By Jack Tracy and Larry Clinton, Sausalito Historical Society
After acquiring much of William Richardson’s Rancho Sausalito in the 1850s, attorney Samuel Reading Throckmorton joined with land speculators and created The Sausalito Land & Ferry Company to develop the town. Jack Tracy tells of the challenges these entrepreneurs faced in his book Sausalito — Moments in Time:
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.
The company struggled into the seventies with infusions of cash by the partners, who strained their lines of credit in San Francisco’s financial community. Although a few lots were sold and a few homes were built, people were not flocking to the new utopia as had been hoped. Small hotels were built near the ferry landing so that potential customers might have a leisurely look at the properties and experience the subline climate and serenity of Sausalito.
PHOTO FROM SAUSALITO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
James H. Gardner, builder and original resident of the Bower, shown mounted on his horse “Dick.”
Samuel Throckmorton tried to foreclose on the Sausalito Land & Ferry Company several times, but each time the determined businessmen successfully evaded the hammer. At one desperate point, in order to raise money, they transferred all the remaining property to Maurice Dore for one dollar. Dore, whose land auction business had prospered, was the only one whose credit was still good. The company held auctions from time to time, trying to drum up enthusiasm for Sausalito lots, but they were competing with cheap land in many new towns around the Bay Area, many with railroad connections. In an effort to lure newcomers with capital, every new town around San Francisco Bay was promising prosperity, healthful climates, rapid growth, and boundless opportunity.
Still 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 posts, 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.
The accompanying photo shows the Bower, built in 1869 on one of the first lots sold by the Sausalito Land & Ferry Company.