The Meadowsweet Dairy was built on an old quarry site in 1926. The cows grazed the grasslands on the hills behind the present site and over into the saddle now cut by Highway 101. There were also hay meadows in the wetlands now covered by the Town Center and Village shopping malls. The dairy ceased production around 1942 and was sold to a visionary who converted the cow shed into a school and the creamery into a residence for faculty.

It was a school until the mid '80s when a developer bought it. After years of effort to obtain permits to bulldoze the dairy and build 13 town house condos on the 2 acre site, he succeeded in clearing the planning commission only to find the Marin Municipal Water District was unable to grant the necessary water supplies during the drought. After years of waiting, he learned that the best estimate of waiting time still needed for water connections was another 2 - 3 years. He gave up and instructed his manager to sell the dairy in September of 1991. A week after the present owner's bid was accepted and escrow was opened, the Water District changed policy and offered the developer immediate water connections!

There are presently 5 apartments in the dairy, 4 in the creamery and one in the cow shed. Preliminary planning is under way to reduce the total number of apartments to 3, housing the three principal Dairy artists. This should be completed by 2005.

The original silo (just visible behind the tree on the far left in the photo above) was made of terra cotta block on the present foundation site. The present silo is part of the 1992 restoration. During the course of excavation for utilities, so much rock surfaced that the dry walls in the commons area behind the dairy were devised as a way to use the rock on site. Debris from a 1982 slide in the same area were moved to the extreme south end of the property and graded. Only unusable demolition debris was hauled off to landfill.

The old cowshed now serves as the studio, exhibition space and center of operations for the collaborative artist group known as Meadowsweet Dairy.

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