Towns are a reflection of the people who erect them, their style an expression of the society from which they spring. In Inverness in the early 20th century, the architecture largely reflected Berkeley.
Professors, planners and other members of the city’s intelligentsia migrated westward to spend summers on the shores of Tomales Bay, bringing with them the Arcadian fantasies of the Arts and Crafts movement.
Inverness’s summer people built brown-shingle dwellings with exposed…