Mill Valley, California 2025

According to the 2020 United States Census, the population of Mill Valley is 14,187 people. The population density is 1,418 people per square mile. The racial makeup of Mill Valley is 72.6% White, 2.7% (394) Black or African American, 0.4% (57) Native American, 2.3% (339) Asian, 0.1% (13) Pacific Islander, 1.1% (172) from other races, and 4.3% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.6% (953) of the population.

The Band of the Golden Gate, begun in 1899, still plays weekly during the summer at the Aquatic Park, in Sausalito. In 1990, newspaper columnist Herb Caen described the concerts as one of the best kept secrets of Marin County. In 1972, the band played for President Nixon's visit to San Francisco. They played at the final presentation of the Royal Windsor Regiment of Scotland. The 50-piece band, led by Dr. William J. Peters, plays traditional American music.

The 948-seat, nonprofit, independent movie theater, Cinépolis Luxury Theatres, is located in downtown Mill Valley. It was built in 1928 as the first theater in the United States to show talking films. It was renovated and converted into a movie theater. The theater hosts the annual Mill Valley Film Festival.

The Mill Valley Film Festival takes place every year in Mill Valley, California. It is a nonprofit organization that was founded in 1977. The annual festival takes place in the first week of October. It lasts for 11 days, featuring screenings of independent films.

Since 1985, the city has hosted the annual Dipsea Race, the oldest trail race in the US, which began in 1905. It is one of the several races that constituted the US championship. The race is 7.5 miles. The race starts at the town square in Mill Valley and ends at Stinson Beach.

The Jack Kerouac novel Big Sur is set in Mill Valley. Henry Miller's 1957 novel Tropic of Cancer features several descriptions of Mill Valley. Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a Beat poet and owner of City Lights bookstore in San Francisco, lived in Mill Valley. In 1973, legendary rock guitarist (and native of Nice, France) Marcel Dadi moved to Mill Valley.

The first people of the area that is now Mill Valley were the Coast Miwok Indians. Even though the Coast Miwok and their ancestors had occupied the area for 4000 years before the arrival of Europeans, they likely encountered the first European on August 2, 1775, when Spanish explorer Juan Bautista de Anza and his fellow scouts first made contact with the indigenous people in the region.

In 1907, the California Legislature created Marin's first County Park, Mill Valley, which initially included 56 acres. It was enlarged in 1917 by a 164-acre gift from James B. Mott and his wife, Elinor. In 1966, Mott donated an additional 144 acres.

The first post office opened in 1892, and the community was named "Mill Valley" by its first postmaster, Robert D. semple. The name "Mill Valley" was chosen to depict the surrounding area's many saw mills.

In 1866, Downtown Mill Valley was expanded when three men from San Francisco bought 455 acres. They laid out the road map for a new community with sales of residential lots beginning immediately. The first house built in the mission style was built in 1875.

In 1842, the Mexican government made some New Englanders, including a Baptist missionary named Timothy Murphy, hold a concession deed, forcing them to file a claim on land granted to Mission San Rafael Arcangel near the present-day downtown Mill Valley. They failed to attract Asian investors, so they brought in people from New England. In 1846, the concession was voided after the Mexican-American War when Marin County was established.

On June 4, 1879, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Blankenship, accompanied by two children and an Aunt, were the first European people to reside in what is now Mill Valley. They lived in a one-room house near the creek that runs through the center of town. They first arrived in San Francisco in October 1856 and later purchased "The Flat" for $395.

In the early 1870s, European Americans began to settle, and in 1872, the first sawmill was opened, with the first homes being built in Mill Valley in 1876. In 1889, the California Legislature created the township of Mill Valley within the greater unincorporated township of Tamalpais. In 1900, the population of around 1,600 people had one general store, a blacksmith shop, a post office, and a number of homes. In 1907, 164 acres were donated to Marin County to create Mill Valley, the county's first park.

In 1839, John Reed, a Scotsman, and his family acquired the Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio, which included what is now Mill Valley. Reed built the first sawmill near the creek now known as Cascade Creek. By 1841, Reed had built an adobe house, gristmill, and sheds.

In 1834, by way of decree of the Mexican government, James Richard Berry was granted 17,000 acres stretching from Mill Valley to the mountain, going along a straight line over Mount Tamalpais, (approximately what is now the Steep Ravine-Dipsea Trail) to the east base of the mountain and a flat band of land that included the northern edge of Thornton.