These photographs are proof that real estate marketing and advertising have been in full swing for more than 100 years. The Rocca Bros. and later Roy Farrington Jones were early to the real estate game, displaying old-school business and sales savvy.
Around 1908, the Rocca brothers began their real estate agency at the location that would later become Farrington Jones & Son’s office on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard in San Anselmo. In a San Francisco Chronicle article entitled “San Anselmo – The Ideal Home Center of Marin County,” the Rocca Bros. building was listed along with the new Town Hall, First Bank of San Anselmo, the Cheda building, Grosjean and Fred Croker’s Real Estate house. In 1912, the Rocca brothers moved their office to Fairfax, and Dick DeWitt joined Rocca Bros. after his stateside assignment during World War I ended. He managed the outfit for 10 years and later purchased it in 1929. In 1916, the San Anselmo Herald reported that M. J. Rocca had been admitted into the bar to practice law and was opening a law office in San Francisco.
Jones was a third-generation native of California. He graduated from Tamalpais High School and attended College of Marin. He served with the U.S. Navy Hospital Corps during World War II. After the service, he obtained a real estate broker’s license at age 21 — one of the youngest brokers ever licensed — and joined his father’s real estate business. In 1949, he was a director of the Marin County Real Estate Board, which later became the Marin County Board of Realtors. He went on to teach real estate appraisal from 1967 to 1974 at the College of Marin. In addition, he was the mayor in Ross in the 1960s. One of Jones’ renowned real estate transactions was negotiating the sale of the Maple Lawn, owned by the famed Arctic explorer Louise Boyd, which was sold to the Elks Club in 1963.
“The war changed everything,” said Jones in a SFGATE article in 2009 about how more than 1 million military personnel passed through the Bay Area. “They liked the climate, they liked the Bay Area and decided that after the war they’d come back and stay.”
After leading a full life, Jones died on Oct. 16, 2019, at age 94.
The Marin County Board of Realtors was loosely formed by 1920. From the early 1920s to the mid-1930s, the board was small and met once a month with only five or six members. A Nov. 7, 1970, Marin IJ article takes readers back to the early days of real estate including handmade posters and brochures. Some of those made interesting claims, such as “the balance can be paid over a period of five years; this means you can pay as little as three dollars per month. Can anything be fairer?” Or “we insure the residents of Laurel Dells immunity from saloons, manufacturing establishments, and everything else detrimental to a highly organized community. Lots are $250 and up.”
Over the decades, the board played a significant role in the growth and prosperity of Marin. In 1934, Jones was the president with 20 members. They campaigned for the Golden Gate Bridge bond issue, voted for it and advertised it. One popular slogan was “On the Golden Side of the Golden Gate.” They also pushed for the Hamilton Air Force Base to be built in Novato. In addition, they established the Man of the Year award. Ada Fusselman was given the award for her work in education, making the first recipient of the Man of the Year award a woman.
(Originally published as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)