In the 45 years it existed, Arequipa
treated patients from almost every state in the United States and even
some foreign countries. To encourage therapeutic and marketable pursuits
for the working class women who were patients at Arequipa, the founders
encouraged them to make pottery. The distinctive pottery created there
has been sold and treasured worldwide. In 1956 the sanitarium was closed
due to advancements and successful treatment of tuberculosis. Four years
later Marin County Girl Scout Council acquired use of the land and started
Marin County Day Camp. In 1961 the Girl Scouts took over the 47-acre
site for a 20 year lease at $1 per year. The property continued to
be leased at a fee of $1 per year until 1989 when the Bothin Foundation
generously transferred title of the acreage to Girl Scouts of the San
Francisco Bay Area.
In the true spirit of Girl Scouting there couldn’t be a better acknowledgment that that which was stated in the Independent Journal’s editorial of November 8, 1961, regarding the dedication of Arequipa, “What more fitting thing could be done with it (Arequipa) than to rededicate it to our future, the women of tomorrow? What better use for it than to train the girls to be better women and citizens of tomorrow?”
Synopsis by
Angela Atkinson
Bibliography
Suzanne Baizerman, Lynn Downey and John Toki, Fired By Ideals: Arequipa
Pottery and the Arts & Crafts Movement, Pomegranate Communications,
2000
Lynn A. Downey, Philip King Brown and the Arequipa Sanitarium
Historical Summary of Henry Bothin Center and the History of Girl Scouting
in Marin County 1924-1963, courtesy of Janet Smith