firm that produced lamps and acetylene products. The bright white light produced by acetylene gas was ideal for optical projection of lantern slides.
In 1899, George Breck formed a partnership with Edward D. Bullard, and Bullard & Breck, made many acetylene installations in the west. The partnership was dissolved after the 1906 fire destroyed the business.
By 1908, the Breck Electric Manufacturing Co. had a large showroom in San Francisco where a wide variety of acetylene fixtures, generators and supplies were sold. Breck invented two acetylene gas fixtures for which he received patents.
Breck also sold moving picture supplies and became a distributor for Thomas A. Edison motion picture apparatus. In 1915, he incorporated Breck Photoplay Supply Company which sold projection equipment and lighting to theaters.
In 1901, the Brecks purchased a lot in the Haight Ashbury and engaged the architect Maxwell Greene Bugbee to design a home for them. Bugbee was the third generation in his family to practice architecture as his grandfather and uncle had been well-known San Francisco architects.
In San Anselmo, the Brecks again had Bugbee draw the plans for their home; Robert Wallace and Hector Lanpher were the local contractors. They called their home “The Igloo.” A second home was built at 110 Alder in 1916, and evidence suggests that it was used as a rental home. It may also have been designed by Bugbee.
The Brecks were active in San Anselmo working for the betterment of the community, their home the scene of neighborhood gatherings. They gave talks and slideshows on their travels to Alaska, Mexico and the Pacific Northwest.
George Breck was a member of the town’s advisory Citizen’s Committee and served as vice-chair of the Good Government League. He served on the board of directors for the San Anselmo Community Theatre and designed an elaborate fountain with colored lights for it similar to others he had designed for San Francisco theaters.
Mrs. Breck at the piano. Courtesy of Kathleen Devlin.
George Breck died unexpectedly in his garden on March 14, 1924 at age 53. Ella May Breck continued to live in their Yolanda Court home until her death May 27, 1945 at age 75. Ella was a member of the Delphian Society, an organization that promoted the education of women, and she gave talks on historical topics to the local Marin chapter.
Eleanor Zobel Holton was a young girl when her family lived next door and recalled that “Mrs. Breck never came out during the day, and at dusk she would come out, and she would walk down to the store, the Model Market, or whatever, or maybe just go for a walk. She was a little old lady all hunched over with a coat and a hat. But we would hear her play the piano. I was never in that house when Mrs. Breck was there, and I don’t think I ever spoke to her.”