Chapter 11: Lot 10

On April 17, 1905, Elizabeth Barber deeded Lot 10 to Louis A. and Marion Murch of Alameda. Louis was secretary/treasurer of J.A. Gray Co., a machine company. In December of 1905 and April 1906, the Murch’s deeded Lot 10 to Ellen B. Copp, a widow from San Francisco. It is likely that the house at 50 Entrata was built for Ellen and her family. Today the brown-shingled house is prominently perched high above and overlooking downtown.

In the 1910 census, Ellen is listed there with her son, William B. Franzell. Ellen Bailey Copp was born in 1834 in Pennsylvania and married August Franzell in 1855 in West Virginia. They had three children. In the 1880 census, Ellen is listed with her daughter Elta in the household of her sister and brother-in-law in West Virginia. In 1900, Ellen, now Copp, is listed as a widow in the household of her daughter Elta and son-in-law Alonzo McFarland in San Francisco. The family resided in a house on Clayton Street designed in 1895 by Ernest Coxhead.

Ellen Copp died in 1916 and her son William in 1919. The Barber Tract property was inherited by Elta and Alonzo McFarland. The 1924 Sanborn map shows one structure on Lot 10 with the drive encircling the house. By the time of the 1928 Marin Assessment, the property had been subdivided.

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