VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE MAY BE BULLDOZED BACK TO NATURE

HIPPIE BEAUTY WRITES BEST SELLER

The Beats, hippie radicals, Zen philosophers, feminist warriors, counterculture rebels, famous authors, superstar musicians, porn stars, and LSD outlaws. They all found their way to a hidden, bohemian paradise called Druid Heights. Hedonism and spirituality coexisted there.  A charismatic, saxophone-playing playboy…

Sausalito Houseboat Summit

REBEL FURNITURE MAKER BUILDS GRAHAM NASH STUDIO

1967: At Druid Heights the Beat Generation gives way to the Hippie revolution. Here Zen master Alan Watts moderates a debate among LSD evangelist Timothy Leary (left), Howl poet Allen Ginsberg, and “king of the Beats” Gary Snyder (right). Watts and Snyder both lived at Druid Heights. Watts died there.

"Turn on, tune in, drop out"

Jack Kerouac and A Zen Superstar Alan Watts

DIZZIE

THE EAGLES

ROGUE ARCHITECT DESIGNS NEIL YOUNG TOUR BUSS

…presided over wild parties and a cast of eccentric storybook characters. Jack Kerouac wrote about some in The Dharma Bums.  Now a forbidden California ghost town of astonishing abandoned architecture, only one man remains. He’s the guardian to a vanishing legacy and gatekeeper to the madcap, untold history of Paradise Found... and soon, perhaps Paradise Lost.

Core residents of Druid Heights

  • Elsa Gidlow

  • Roger Somers

  • Ed Stiles

  • Margo St. James

  • And partners

San Francisco Renaissance Goes Global

1957: These two books were published. They captured the Zeitgeist of a nation in cultural upheaval. Watts lived at Druid Heights. Jack Kerouac featured Druid Heights resident, and Pulitzer Prize winner, Gary Snyder, in his book The Dharma Bums. Kerouac call Snyder “The King of the Beats.”

Tod Sipes Photography

SANTANA

MONGO SANTAMARIA

THE DOOBIE BROTHERS

Tod Sipes Photography