There’s a particular kind of quiet that settles over Mar Vista in the late afternoon; the fog starts to lift off the ridge, the goats talking to each other in the yard, someone’s cottage door propped open to let the ocean air in. It’s a quiet that’s been settling in here for a long, long time.

This year, we’re marking 90 years since the Mar Vista name first appeared in the historical record, sometime in the mid-1930s. Ninety years is a strange number to sit with. It’s long enough that the people who first imagined this place — Louis “Louie” Kovacs and R. Eschen “Erik” Eriksen — are known to us now mostly through what they left behind: a coastal ranch turned retreat, cottages built to weather the wind, and a piece of land that asked to be cared for rather than conquered.

What the Land Remembers

Mar Vista’s earliest years predate any surviving business records, which means some of this story is pieced together rather than written down — the way most real history actually works. What we do know is that the property once stretched across more than 140 acres, shaped by the same ranching and logging era that built much of this coast. Over the decades, that land narrowed to the 9 acres we tend today, but the spirit of it — an agrarian place, close to the ground, unhurried — never really left.

We’ve watched the Mendocino Coast transform around us. What was once ranchland and timber country is now one of California’s most treasured places to disappear to for a few days. Through all of it, Mar Vista has stayed rooted in the same basic idea: simple hospitality, natural beauty, and a deep respect for the land underneath it all.

Nine Decades of Stewardship

We’re not the first stewards of this place, and we likely won’t be the last. Christopher and Deanna Boettcher, who own Mar Vista today, see their role less as owners and more as caretakers — continuing what Louie and Erik started, preserving the historic cottages, and building on that foundation with sustainable farming, working gardens, and the kind of agritourism that lets guests actually get their hands dirty if they want to.

“Ninety years represents far more than longevity,” Christopher says. “It represents generations of guests, countless family memories, and the enduring vision of Louie Kovacs and Erik Eriksen. We are honored to serve as the current stewards of this special place and to preserve its legacy for future generations.”

That legacy shows up in small ways almost every day here — a guest who stayed as a child returning decades later with kids of their own, a photograph someone mails us of a cottage that looked almost exactly the same fifty years ago, a story passed down about a wedding, a reunion, a summer that mattered.

What Ninety Years Looks Like Today

These days, Mar Vista is 9 acres built around one simple idea: getting people back in touch with something slower. Multi-night getaways. Solo stays. Couples unplugging from everything waiting for them at home. Families finding their way back to each other without a screen in the middle of it.

All year, we’ve been marking this anniversary through special events, historical features and posts, and by asking former guests and longtime locals to share their own memories and photographs with us. Piece by piece, that’s how the fuller story of this place keeps getting told: not by us alone, but by everyone who’s ever called a Mar Vista cottage home for a few nights.

As one of Northern California’s longest-standing independent lodging properties, our 90th year isn’t just about looking back. It’s a reminder of what we’re here to protect going forward — an authentic coastal experience, held onto with the same care it’s always taken to keep this place standing.

Here’s to the next ninety!

Have a Mar Vista memory or photograph from years past? We’d love to hear it — reach out anytime at hello@marvistafarmandcottages.com to help us keep telling this story.