Sausalito: From Rancho to Town

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Due to a reversal of fortunes, the heirs of Sausalito founder William Richardson were forced to sell portions of their Rancho del Sausalito to an attorney Named Samuel Throckmorton.  In his book “Moments in Time,” Jack Tracy describes Throckmorton as “well known for his clever financial manipulations.”

Throckmorton and his partners formed the Sausalito Land & Ferry Company in 1869 to develop the property, and here’s Tracy’s account of how they changed this area into a full-fledged town:

The Sausalito Land & Ferry Company set to work soon after the land was purchased. They had a survey made and a map drawn up showing future streets and lots available to the public. They named the streets mainly in honor of themselves and quickly staked out prime lots for their villas overlooking Richardson's Bay. They sent one of their number, John L. Romer, off to purchase a ferryboat.

The first streets graded and opened for business were a section of Water Street and Princess Street, named for the little steamer the company had purchased. This area was envisioned as the hub of a business district, with residences to be built on the view lots.

"New" Sausalito from the North Pacific Coast Railroad wharf, looking south c. 1875.

Photo by English photographer Edward Muybridge, courtesy of Sausalito Historical Society

The Princess was launched September 14, 1858, destined for a career on the Sacramento River. Designed to haul freight and a few passengers for Coffey and Risdon, she was 130 feet long with a 21-foot beam and twin 18-foot paddle wheels. The Princess was purchased by the Sausalito Land & Ferry Company just days before her inaugural voyage as a ferryboat on May 10,1868. She made two trips a day from the Princess Street landing to Meigg's Wharf in San Francisco. When the North Pacific Coast Railroad took over ferry operations in 1875, the Princess was sold and five years later was broken up for scrap.

Thomas Wosser was the first engineer on the ferryboat Princess and first of five generations of Wossers who served on ferryboats. He was born in Ireland in 1828 and came to San Francisco around Cape Horn in 1849. Hired as a boatman by Charles Harrison in 1851, he remained in that capacity until his retirement in 1896. He built one of the first homes in New Town, where he lived with his wife and fourteen children until his death in 1900.

The prospects looked good to the men of the Sausalito Land & Ferry Company. Completion of the trans-continental railroad in 1869 injected new vitality into California, and San Francisco had become the financial center of the West. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company had established regular routes to the Orient from San Francisco, and a thriving California grain trade filled the bay with ships from Liverpool and New England.

As grain ships were laid up in Carquinez Strait and Richardson's Bay waiting for the grain to be harvested or for the price to go up in home ports, their masters and crews became enamored of life in California. Many of the earliest settlers in Sausalito were British, who perhaps preferred the quiet country life to that of dynamic, raw San Francisco. Some were sent to represent British companies, some came from the vessels themselves. Others came to seek their fortunes in the legendary land of California. Most of the English residents of Sausalito were "second sons." That is, they came from landed wealthy English families and although they usually had sufficient annual stipends, they had no titles. The eldest son stood to inherit the title and property in England, leaving the other sons and daughters to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The men took positions in banking and brokerage houses, and the women often married American businessmen.

In the accompanying photo, the man perched on the new wharf gazes back at the first ferry landing at the foot of Princess Street. The ferryboat Princess rests at her pier.

The Golden Gate Bridge and The Defining of Marin

By Jim Holden and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

The following is excerpted from a new book, It Happened in Marin, by Jim Holden, a resident of the County for over 45 years.

The Golden Gate Bridge under construction  Photo by Dulce Duncan, courtesy of Sausalito Historical Society

San Francisco has long dominated the story of the Golden Gate Bridge and claimed it as the City's symbol, but the story on the Marin side is even more interesting. The bridge changed Marin more than any event in its history. Then, years later, the bridge forced Marin to make another choice about its future—a choice that has differentiated it from other Bay Area counties and defined Marin ever since.

Before the bridge, Marin County was a virtual island, surrounded by water except to the unpopulated north. Until automobile travel became common, Marin's separation from San Francisco was mostly a benefit.

The bridge brought soaring growth to Marin after World War II ended. Greenbrae, Marin's largest development at the time, broke ground in 1946 for 197 lots and added more the next year. The Kent Woodlands, begun shortly before the bridge was completed, was expanded significantly after the war. Sleepy Hollow, the Fair Hills in San Rafael, and smaller developments in southern Marin also emerged shortly after the end of the war.

Terra Linda, Marin's largest subdivision with authorization for 5,700 homes, began development just north of San Rafael in 1953. Joseph Eichler built some 900 homes there between 1955 and 1965. Terra Linda eventually reached a population of approximately 10,000. In 1973 it was annexed to San Rafael.

Construction of the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge began in 1953 and was completed in 1956. It provided automobile access directly between Marin and the East Bay and added impetus for more homes, particularly in central Marin. Peacock Gap, Glenwood, and other San Rafael subdivisions sprang up in the 1960s, while the Kent Woodlands and Greenbrae continued to expand.

However, the assumption that growth was good for Marin also began to change in the 1960s. Early in the decade Marin rejected BART. As population and bridge use continued to climb, Marin residents increasingly suffered the frustration of traffic congestion. In 1940, 4 million vehicles crossed the Golden Gate Bridge; in 1970, 32 million poured across it.

Marin residents could do little about congestion on the bridge and Highway 101, but they were determined to restrain its primary cause, the county's population boom. From 1940 to 1970 Marin's population had quadrupled, increasing from 52,907 to 206,038.

At the end of the 1960s and continuing into the 70s, the Marin populace took matters into its own hands, voting in supervisors who campaigned against proposed highways and large residential projects. In 1970 the Board of Supervisors withdrew its support for Marincello, a proposed project for 25,000 residents in the Marin Headlands. In 1971 the Board of Supervisors requested that the state withdraw its plan for Highway 17, an expressway from the Richmond Bridge to Olema, and repealed its own West Marin General Plan, which envisioned 150,000 residents in the Tomales Bay area.

The decisive blow against growth was initiated in 1971 with the issuance of a Marin Planning Department report that proposed preserving Marin's lands except along the Highway 101 corridor. Entitled "Can the Last Place Last?" the report took its theme from Lew Welch's 1969 poem "The Song Mt. Tamalpais Sings" The poem lamented the "hordes" that were "now piling up" and contained a refrain that captured perfectly the sentiment in Marin: "This is the last place. There is nowhere else to go."

The Planning Department report pointed to the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge as the turning point in Marin's development and advocated ending unrestrained growth to preserve Marin's beautiful, livable environment. The report illustrated graphically that road access spawns development and opposed any addition to Marin's primary road infrastructure. It proposed preserving Marin's inland rural agricultural and coastal recreational corridors and restricting any significant growth to the Highway 101 corridor.

The report was adopted by a 3—2 vote of the Board of Supervisors in 1973 as the Marin Countywide Plan and has been implemented ever since as the foundation of Marin land use policy. It halted the population boom that from 1940 to 1970 had added 150,000 new Marin residents, quadrupling the county's population in just three decades. In the following four decades, from 1970 to 2010, Marin gained only 46,371 inhabitants, less than a 23% increase over the 40 years, or about 0.5% per year.

The Golden Gate Bridge was a major cause of the county's growth spurt and later played a big part in bringing it to an end and saving Marin. The bridge provided Marin with much-needed road access to San Francisco and growth when the county needed it. The growth led to inevitable bridge and Highway 101 gridlock, and with it the realization that Marin needed to restrain growth to preserve its essence.

The Golden Gate Bridge signifies different things to different people. As drivers cross the bridge, most see its beauty. Some see it as a roadway. Others may think of the bridge's iconic status or its worldwide fame.

For Marin residents, the bridge separates the county from the densely populated rest of the Bay Area. As the bridge carries residents toward Marin and on to its shore, they feel something deeper and warmer—they are home.

It Happened in Marin is available at Book Passage and other bookstores, and on loan from Marin libraries.  Jim will read other excerpts and discuss his book May 2 at the Mill Valley Historical Society.

Don’t Frighten the Horses: On (Not) Being a Nuisance in Sausalito

By Nora Sawyer, Sausalito Historical Society

“The horse and the Snake,” painted in 1787 by Bénigne Gagneraux, hangs in the Musée Magnin in Dijon, France.

In December 1909, Ed Baraty was acquitted of being a nuisance.

A local butcher, Baraty was the proprietor of The Richardson Bay Market. A neighbor, in a “forcible communication” to the town’s board of trustees, had alleged that Baraty was maintaining a nuisance in violation of town Ordinance No. 45. At issue was the area in the back of the market, where “foul matter accumulated. . . causing odors which spread over the adjoining property and were both obnoxious and nauseating to residents.”

It’s not clear what section of the ordinance Baraty was purported to be in violation of. Perhaps it was Section One, which prohibited any person in Sausalito from depositing “within the corporate limits off the Town of Sausalito any dead animal or to suffer the same to be or remain upon any premises in said town owned or occupied and controlled by such person” unless it was “covered in earth to a depth of not less than four feet.” Or, more likely, it was Section 9, which barred any property owner to allow “any premises belonging to or occupied by him” to become “foul or offensive, and prejudicial to public health or public comfort.”

Regardless of the offense, the charges soon proved moot. Though Baraty’s attorney was “prepared to show that his client had not violated any ordinance and that he had taken most every precaution against creating a nuisance,” the defense was un-necessary. For although Ordinance 45 had been passed by the board of trustees and published in the Sausalito News in October 1895, it had not officially become a law. The town clerk “in copying the original into the ordinance book failed to show that it had ever been signed by the chairman of the board as required by law.” Despite the prosecution’s efforts, the jury found that no such ordinance existed on Sausalito’s books.

(Baraty soon recovered from his brush with the law. Covering his wedding in 1910, the Sausalito News described him as “a native of Sausalito and a very prominent business man” who “at the last municipal election practically received all the votes cast for trustee.” In 1912, he was unanimously voted mayor by his fellow Trustees.)

Sausalito’s earliest ordinance regarding nuisances, Ordinance No. 3, set forth laws concerning sinks, cesspools, vaults and privies, the disposal of garbage and animal waste, littering, and the posting of bills and posters. Its placement in the list of town ordinances hints at its importance within the newly incorporated town: it comes immediately after the establishment of a regular monthly meeting schedule for the town’s trustees in Ordinance No. 2, and before “offenses against public peace and property” (Ordinance No 8), the collection of taxes (Ordinance No. 9), and the establishment of a town jail (Ordinance No. 13).

Published together in the Sausalito News on October 20 1893, these earliest ordinances paint a picture of Sausalito’s early days, with ordinances prohibiting a number of activities including horse racing, concealed weapons, the discharge of firearms inside town limits, and “on a public highway any sport or exercise having a tendency to frighten horses.”

Though the equanimity of horses is no longer a pressing concern for Sausalito’s citizens, nuisance laws have continued to provide a glimpse into Sausalito’s ongoing preoccupations and concerns. In 1954, the City Council debated the adoption of Ordinance No. 465, which would have outlawed the ownership of snakes, crocodiles, alligators and other reptiles. The Sausalito News reported that City Attorney John Ehlen “was charged to draw up the ordinance after neighbors of [Leslie] Hood and his wife, Isabel, complained about their two pets -- a five-foot South American boa constrictor (Xipc Totec) and a three-foot king snake (Ebisu).” The Hoods “also owned another king snake called Hu, but he disappeared last January.”

Ehlen, who noted that Hu’s occasional appearances around town had “reduced the amount of drinking in Sausalito considerably,” based the proposed ordinance on section 370 of California’s Penal Code, which at the time defined a public nuisance as anything that "deprived a reasonable person from the normal enjoyment of his property.” With an eye to the future, Ehlen expanded proposed ordinance to include a variety of reptiles, explaining “if we just forbade snakes, the next thing you'd know one of our local characters would bring in a crocodile and we’d have to start all over again."

Still, some saw the snake ordinance as an attack on personal liberty. As one San Francisco newspaper editorialized, “we would expect that mankind in Sausalito would. . . though despising Xipo Totcc and Ebisu, yet at the same time [be] ready to defend to the death a man’s right to keep them.”

In a victory for both freedom and local reptiles, the City Council took no action on the issue. Though the idea of a ballot measure was floated, demand for a reptile ban seems to have petered out. And there’s even a happy ending: in February 1955, the Sausalito News reported that Hu the missing king snake had been discovered on the front porch of 3 Lower Crescent Avenue, captured by police in a half-gallon mayonnaise jar donated by the homeowner, and returned to Mr. Hood.

In Sausalito’s 125th anniversary year, it seems appropriate to meditate on the nature of our citizenship, and the intention behind our laws. So, in the spirit of our founding fathers, let us start with nuisances and govern ourselves accordingly, doing our best not to be foul or offensive, not to frighten the horses, and whenever possible to return our neighbor’s snakes unharmed.

Bill Kirsch: Finding the Magic

By Steefenie Wicks, Sausalito Historical Society

Bill Kirsch in his magical environment.
Photo by Steefenie Wicks

The year was 1972 when Fred and Ada Schwartz first visited a home in Mill Valley that was built for Neil Davis who owned the No Name Bar in Sausalito, designed by Marin County architect Bill Kirsch.  The Schwartz’s became intrigued with the structure.  At the time the home would become vacant as the residents departed for their vacation in Mexico, so the Schwartz’s decided to rent the space.  It was only later that Kirsch, who never met the Schwartz’s, was to learn their real names.  They turned out to be John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  Bill was told that when John stepped onto the master bedroom deck, he gazed out and said, “It’s like living in a windmill.  I always wanted to live in a windmill.”  The residence became known as the Windmill House.

This is just part of the magical atmosphere that a structure built and designed by architect by Bill Kirsch can induce.  Kirsch has built over 300 buildings including residences and small commercial projects in California, Washington and Colorado.  His long list of accomplishments even includes being part of a group exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

Born in Ohio, he has been part of the Sausalito community off and on since 1958.  He would be the first to mention that no matter how many times he left Sausalito, he would always feel the need to return.  He lived off of Gate 5 road across from the Vallejo, which was the home of both artist Jean Varda and philosopher Alan Watts.   Kirsch tells of how he and his wife Felicity moved into his garage studio that he would eventually turn into a building that included studios, living space, and a community room because people were always dropping in. “It was a time when people would drop by no mater what the time day or night,” he recalls.  “Finally, we put up a sign outside that said ’Closed Today’ just to get some relief from the foot traffic.”

Still Kirsch has fond memories of his sails with Varda aboard Varda’s boat the Cytheria.  Watching the artist Varda’s bohemian life style fit right into the architectural designs that Kirsh would come to create.

Kirsch explained, “An aspect of my design philosophy is my attention to the so-called ‘peasant’ spaces as opposed to the ‘manor’ spaces. The idea of a ‘peasant ‘ space is open, not highly structured. It’s like creating spaces where the patterns of someone’s life can be highly descriptive rather than restricted.” 

His work involved an interesting manipulation of materials, spaces and colors, providing the feeling that these were adventures for people. Kirsch was also designing green buildings before they were in fashion.

His life in Sausalito where he now resides is still full of the memories of the 10 years that he and wife Felicity lived on what he called Guru Alley.  “I called it ‘Guru Alley’ because you never knew who would be walking down it,” he continued, “from the writers Aldous Huxley, Henry Miller and Anais Nin, to the poet Dylan Thomas, they could all be found strolling down ‘Guru ‘Alley, for a visit to Varda’s then stopping in to see what my current project was.”

Kirsch’s architectural career seemed to evolve with word of mouth.  Kirsch has converted barns into residences, has rescued timbers from old wooden highway bridges, turning them into residences along with used lumber from San Francisco piers that he built into houses.  As an expert carpenter, he was able to not only design but also build his designs himself.  He has worked on a number of structures that are now part of the Sausalito floating homes community.

When asked what is one of the biggest changes he has seen in Sausalito, without hesitation he says the Art Festival.

He tells the story of how Varda started the Art Festival in the 1940’s but soon tired of the project and it became part of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce.  During the mid 1960’s Kirsch, also a productive artistic painter, along with a group of local artists took over the project from the Chamber.  He felt that the Chamber was willing to hand over the event because they knew that Kirsch’s group would fail.  As it turned out, the Art Festival that year made over $15,000.00; the admission price was 50 cents.

Kirsch’s architecture has appeared in over 30 magazines from Sunset Magazine to Life Magazine, along with the 22 residences that appeared in the Japan Interior Design magazine.  He has received awards for homes, commercial/retail projects, along with a mini storage project in Berkeley.

Bill Kirsch’s philosophy has always been that understanding our environment is important for peace, joy and creativity in our lives. He feels that he has been able to help people compose their environment, and that Sausalito is the magical place that allows that to happen.  He feels lucky to have found a place where this is possible.  When you come to visit Bill and Felicity on their houseboat, standing in a room full of Bill’s paintings, as you look around you can feel that there is something magical about their whole environment that will last beyond their lifetime.

Bygone Valentine’s Day

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

40s era Valentine.
Courtesy illustration

The history of Valentine’s Day and its patron saint is as murky as a week-old box of See’s chocolates. The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine, all martyrs.  One, a third century Roman priest, defied a decree from the Emperor Claudius banning marriage among young men; the ban was based on Claudius’ belief that single men made better soldiers.

Legend has it that the imprisoned priest actually sent the first “valentine” greeting himself after falling in love with a young girl who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it’s believed he wrote her a letter signed “From your Valentine.”

Others claim that the Christian church may have placed St. Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February to “Christianize” the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, and to Roman founders Romulus and Remus. According to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. Bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman – sort of a low-tech Match.com.

Whatever its origins, Valentine’s Day was a popular holiday among early Bay Area settlers.

As early as 1887, San Francisco’s Daily Alta California newspaper was waxing rhapsodic about the joys of young romance:

“The Fourteenth of February is a date indelibly impressed on the popular mind, for it is none other than St. Valentine's Day. Few saints in the calendar can boast of so widely extended a fame as is accorded to the memory of this most worthy Father. Sighing swains have ransacked the stationery establishments in search of prettily bedecked missives of tender sentiment…” 

Of course, the paper didn’t overlook the commercial aspects of the day: “The manufacturers of the countless cards and booklets which ask only the faintest raison d'être, have seized upon the memory of good St. Valentine to help them in the circulation of their dainty wares.”

Judging by coverage in the Sausalito News, Valentine’s celebrations were particularly popular in the 1940s.  The Woman’s Club hosted annual children’s parties, including dancing, performances by the young guests, and – of course – refreshments.

The following year, the paper giddily announced: “A special sort of Valentine arrived in the Thomas Decker family at noon on Friday, Feb. 14. As Valentines go, this one was pretty fair sized, seven pounds and four ounces to be exact.”  A baby girl, with a memorable birthday.

By 1943, WWII and Marinship were in full swing, but civil defense volunteers took time to plan some special entertainment: “The Graveyard Shift’s Civilian Defense Group very evidently intends to put on a real Valentine party Saturday night according to W. C. Billingsley, Chief Air Raid Warden and Chairman of the group. The party will be given in the Community building, the Auditorium of which will be arranged in a night club setting and soft drinks will be served to table guests by a staff of waiters from the group.” A 4-piece band played for dancing until 1:00 a.m., and the 50-cent admission fee went toward purchasing First Aid supplies.

Valentine festivities got off to an early start in 1944: “Among the first was the party Saturday, February 5, for the Sausalito children in the first through the fifth grades who have been participating in the recreation program at the Service Men’s Club. Valentine games were the features of the afternoon.”  In the evening a special dance for sixth, seventh and eighth graders was held. “A small fee of a few cents was charged at each party to cover cost of refreshments.”

Not to be outdone, “The Pre-School Play Center at the Service Men's Club celebrated Valentine's Day ON Valentine’s Day, an apparently unusual procedure. Twenty-two little ones made short work of the ice cream, cookies and candy and all went home with valentines and presents.”

Festivities continued after the War.  In 1947 a Valentine party was staged for young ladies earning their hostess badges in the Girl Scouts. “The 16 party-goers ate their dinner at card tables tastefully decorated by the hostesses, with gay centerpieces of daffodils and Valentine hearts.”

The following year Sunday school children of the Presbyterian church had their own celebration. “All the games played had a Valentine motif, and refreshments of cookies and punch were served. About 25 children were there. A 15-minute movie on locomotive engines and cars was shown by the Rev. Burton Alvis and Jerry Jones, Sunday school superintendent. Mrs. Frederick Wilson read two Valentine stories. Games for the younger children were conducted in a separate room.”

Here's hoping your Valentine’s day is every bit as festive.

Birth of the News

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

Sausalito on a Sunday morning in 1885. Bell tower of Christ Church at lower left.

Painting by Norton Bush, courtesy of Sausalito Historical Society

Lately it has been my pleasure to browse back issues of The Sausalito News, the local weekly newspaper from 1885 to 1960. It’s chock full of historic tidbits and was also written in a dated yet very quaint style that’s quite entertaining.

According to the 1887 Rowell's American Newspaper Directory, the paper positioned itself as "spicy, newsy, saucy and bold" and featured articles on "literary, sporting, society, fashion, scientific and telegraphic" topics. Jas. A. Wilkins, Editor and Proprietor, was a former mayor of San Rafael. And since none of the articles carry by-lines, I assume that he wrote all the original material in the debut issue.

That premier issue appeared on February 12, 1885, but it was not the first local paper, as an introductory article makes clear:

“Journalism has been attempted at Sausalito on more occasions than one. It cannot be said that previous efforts have met with very gratifying success. After brief and harrowing struggles, all have succumbed to the stringency of the money market, and sleep the sleep that knows no waking. Undeterred by their fate, The Sausalito News enters the abandoned field hopeful of success. How far our anticipations may be realized, the future alone can tell. The paper, in any event, will continue to be published for at least a year, even though the proprietor is its only reader. We have already received much encouragement. Business men, land owners and residents have shown a most gratifying desire to give the little enterprise a helping hand. If they continue their kind offices, we have no fears.

“The News is here to stay, if possible, and while our eye will naturally be open to the selfish business of making a living, it shall be our effort always to do everything that lies in the power of a country journal to boom the interests of Sausalito and bring its many advantages to the notice they deserve. Local papers are more useful in this direction than they are commonly credited with. They are free advertisers wherever they go for their places of publication, and without their aid it is almost impossible for any locality to gain an audience before the great public and secure a general recognition of what it is. We hope that the News will do effective work in heralding the merits of Sausalito Township to the world, and that it will more than earn any compensation it may receive from its patrons.”

 “We hope that the News will do effective work in heralding the merits of Sausalito Township to the world, and that it will more than earn any compensation it may receive from its patrons.”

And then, donning his Proprietor’s hat, Wilkins crafted this dire warning: “To the numerous subscribers for the Sausalito News, we are pained to say that subscriptions are payable in advance. We have been at a very considerable outlay in this enterprise. Besides, we must have a working capital, for types do not set themselves, nor are rent or paper bills deferrable. Next Saturday an able bodied and remorseless collector will make the rounds and we hope that his labors will not be disappointed.”

Sausalito News is part of California Digital Newspaper Collection, a searchable online database containing more than 600,000 pages from historic newspapers of California. The database is free and open to the public at https://cdnc.ucr.edu.

The Checkered Past of the Buffalo Hotel

By Larry Clinton and Mike Moyle, Sausalito Historical Society

Back in the low tech 20th Century, Phil Frank researched Sausalito history by prowling through back yards with a metal detector and shovel.  Today, thankfully, we have more sophisticated tools – courtesy of the Internet.  While surfing the Net, SHS member Mike Moyle came across the accompanying photo on Facebook.  It shows a bunch of regulars lined up at the bar of  a Sausalito establishment known as the Buffalo Hotel.

Convivial crowd at the Buffalo Hotel in 1902.

Photo Courtesy of John Harris and the Facebook history group American Saloons, Bars and Taverns

Mike, a voracious researcher, learned a few other tidbits from back issues of the Sausalito News, which can be searched on line at https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc.  An ad reports the hotel was in operation as early as 1891 with J. Lowder as the proprietor.  Another ad from 1893 reported it “under new management” with “transient trade solicited” and “prices to suit the times.”  Rudolph Korn was shown as the proprietor.  An ad from 1896 reports E. Westerson as the proprietor and that the hotel had “clean, bright and sunny rooms now being remodeled throughout” — “terms reasonable - special rates for families.”  

In the 1890s, the advent of the telegraph led to betting on horse races across the country in what were called poolrooms, literally "rooms where betting pools were organized."

SHS founder Jack Tracy told the story of how the Buffalo Hotel joined this trend in his book, Moments in Time: “A prosperous and well-liked gambler from Sacramento, Frank Daroux, opened Sausalito's first poolroom in the Barreiros Building on Water Street (749 Bridgeway). A politician by nature, Daroux soon became active in local affairs, assisting in the election of Adolph Sylva, a wealthy member of Sausalito's English colony, to the Board of Trustees. Around 1900, Daroux and Company moved their poolroom operation to the Buffalo Hotel built on pilings over the water near the foot of Princess Street.”  But when ferryboats began arriving filled with "undesirables" from San Francisco, opposition to poolroom gambling quickly organized as the Municipal Improvement Club.

As Annie Sutter wrote in the Historical Society newsletter: “The City Councils of 1893 and 1894 prohibited poolrooms, the ordinances of 1896 licensed them, and in 1897, the licenses were revoked. Of course, the attitude depended on who had been elected. The Buffalo Hotel played a big part in the elections. Anyone who had been a Sausalito resident for two weeks could vote. Politicians went to San Francisco and gathered bums and barflies and put them up for two weeks at the Buffalo, paying for all food and drinks, in exchange for votes.”

Eventually the poolrooms were closed or converted to more traditional lodging and drinking establishments.  But the Buffalo Hotel still enjoyed its share of notoriety.  In 1903 a launch bringing the morning papers to town got lost in the fog and darkness and “rammed her bulk beneath the Buffalo Hotel with a mighty crash,” as reported in the Sausalito News. “One amusing feature of the accident,” the paper related, “was furnished by a tired drummer who had sought repose at the hotel early in the evening after a day spent at our local thirst quenchers. When the accident occurred the big building shook like a leaf. The drummer's bed left the floor about a foot. Then came a series of shrill blasts from the boat's whistle. The latter was nerve racking and uncanny. Out from under the building came the toots and the crashing of timbers. It was too much for the drummer man. He leaped through the window, carrying with him the sash and glass. Then, in his abbreviated night gear, he dashed along Water Street ‘Help! Hie! Help! Hie,’ he lustily called. ‘A whale, hie, es eat, hie, Forrest's launch, and now the, fool's eatin' th', hie, Buffalo Hotel,’ he explained to Constable Trouette, who stopped his mad flight. It was only with the greatest difficulty that he could be persuaded to return to his room.”

But the hotel also had a more respectable side, as shown in a Sausalito News account of a wedding there in 1898.  After a ceremony conducted by the Rev. Mr. Hamilton from Christ Church,

“the guests sat down to an elegant supper. Attorney Sylva [perhaps repaying a political favor?] acted as toastmaster and with his characteristic repartee, added greatly to the enjoyment of those present. At half past ten o'clock the Richardson Band made its appearance and enlivened the occasion with its choicest music. At 11:30 all hands repaired to the large hall that extends out over the water, where on went the merry dance till the wee small hours.” The anonymous reporter ended his article with a toast of his own: “Long life, health and prosperity to mine host of the Buffalo and his newmade wife. May their cup of happiness be full to the brim, their joys innumerable and their troubles ever confined to the realm of the nursery.”

In 1915 L. D. Allen, an experienced hotel man, became the proprietor of the Hotel Buffalo, and announced to the Sausalito News “that he will completely renovate the Hotel Buffalo and run it as a first-class family hotel and cafe.”

That seems to have been the end of the hotel’s newsworthiness, because the only other reference Mike and I found was an article from 1923 that indicated it “was razed to make room for the Golden Gate Ferry wharf.”

When Life Gives You Herring, Throw a Herring Festival

Birds swarm around a herring trawler off Sausalito.

Photo by Nora Sawyer

By Nora Sawyer, Sausalito Historical Society

In California’s coastal cities and towns, we celebrate our seasonal returns. San Juan Capistrano has its swallows, Monterey its monarch butterflies, and here in salty Sausalito we have our herring. The signs are unmistakable. It starts with vast flocks of cormorants, cutting long lines across the water in front of the morning ferry. Sea lions bark night and day, and pelicans circle overhead as vast schools of fish migrate from the ocean to the bay and lay their eggs on eelgrass and pretty much any available surface along the shoreline.

The return of herring to Richardson’s Bay long precedes our city’s founding. For centuries, Coast Miwok netted herring from boats made with tule reeds. Even as European immigrants drove Coast Miwok from their traditional homes, the herring remained.

Reading through historical accounts, the scale of the herring run seems at times like a tall tale. In December 1889, the Sausalito News reported that H.E. Boesen, keeper in charge of Olema’s Life Saving Station, “caught three herring in his hand” walking alongshore during a “hurried visit to our town.”

In 1955, “Swede” Pedersen reported to the Sausalito News that “an estimated 400 persons using nets of all kinds, hauled in tons of fish which they carried home to fry or pickle in brine.” In the tradition of Mr. Boesen, some fishermen tried to catch herring with their bare hands (with “modest success”), while novice fishermen, caught up in the excitement, “became overly anxious and fell from piers into the bay.”

In 1939, a profusion of gulls along Sausalito’s shores drew press from across the Bay. The San Francisco Chronicle reported on the "invasion by night of more than 30,000 yelling, squawking seagulls” who “arrived to feast on the herring spawn laid in seaweed from Shelter Cove to the ferry slips."

Here on the front lines of the annual herring invasion, it’s only natural that we take time to celebrate their return. The earliest reference to a herring celebration I could find in the Sausalito newspaper archives was from an ad placed in the Sausalito Marinscope in 1983, in which city council candidate Dee Nelson voiced her commitment to preserve the Sausalito Art Festival, and mentioned that she would “even like to see a herring festival inaugurated next season.”

The idea had legs. Ten years later, professional entertainer and waterfront fixture Richard Aspen, also running for city council, proposed “The Sausalito Herring Festival,” an opportunity for “residents and visitors alike” to celebrate the herring season.

The notion was floated again in 2005, when Marinscope columnist Bob Winskill proposed a celebration with “a band, floats, a Herring Queen… the whole works.” Enthusiastic readers applauded the idea, inspiring Winskill to expand on the concept, suggesting a multitude of queens, including a “Drag Queen” to be promoted from among the trawlers, a “Canned Herring” nominated from those in local police custody, and a “Pickled Herring” selected from the denizens of Smitty’s Bar.

In 2013, the festival finally came to fruition. Organized by the Cass Gidley Marina Foundation, the event was the brainchild of board member Inka Petersen, inspired by the three-day Herring festival celebrated in her hometown of Emden, Germany. A celebration of the vitality of Sausalito’s waterfront, the festival featured herring dishes by local restaurants, live music and entertainment, and information on Sausalito’s local fishery and maritime history. And after so many years of anticipation, Sausalito was ready. The event sold out of herring in an hour and a half, and beer within two hours.

Wind and rain led to the cancellation of the festival in 2014, but it has continued every year since, with its latest iteration coming up on January 28th at the Bay Model. A fundraiser for the Sausalito Community Boating Center, this year’s event will feature a herring lunch, with screenings of the film "Sonic Sea," talks by marine experts, music by The Fishwives, and of course plenty of delicious herring, prepared and served by local restaurants. For tickets and further information, visit https://scbcherringcelebration.eventbrite.com.

Sherman “Conquers” Sausalito

By Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society

1888 photograph by Napoleon Sarony, used as a model for the engraving of the first Sherman postage stamp issued in 1893.

Source: Wikipedia

William Tecumseh Sherman, born on February 8, 1820, in Lancaster, Ohio, was named in honor of the great Shawnee Indian leader and warrior.  During the Civil War, he gained notoriety by burning much of Atlanta while conducting his destructive march to the sea.  But nearly twenty years before that, he paid a brief visit to our little village.

“In the spring of 1846 I was a first-lieutenant stationed in South Carolina,” wrote Sherman in his memoirs. “The country now known as Texas had been recently acquired and war with Mexico was threatening.”

Seeking combat experience, the young West Point graduate got himself transferred to California, which he reached after a voyage around Cape Horn on the US Lexington, a sloop-of-war converted to a store-ship. In January 1847, at the conclusion of a 198-day journey, he arrived in Monterey, which was then the capital of the Mexican province of Alta California. What he found was a state of confusion following the short-lived Bear Flag Revolt in Sonoma, with various American military commanders vying for leadership of the newly-conquered territory.

In the spring of 1848, Sherman and his commander, Colonel Mason, were informed of the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill.  Mason put together a small party to investigate Sutter’s claim in person, and Sherman joined the group, which traveled by horseback to Yerba Buena, as San Francisco was known back in those pioneer days.

“The first difficulty was to cross the bay to Saucelito,” Sherman wrote, using the original spelling of our city’s name. His party had to transport their horses across the Bay, using “a sort of scow with a large sail, that could not come within a mile of the shore.  It took nearly the whole day to get the old scow up to the only wharf there, and then the water was so shallow that the scow, with its load of horses, would not float at the first high tide, but by infinite labor on the next tide she was got off and safely crossed over to Saucelito. We followed in a more comfortable schooner. Having safely landed our horses and mules, we packed up and rode to San Rafael Mission.”  From there the party rode on to Bodega, Petaluma and Sonoma, where they visited with General Vallejo.

When they reached the Sacramento River, Sherman recalled, “the only means of crossing over was by an Indian dugout canoe. We began by carrying across our packs and saddles, and then our people. When all things were ready, the horses were driven into the water, one being guided ahead by a man in the canoe. Of course, the horses and mules at first refused to take to the water, and it was nearly a day's work to get them across, and even then some of our animals after crossing escaped into the woods and undergrowth that lined the river, but we secured enough of them to reach Sutter's Fort. 

“Already,” Sherman noted, “the gold-mines were beginning to be felt.  Many people were then encamped, some going and some coming, all full of gold-stories, and each surpassing the other.”

Sherman’s party spent a week verifying the gold discoveries “which at the time were confined to the several forks of the American and Yuba Rivers.”  Then they headed back to Monterey.

In 1853, Sherman resigned his commission and became manager of the San Francisco branch of the St. Louis-based bank, Lucas, Turner & Co. According to Wikipedia, on his way back here, he survived two shipwrecks and floated through the Golden Gate on the overturned hull of a foundering lumber schooner.  Sherman later recalled: "I can handle a hundred thousand men in battle, and take the City of the Sun, but am afraid to manage a lot in the swamp of San Francisco.” In 1856, during the vigilante period, he served briefly as a major general of the California militia.

Sherman's San Francisco branch closed in May 1857, and he relocated to New York on behalf of the same bank. When the bank failed during the financial Panic of 1857, he closed the New York branch. In early 1858, he returned to California to wrap-up the bank's affairs here.

When the Civil War broke out, Sherman secured a commission in the regular army where he rose through the ranks as the war dragged on.  When General Grant assumed the U.S. presidency in 1869, Sherman succeeded him as Commanding General of the Army. In that capacity, directed the Indian Wars over the next 15 years. He eventually died of pneumonia in New York City in 1891.

Thanks to Historical Society member David Sheehan, who discovered the Saucelito reference in Sherman’s memoir and brought it to my attention.

Hollywood's Views of Sausalito To Be Screened at Fund Raiser

By Brad Hathaway, Sausalito Historical Society

Scenes shot in and around Sausalito for eight feature films will be screened at the Historical Society fund raiser at the Sausalito Yacht Club on the 16th of this month. Sausalito City Librarian Abbot Chambers has assembled the clips into a half hour of city highlights.

We've discussed two of the films before in columns for the MarinScope. We looked at Orson Welles' "The Lady from Shanghai," with its specially constructed wharf in front of the old "Walhalla," in the March 19, 2013 issue. "Dear Brigitte," in which Jimmy Stewart lived on a Sausalito houseboat, was the topic in the September 4, 2014 column. 

Here's a sneak peek at some of the others. If you are tempted to rent a DVD or stream some of these, be warned that the use of Sausalito as a picturesque locale for one or more scenes doesn't guarantee a good picture.

Undoubtedly the worst movie in the bunch is something called "Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine." It was intended as a parody of the James Bond series, especially "Goldfinger" which came out a little over a year before its 1965 release. Its star, Vincent Price, said that the sequel, "Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs" was an even worse film. I find that hard to believe, but I'm not willing to sit through the second one just to find out.

Skipping the first hour and twenty-two minutes of this one hour and twenty-eight-minute movie leaves you the chance to see the two and a half minutes filmed in Sausalito from the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge to a beach supposedly below the "Missile Range Firing Area." It is a chase scene with Vincent Price driving a cable car across the bridge and down Bridgeway. (You can't make these things up!) The sequence is so inane that it isn't worth watching even for the glimpses of Sausalito.

“Superdad” poster featuring Kurt Russell, Kathleen Cody and Bob Crane.
Source: IMDb

Competing for the title of worst movie in the bunch, however, is the 1973 Disney movie "Superdad" in which Bob Crane, taking a break from television's "Hogan's Heroes," tries to involve himself in his daughter's life and save her from an engagement to a rough hippie from - you guessed it -- Sausalito.

As with Vincent Price's film, the Sausalito scenes come close to the end. You can safely skip the first hour and seventeen minutes and then enjoy about five minutes of better photographed scenes in the houseboat community featuring the ferry Vallejo, the Owl and other iconic floating structures.

Beware, there are two movies out there with nearly identical titles:  "Killer Elite" and "The Killer Elite." Only one has scenes in Sausalito, so if you rent or stream the wrong one, you will sit through 116 minutes of poorly motivated chase scenes, clumsy fights and a variety of not-too-clever methods of dispatching enemies while waiting for the glimpses of our town that never come. I found this out the hard way. This is the 2011 movie "Killer Elite" - without the "The" - starring Jason Statham, Clive Owen and Robert De Niro -- but not Sausalito.

Unfortunately, the other "Killer Elite" -- the one with the "The" -- isn't a lot better as a shoot-em-up movie. Still, it takes place mostly in the bay area and has a number of scenes in Sausalito, including a fight on the top deck of a houseboat on the recognizable dock at Yellow Ferry Harbor -- you even see Yellow Ferry itself in the background.

This is the 1975 movie starring James Caan and Robert Duvall which was directed by Sam Peckinpah, known for such gems as "The Wild Bunch." Its fidelity to the geography of our area is spotty from the start. The movie opens with Caan and Duvall making a getaway driving west on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge. There are close up shots that appear to have been filmed while driving east bound. But the real killer comes when they exit from the bridge. It is the northern exit from the Golden Gate Bridge! I guess Peckinpah didn't think there would be too many Marin-savvy movie goers in his audience.

The final battle takes place in the "Rust Bucket Fleet" in Suisun Bay which had a whole lot more rust buckets in mothballs in the 1970s than it does today. True to the strange attitude toward geography, however, our heroes sail away from the National Defense Reserve Fleet but are shown heading east under the Benicia-Martinez Bridge -- wrong again!

It is particularly interesting to compare and contrast the Sausalito scenes from the 1980 movie "Serial" to those in "Impact" filmed thirty years earlier. They both take place between the ferry terminal and Bridgeway at Vina del Mar Plaza.

Both movies feature their Sausalito scenes early on, but I found the earlier film intriguing enough to want to watch the entire thing. It is a mystery staring Brian Donlevy, Ella Raines and Charles Coburn.

Librarian Chambers, by removing these Sausalito scenes from the films in which they appeared, will have saved the revelers at the Sausalito Historical Society fund raiser from the pain of watching the entirety of these movies while enjoying the parts that are in our town!

Subs in Sausalito?

By Larry Clinton and Jack Tracy Sausalito Historical Society

Jack Tracy’s definitive Sausalito History, Moments in Time, contains many stories of dreams and schemes that never came to pass in these parts: A 300-berth yacht marina in Shelter Cove. An airport and amusement park in the middle of Richardson’s Bay. Converting Water Street to a second highway from the Golden Bridge right through the heart of town. Here’s another:

The most ambitious plan tor Richardson's Bay had been formulated in 1912, when local boosters persuaded the federal government to survey the hills west of Sausalito for a ship canal into the bay from the Pacific Ocean. A four-mile cut was planned through a gap in the rolling hills at the head of Tennessee Cove, up Elk Valley to the bay south of Dolan's Corner in Mill Valley. Engineers were basking in the glory of the Panama Canal achievement and doubtless saw opportunities for construction marvels everywhere. If Panama could have a canal, so could Sausalito.

Subs like this would have had a direct route to Richardson’s Bay if the ship canal had actually been dug.

Courtesy photo

The ship-canal plan was resurrected in 1936 when Richardson's Bay was being promoted as the logical site for a submarine base for the Navy. A Pacific opening to Richardson's Bay would eliminate the need for dredging and provide for ships a fog-free entrance to San Francisco Bay that would by-pass Potato Patch shoals. If Stockton could have a deep-water port, so could Sausalito.

The idea of making Richardson's Bay into a submarine base first came up in 1933 when the Navy announced it might be looking for a West Coast site. The Sausalito City Council had long been seeking a dredged ship-channel along the Sausalito shoreline to Waldo Point to generate business for waterfront property. If the Navy took over the bay, it was reasoned, Sausalito would have her channel plus a thriving business with the Navy. If Vallejo could have a Navy base, why not Sausalito?

Sausalito's submarine base plan fell on deaf ears in Washington, and in 1937 even the request for dredging the ship channel was rejected by the War Department as being strictly a "local project" without merit for national defense. That same year, however, the War Department saw Richardson's Bay in another light. With the increasing threat of war, Washington proposed reserving the bay for seaplanes, with an anchorage for seaplane tenders, destroyers, and other light vessels. That plan, too, died aborning. And it wasn't until war was declared and Sausalito's shipyard was under construction in 1942 that the long-awaited ship channel was dredged in Richardson's Bay. Since World War II the channel has been kept cleared of silt by the Army Corps of Engineers as part of its bay maintenance program.

Moments in Time can be purchased at the Ice House, 780 Bridgeway.