Old St. Hilary’s is one of the few surviving examples of Carpenter Gothic in its original condition and setting. Built in 1886 as a Roman Catholic church, it was deconsecrated in 1954 and acquired by the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society in 1959. The site also includes Dakin Lane, a pathway in memory of historian Susanna B. Dakin and family; the John Thomas Howell Botanical Garden, honoring the emeritus Curator of Botany at the California Academy of Sciences; and the Caroline S. Livermore Vista Point, in memory of Marin County’s foremost conservationist. The preserve is a unique wildflower garden of 217 species, two-thirds native to the Tiburon Peninsula, many of them rare. Its unusual profusion of plants is related to the preserve’s geology, including steep rocky serpentine hillsides, level areas of deeper soil, a series of fresh-water springs, and full exposure to sun and prevailing winds. The rarest plant, an endemic, is the Black Jewel Flower, Streptanthus niger, which grows only in serpentine on the southern end of the peninsula and blooms in early summer.