The Influence of Marconi and RCA in Local Communities

This exhibition features a few of the local family and individual stories that illustrate how Marconi and RCA companies impacted and enriched our local communities.

In 1914, Marconi, an international corporation, opened its new wireless radio transmitting station in Bolinas and its receiving station in Marshall on Tomales Bay. The arrival of Marconi had a profound effect on Coastal Marin that was still primarily a ranching and farming culture. The company brought experts from other parts of the nation, new ideas, cutting-edge technology, worldwide connections, new families, electric service and challenging employment for locals.

In 1919, after the world war, Radio Corporation of America (RCA) took over the Marconi sites bringing in new personnel.  In 1939 evolving technology led RCA to build a new receiving site in the wilds of Point Reyes Peninsula.  Staff for that site mostly settled in Inverness and Point Reyes Station.

Immediately after World War II a surge of new staff members and their families arrived to live and work at RCA Bolinas and Point Reyes and were welcomed into their local communities.