The WIC has been
building community
since 1912
Originally started in 1912, the Club has been offering social and recreational activities for the community of Woodacre and beyond for over 100 years. The Directors of the Club purchased the property in the 1950's and due to a fire in 1958 that burned down the Maillard mansion, the clubhouse was rebuilt in its current location. Since the Club's inception, the swimming pools and tennis courts have been used by members and the community. Over time, the tennis courts have been relocated, new swimming pools added, as well as the amenities found at the Club today, such as a playground, basketball court, baseball field.
The Woodacre Improvement Club has always been a popular summer hangout - happy swimmers in their original bean-shaped pool pictured here in a Seth Wood photo from the late 1940s. This pool was built in the 1910s by the Lagunitas Development Company to attract potential land buyers. Credit: SGV Historical Society
The original kidney-shaped pool. The tennis courts sit on this site today. Credit: SGV Historical Society
Woodacre as seen by an aerial photographer sometime between the removal of Railroad Avenue’s railroad tracks after 1933 and the post World War II building boom of the late 1940s into the 1950s. Mount Tamalpais and Bolinas Ridge rise to the south. Credit: SGV Historical Society
The Mailliard dairy on a misty day around the turn of the 20th century. The dairy seems to have been in the southeast corner of Woodacre, near today’s Elm Ave. and Castle Rock Ave. Before the name Woodacre was introduced in 1913, the area was known as “Mailliard,” so named for the family who owned and ranched most the Valley. Before that, the area appeared on some maps as “Right Hand Valley.” Credit: SGV Historical Society
The intersection of Elm Ave. and Castle Rock Ave. as seen from Blueberry Hill in 1928. Note the effects of September 1923's wildfire on the surrounding forests. Credit: SGV Historical Society
An illustrated composite photograph of the Woodacre flats in the mid 1910s as seen from Blueberry Hill, from a Lagunitas Development Company advertisement. Credit: SGV Historical Society
The Mailliard mansion in today's Woodacre around 1900 - now almost the exact site of the Woodacre Improvement Club building. The mansion was the home of the Mailliard family from its construction in 1873 until 1912, when they sold it to the Lagunitas Development Company, and the building became a lodge for the company's visiting potential buyers. Later, it became the home of the first iteration of the Woodacre Improvement Club, before it burned to the ground in 1957 due to a chimney malfunction. Credit: SGV Historical Society
The "Woodacre Lodge" on the site of today's Woodacre Improvement Club. This structure was the Mailliard family's ranch home completed in 1873. When the family sold their San Geronimo Valley land to the Lagunitas Development Company in 1912, the home became an office for the company and a community gathering place. Sadly, it burned to the ground in 1957 due to a chimney malfunction. Credit: SGV Historical Society
The beautiful Woodacre Lodge train station on today’s Marin County HQ driveway soon after the train station’s construction in the 1910s. Credit: SGV Historical Society