Leonard Sutton Wood and his wife Edith were key figures in our town’s cultural scene, beginning in the 1930’s. He was an architect and artist famous for his historic etchings of old Sausalito. She was an actress.
The website askart.com carries a brief profile of the couple, written shortly before his death in 1971: “This is the story of Mrs. Leonard S. Wood of Sausalito, but it is impossible to write about her without including her husband, for they do everything together. They celebrated their golden wedding four years ago and have lived in Sausalito 41 years. He is 82 and she is 80 years young, in spirit and activities. … [She was an actress.] Her husband is interested in dramatics, too, and is famous for his recitation of the Stanley Holloway specialty, ‘Albert and the Lion.’ Some time ago he wrote a ‘The Drunkard’-type melodrama for the Sausalito Woman’s club, which he entitled ‘Love Triumphant, or the Secret of Bloodstone Towers’.”
The Historical Society is the proud possessor of a hundred of his works: beautiful little sketches of his family and friends, scraps of preliminary drawings for the finished works. His etchings of Sausalito in the 1930's are most unique. In later years his watercolors and antique brass rubbings became collectors’ items. A friend who was taught the technique of brass rubbing by Wood describes him as a "darling man... so generous with his time...a sweet disposition."
Leonard was known locally as Sutton Wood, perhaps to differentiate him from Major General Leonard Wood, a distinguished American soldier who was the Army's Chief of Staff from 1910 to 1914 and the namesake of Fort Leonard Wood in the Missouri Ozarks. Our Sutton Wood became a Sausalito resident and co-edited the San Francisco Chronicle's Sunday rotogravure magazine section from 1919-1941.
The Society has exhibited Sutton Woods’ work a number of times over the years. In 1978, shortly after the SHS was founded, we lent 20 of his historic etchings to a Bridgeway gallery. The Sausalito News reported: “They describe Sausalito scenery and daily life in the 1920’s and 1930's in a pleasing easy going style. Leonard Sutton Wood lived from 1882 to 1971. He was born in England and came with his wife to Sausalito before 1920.”
More recently we staged another showing in 2013, this time in the Society’s exhibition room on the top floor of City Hall. One of the works on display was a pen-and-ink illustration of Excelsior Lane, which was known as “Limejuice Alley” because so many Englishmen came up and down the lane, a main thoroughfare before automobiles took over. They were known as Limeys or Limejuicers, because English law required vessels to carry lime juice to prevent scurvy among sailors. The lower part of Excelsior Lane had wooden steps, but from there up to the top, until the 90's was only steep, red clay with triangular rocks sticking up.