Hamilton Field's Fall Calendar, Corrected: When the Pool Really Closes, the Pumpkin Patch, and Where the Artists Open

Kyle Frazier, JD, CRS, CLHMS · Broker Associate, Compass · DRE #01405738 · Pointe Marin resident · Updated September 27, 2026

Hamilton Field's fall events run on two separate calendars. One lives on the City of Novato's Parks and Recreation site, tracking Hamilton Pool's hours and whatever is happening at the Marketplace. The other belongs to a network of working artists, a volunteer arts foundation, and a shopping center that finally has a place to get a pastry at 7 a.m. This fall, comparing the two calendars helps distinguish pool schedules from arts events.

I checked all of it against the primary sources: the city's pool schedule PDF, its fall events guide, the Arts Center's own channels, the Hamilton Arts Foundation's event listing, and the Marketplace's tenant directory. Here is a guide to the fall calendar in Hamilton Field, with the key dates in one place.

When does Hamilton Pool close for the season in 2026?

Hamilton Community Pool closes to the public for 2026 on Sunday, October 4, at 11:30 a.m., and the closing is never announced as a finale. The city's summer swim season ran from Saturday, May 23 through Monday, September 7, which is also the window every summer season pass covered. What the schedule does after Labor Day is quieter and easy to miss.

Per the city's Hamilton Pool schedule, last updated August 3, 2026, the weekday early-morning and evening lap swims ended on Thursday, September 3. From September 12 on, the pool is open Saturdays and Sundays only: lap swim from 8 to 11:30 a.m., the activity pool with its zero-depth entry and slide from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and recreation swim in the lap pool from noon to 5 p.m. That pattern holds through the weekend of September 26 and 27.

Then October gets one more weekend. On Saturday, October 3 and Sunday, October 4, the schedule shows lap swim from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and nothing else; the notation reads "CLOSED at 11:30AM." No activity pool, no recreation swim. If you have been treating the post-Labor Day season as a footnote, the footnote ends on a Sunday morning with a lap lane, and there is no line on the calendar that says so.

Drop-in entry runs $8 for Novato-resident youth and seniors and $10 for adults, with non-resident rates two dollars higher. The facility itself was rebuilt in 2010 from its 1930s condition, which is why the lap pool, the activity pool, and the water-play structure all read as newer than the base architecture around them.

What is the Floating Pumpkin Patch at Hamilton Pool?

The Floating Pumpkin Patch is the pool's one reopening after it closes for the season, and it is a ticketed, pre-registered event, not a public swim day. Per the city's fall events guide posted September 22, 2026, it runs Saturday, October 10 from 12 to 2 p.m. at Hamilton Pool, 203 El Bonito Drive. A ticket includes pool entry, a pumpkin to take home, decorating materials, and games on the deck. Pre-registration is required and no drop-ins are allowed.

The pool schedule is blunt about what that means for everyone else: on October 10, "The Hamilton Pool will be CLOSED and only open for those who registered for the event." That distinction makes October 4 the last day open to the public; October 10's reopening is limited to registered participants.

Registration runs through the city's Novato Fun portal. In 2024 the city closed registration eleven days before the event and made tickets non-refundable, so if it matters to your household, register now rather than the week of.

What is the Novato Arts Center at Hamilton Field?

The Novato Arts Center at Hamilton Field is a four-building campus at 500 S. Palm Drive housing more than 60 individual artist studios, according to the City of Novato. The buildings sit at 500 and 501 Palm Drive and 781 and 789 Hamilton Parkway, and they keep their original 1930s Spanish-style architecture from the era when Hamilton Field was nicknamed the "Hollywood of military bases" for how often its buildings turned up on camera. Most people driving past assume it is more repurposed base housing. It is painters, ceramicists, photographers, and fiber artists renting studios of 127 to 321 square feet.

One thing has changed that older write-ups still get wrong. The Marin Museum of Contemporary Art anchored Building 500 for nearly two decades, but MarinMOCA opened a downtown San Rafael location in fall 2024 and now operates at 1210 Fifth Avenue. The Arts Center's rotating exhibitions run in the entry gallery of the 781 Hamilton Parkway studio building, and the campus also holds Beso Bistro Cafe. Studio rentals go through the city's property manager, Clear Blue Commercial.

When are Open Studios at the Novato Arts Center?

The Novato Arts Center opens its studios to the public twice a year, in May and in November, and neither falls in October. The May event is part of countywide Marin Open Studios; in 2026 the Arts Center's own Instagram listed it for May 2–3 and 9–10, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with more than 50 multi-disciplinary studio artists participating. The November event is the Novato Holiday Open Studios; in 2025 it ran November 8 and 9, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with 30 artists opening their doors, per MarinArts.

The 2026 Holiday Open Studios date had not been published when I checked. Based on the 2025 pattern, the second weekend of November is the one to watch, and the Arts Center's Instagram is where the date will post first. If you had October 10 and 11 circled for studio visits, move the circle to November and watch that feed.

What's new at Hamilton Marketplace?

Hamilton Marketplace's newest habit is a 7 a.m. one. Rustic Bakery's Hamilton café at 5800 Nave Drive, Suite E, is open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., per Rustic Bakery, serving the same breads, pastries, salads, and sandwiches as its Larkspur, Tiburon, and downtown Novato cafés. The Marketplace has run on the same gravitational pull for years: Safeway for groceries, Peet's Coffee & Tea for coffee, and a rotating cast of lunch and dinner spots for everything else. What it lacked was a morning destination with its own kitchen.

That timing matters more than it sounds. Per the Marketplace's tenant directory, Super Duper Burgers, Teriyaki Madness, Toast, Sourdough & Co., World Famous Hot Boys Chicken, and Nekter Juice are built for lunch and dinner traffic. Add Pet Food Express, Sutter Walk-In Care, Wells Fargo, a FedEx Office, Massage Heights, and X-Core Studio, and the center covers most of a Saturday's errands. A bakery that opens at 7 gives Hamilton Field a place to start the day before anything else on this list is open.

What does the Opera in the Amphitheater say about Hamilton Field?

On Saturday, September 12, 2026, Hamilton Amphitheater Park hosted the 4th Annual Opera in the Hamilton Amphitheater, a free event with a $20 donation-ticket option, run by the volunteer Hamilton Arts Foundation. It ran from 4 to 6 p.m. at 500–598 Hamilton Parkway, with professional singers performing famous arias and songs outdoors and Italian food from Chef Rudy's C'era Una Volta Kitchen and Catering.

It is worth sitting with that image: a converted Air Force base amphitheater, on the same airfield as studios that now house painters and ceramicists, filling up for an opera fundraiser organized by neighbors rather than a city department. The same volunteer arts infrastructure that programs the opera in September is the reason the Arts Center's studio doors open in May and November. Hamilton Field's calendar isn't accidental. It is the output of a small number of people who keep reusing the base's old buildings for things the base was never designed to do.

How do you plan a Hamilton Field Saturday on October 10?

October 10 rewards a plan, but not the plan most people have in mind. Two of the three things residents expect that day aren't happening: the pool is closed to the public, and the artists aren't opening until November. Here is what is actually available.

Everything except the Repair Fair sits inside the same stretch of Hamilton Field most residents drive through on a normal weekend. The one date to correct on your own calendar is the swim: if you want a last lap of the season, it is Saturday, October 3 or Sunday, October 4, between 8 and 11:30 a.m.

What this means if you're buying or selling in Hamilton Field

Hamilton Field's amenities are a real part of its value, and I say that as someone who sold them for a living. I served as Director of Sales for a 29-home Hamilton Field development, and the questions buyers asked then are the ones they ask now: how close is the pool, what is actually at the Marketplace, and is the Arts Center a working campus or a leftover. The answers today are better than they were, and they change season to season, which is why I keep the Hamilton Field guide current and why this post exists.

For sellers, the practical point is that fall listing photos and showings should work with the real calendar: the pool deck is quiet after October 4, the Marketplace's day now starts at 7 a.m. with Rustic, and the Arts Center is at its most visible in November. For buyers, the district's schedule is a due-diligence item like any other. Ask what is open, when, and for whom, and check the city's page rather than a listing description.

Frequently Asked Questions About Hamilton Field's Fall Calendar