In new book, Belvedere native recounts growing up on the peninsula

Growing up in Belvedere, Paige Peterson and her friends would spend weekends and summers roaming the Tiburon Peninsula, their parents feeling safe to let them wander freely as long as they were home by the time the 4:30 p.m. fire-station whistle blew. She and her friends loved hiking up to the Tiburon Ridge or to the west side of Belvedere to take in the views. They’d sometimes stop by Dovecote, a decorative arts store in The Boardwalk Shopping Center co-owned by Peterson’s mother, former Belvedere Mayor Corinne “Connie” Wiley, for 25 years. Peterson recalls walking the old railroad tracks that have since been torn up to make way for the Old Rail Trail, her pockets full of apples, sugar cubes and carrots from the old Embee Market at The Boardwalk to feed Blackie, the horse who had retired to the pasture and was immortalized with a statue after his death. Peterson has captured memories of a childhood exploring the Tiburon Peninsula in her new coffee-table book, “Growing Up Belvedere-Tiburon.” The first part of the book is a narrative of Peterson’s memories, but it becomes a new history of Belvedere and Tiburon, packed with restored archival images from the Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society’s collections of pictures dating back to the 19th century. (Jessica J. Miller photo)

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