Chapter 9: Lot 8 - The Beales Family

On July 23, 1904 Elizabeth Barber deeded Lot 8 to Louise Henrietta Worn, the youngest daughter of George Worn and Annie S. E. Ross. Following her marriage to John Thomas Beales in 1905, Louise built a home using her savings at 160 Prospect. It was designed by Ernest Coxhead in the Bay Area Shingle style and was situated on 2.65 acres on a knoll overlooking Ross Valley (Winship Park), Mt. Tamalpais and Bald Hill. Today the view is obscured by dense foliage. The house is listed in The Guide to Architecture in San Francisco and Northern California (Gebhard et al) with the following comment: “An unassuming design whose visual interest is concentrated in an elegant entrance composition”. A second story bedroom was added by San Anselmo architect Harris Osborn following a fire in the house in 1921.

John Beales, born October 16, 1875 in San Francisco, was the son of John Thomas Beales and Rosa Montealegre. John Thomas Sr. was born in England in 1843 and while serving as a purser on a steamship met Rosa, a passenger on the ship. She was the daughter Dr. Jose Maria Montealegre, the President of Costa Rica from 1859 to 1863. John and Rosa married in Costa Rica and came to San Francisco in 1872 with two children. A few years later, after John and his sister Elena were born, the family went to Belize on a business venture. John Sr. died of a brain tumor in Belize and Rosa returned to San Francisco with the children, having lost a considerable sum of money her father had given her upon her marriage. John Jr. attended school in San Francisco but left at 14 years of age to help support his widowed mother and sisters.

John and Louise raised six children (John Thomas, Ross Worn, Louise Eleanor, Kirk, Marion, and Mora) in Barber Tract. John was in the insurance business and Louise made dried floral arrangements which she sold all over the country. She also made quantities of candy every year which was sold at the annual Grape Festival, a benefit for Sunny Hills Presbyterian Orphanage.

Both John and Louise were gardeners, planting specimen trees and an orchard and garden. John raised chickens for eggs and meat and kept bees for honey.

There were few homes in the area during the years the Beales children were growing up. They used to take a shortcut down the hill from Prospect to Barber and go across the railroad tracks and up Ross Avenue, past their grandmother Worn’s house, to the San Anselmo Main School. During rainy weather, San Anselmo Avenue would flood and they would be rowed across to school. After school they would slide down the grassy hill to the level area between Barber Avenue and Sir Francis Drake where they played ball and built forts.

John Beales died on January 5, 1956 and Louise less than a year later on November 22, 1956.


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