A once flourishing enclave of the 1950s and 60s counterculture, known as Druid Heights, in California's rural Marin County, may become a national historic site.

The collection of buildings once gave sanctuary to Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gary Snyder, Zen philosopher Alan Watts and founder of the prostitutes union, Margot St. James, according to an account by the Marin Independent Journal.

The eclectic collection of buildings in an undisclosed five-acre area at the rim of Muir Woods was the object of a recent study by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and concludes that the parcel meets the criteria for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.

In its hey day from 1953 to 1973, the cluster of buildings sheltered an alternative community catering to radical artistic, philosophical, spiritual and sexual experimentation. It's founders were lesbian poet and writer Elsa Gidlow and radical designer and free spirit, Roger Somers.

It is the California State Parks Office of Historic Preservation that must decide whether Druid Heights is worth a nomination as a national historic site. The National Park Service makes the final review of all nominations and would decide 45 days later wither to include the site.

The site is a glen ringed by 50-foot eucalyptus trees but is kept off limits to the public because people still live on the property, according the the IJ account.

The collection of buildings include a circular redwood library, and lotus-flower shaped "Mandala" cabin and a meditation hut called "Moon House" complete with stained glass windows.

The residents may live their for their lifetimes as part of the 1972 purchase agreement with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. But a few select supporters, selected by special invitation, have been taken on short tours although the buildings are in disrepair. They are not yet open to the public out of respect for the privacy of the residents and until a plan of public access can be established.

Gidlow lived out her final days at druid Heights, dying there in 1986 at the age of 88. Somers died in 2001, a wild man to the end. His body was found in his hot tub.

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This story is from the much longer account in the Marin Independent Journal.