Galen and Mary Burdell

In 1852, Camilo Ynitia sold most of the Olompali land grant for $5,200 to James Black, Marin County’s Assessor. Eleven years later, Black gave the property to his daughter, Mary, when she married prominent San Francisco dentist Galem Burdell. By 1866, having amassed a small fortune from his dental practice and sales of a tooth powder he invented, Dr. Burdell and his wife left San Francisco and made their permanent home on the land they called Rancho Olompia. Within a short time, the Burdells enclosed the adobe within a wood frame dwelling with clapboard siding. A second floor was added on the east, and a porch was built on the side facing the parking lot.

California · United States