Hotaling Mansion being used as the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course Clubhouse, 1930s
Remains of the steps and foundation, 2010
Just past the entrance to San Domenico School in Sleepy Hollow are the curious remains of a set of steps. Today they lead nowhere, but the steps once led to the veranda and interior of the Hotaling mansion.
Richard (Dick) M. Hotaling was the bachelor son of Anson P. Hotaling, the founder of a wholesale wine and liquor business in San Francisco. Anson Hotaling owned 1,900 acres in the Sleepy Hollow valley. When he died in 1900, son Dick built an elegant home at the upper end of the valley.
Dick Hotaling was very rich and a bon vivant, and he spared no expense on the home. The Marin Journal reported in December 1900 that “R. M. Hotaling, a member of the Board of Supervisors of San Francisco, is erecting a spacious residence on the ‘Sleepy Hollow’ tract a few minutes drive from San Rafael. His new residence will be one of the finest in the county.” Hotaling had a wide circle of friends and the house was designed for lavish entertaining with numerous suites of rooms with private baths. There was a grand staircase of imported cedar and hand carved woodwork.
Hotaling was a well-known amateur Shakespearean actor and the parlor included a stage and Juliet balcony for theatrical performances. A wardrobe room built in the hallway provided a stage door. The home and improvements to the property cost $25,000 in 1900.
The dairy in the valley had been under lease, and Hotaling decided to operate it himself. He enlarged and modernized the barns and silos, hired a dairy manager, and imported a herd of Holstein cattle from Holland. He named the ranch Sleepy Hollow and his prize-winning bull was called Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Hotaling soon tired of the dairy business. He sold the herd, leased the dairy and returned to San Francisco. The mansion was used by Hotaling family members in summers and on weekends.
In 1925, the Hotaling family sold the property, and in the 1930s the mansion was transformed into the clubhouse for the Sleepy Hollow Golf Course. The clubhouse, pictured here in the late 1930s, was a popular destination for dining and dancing. However, the golf course was short-lived and Albert G. Raisch, a paving contractor, purchased the upper 512 acres of the valley in 1943.
Raisch and his family moved into the mansion and made some changes to it – fresh paint, modern plumbing, and the addition of a swimming pool, artificial lake and dancing pavilion. The Raisches continued the tradition of lavish entertaining in the house. They were known for hosting parties of 600 guests. They held an annual May Day celebration which featured a lamb barbeque and a Maypole dance executed on horseback. One writer told of cocktails being made in a cement mixer.
In 1955, the Raisch family moved to San Francisco; the 18-room vacant mansion burned to the ground in an early morning fire on February 17, 1957. Arson was suspected. Today, only the steps and ruins of the foundation of the elegant home remain.