What is the Almonte Neighborhood?
Almonte neighborhood boundaries turn uphill from Shoreline Highway mid-way between Gibson Street and Dolan Avenue, then along the ridge crest to Five Corners where Almonte meets the Homestead Valley neighborhood boundary. The boundary then proceeds along Homestead Boulevard to the intersection of Loring Avenue, then to Morning Sun, down to Miller Avenue, and along the Tamalpais High School properties to Almonte Boulevard.
The Almonte neighborhood is primarily a residential area with the exception of the Tam Junction commercial area located on the east side of Shoreline between Coyote Creek and Almonte Blvd, the Tam Junction commercial area located on the north side of Hwy One as well as the two small strip commercial areas located at Almonte Boulevard and Wisteria Way and on Miller Avenue near Gomez Way. The residential portion consists of an estimated 712 dwelling units in the Almonte neighborhood, 603 are single family dwellings, 103 are multiple units and 6 are units shared with commercial business. The neighborhood has 162 vacant parcels of land which for the most part are individual lots scattered throughout the neighborhood. The vacant parcels have an estimated development potential of 84 single family dwelling units and 9 multifamily units under the current County zoning regulations including the Slope Ordinance.
The Almonte neighborhood’s development pattern is similar to that of Tamalpais Valley’s hillside areas because the neighborhood is comprised of a steep ridge which extends to Richardson Bay and was platted in the same newspaper subscription program. Roadways serving the Almonte neighborhood are narrow, twisting, and steep. Utility mains are not sized to provide capacity for extensive additional development. Geologic hazards and poor soils are a threat to public safety if properties are not improved properly, and existing storm drainage facilities in the area are often found to be insufficient. The neighborhood is also prone to high fire hazard because homes are located very close to one another in close vicinity to dry grasslands. Non-native vegetation, such as the numerous stands of eucalyptus, contribute to the fire problem.
The Almonte Neighborhood is located north of the Tamalpais Valley neighborhood, on a minor high ridge which runs parallel to Richardson Bay. The area is currently defined by the boundaries of the Almonte Sanitary District.
However, the community has existed since the 1870s and is focused on an old railroad stop which served as the junction of the Sausalito to Eureka line and the spur to Mill Valley. The trains stopped service decades ago and the railway grade is now used as a multipurpose path which adjoins the marsh side of Tam Junction.
Homestead Valley & The Almonte Pathway
In 1890 the Tamalpais Land & Water Company (TL&WC) started to sell properties that are today part of Mill Valley, Almonte, and Homestead Valley. Subdivision maps located lots and larger parcels as well as streets. In addition, lanes were established to connect some of the streets in the hills. For example, someone living on Molino in Mill Valley could walk to the Heuters Lane steps, turn left on Ethel and then go down the Miller steps to get to the train depot. This route was a lot faster than getting the horse and buggy out of the barn and driving to the depot on the streets.
In most California subdivisions lot ownership extends out to the middle of the street even though it is a public right of way. However, TL&WC specified that the lots do not include any fee title to streets, avenues, lanes, alleys, paths, passage ways, roads and boulevards. TL&WC dedicated these streets, lanes, etc. for public use which the public agency was invited to accept.
In 1909 the town of Mill Valley accepted only those street lanes, etc. that were at that time used and traveled over by the public which means such use by vehicles drawn by horses or mules, or propelled by steady electricity or any other power, and does not include use by bicycle pedestrians or persons on horseback. Many have still not been accepted.
TL&WC had been chartered as a 100 year corporation in 1888 and therefore had to go out of business in 1988. It had sold all the lots and parcels on its subdivision maps, but it still owned most of the streets, lanes, etc. Their quitclaim deed says, TL&WC do hereby remise, release forever quitclaim to the The Homestead Valley Land Trust any and all rights, titles and interests it has, or may have, in any real property, whether represented by fee ownership, easements, streets, lanes, alley, thoroughfares, and any other real property interest, laying within the boundaries of the County of Marin.
In 1995 the Homestead Valley Land Trust (HVLT) hired a title specialist to list the properties it had acquired by accepting TL&WC’s quit claim deed. It was discovered that HVLT owned most of the streets and lanes not only in Homestead Valley, but also in Almonte that are maintained by the County Public Works Department and certain paper streets adjacent to County Open Space land. HVLT still owns many lanes, paper streets and vehicular streets not maintained by the county. Since July 1999, HVLT has been negotiating with the City of Mill Valley to accept a similar quitclaim deed conveying streets, 11 lanes and 19 trails in Mill Valley that HVLT owns.
History of the Almonte District
Virginia Smith, 1982
The Almonte District as it is today (1982) is an amalgam of Marin Heights, Wisteria, and Tamalpais High School areas. The Almonte (“to the mountain” in Spanish) Train Station, which used to sit on the marsh directly opposite the existing bus stop, was an important transfer point on the Northwestern Pacific Electric Railroad. When coming by ferry from San Francisco and arriving at the Sausalito slip, the traveler to Marin County was offered trains to San Anselmo, San Rafael, Tiburon Peninsula and Mill Valley. Almonte Station was the division point. Trains from this point went their varying directions. Also, to reach Mill Valley from the North, one again changed at Almonte Station.
The property called Wisteria was owned in the early part of the 20th Century by Ernest Jackson. His holdings began just beyond present day Rosemont Avenue from the other side of Dr. Boyd’s Veterinary Hospital, where there still stands a line of cypress trees, and extended to Rising Road. Mr. Jackson had some fondness for cypress trees. He marked off the one quarter acre lots by planting lines of cypress. Many of these trees are still standing and when land is surveyed, stumps of them are often uncovered.
Marin Heights was the hopeful, money-making brainchild of Cleve Damm. Rosemont was originally Rose Avenue named after Mrs. Damm. Northwestern Realty was the company which in typical 1914 San Francisco style divided lots into 25 foot widths. Supposed health promoting waters in the area were dubbed Lithia Springs. One story is told that lots for $5 each were offered as a Chronicle or Examiner newspaper subscription bonus. Loquat trees which are still plentiful in Almonte date from this development. One of the last vestiges of the 1915 World’s Fair Exposition is at the corner of Morningsun and Stadium Avenues. It is a weathered neo-classic urn which leans precariously toward the road. Pairs of these urns were placed at Rosemont and at Stadium by the land developers, no doubt, to impress possible buyers to this classy countryside.
Originally, Marin Heights was the Degnan dairy ranch just above where Graham’s Garage (at the bottom of Rosemont) is now located. The brown shingled house second from the corner of Rosemont and Morningsun on the high side of the road was the Degnan ranch house. The cow barn was on Gibson Avenue near Shoreline. Cows grazed all through this area. One, Molly, a gentle Jersey, spent most of her time in the Graham backyard (now Graham’s garage). She was so content there that Degnan came down to milk her on location, treating the Graham children to fresh, warm milk.
Charley Graham, an enterprising merchant even at about 12, built a roadside stand from old Foster & Kleiser sign discards. He sold peanuts, soft drinks, ice cream and checked the extra clothing of weekend and summer hikers who began their mountain climb from that corner to ascend to Panoramic and Mt. Tamalpais.
George Brisley, in 1948, was the moving force in the construction of the Almonte Clubhouse on land donated by Jackson. Labor and materials were donated by the residents of the area. In 1952, a sanitary district was formed to convert the sewer system from septic tanks. This district is now the Almonte Sanitary District. Thus, it is that a vital transfer point, Almonte, on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad, gave its name to a district in the unincorporated area of Mill Valley
The Spirited History of a Marin County Landmark
By Peter Fimrite, San Francisco Chronicle, April 21, 2008
The big, white landmark called the Fireside has stood as a gateway to Mill Valley for 92 years, a symbol of a rough, rollicking era when the Bay Area was awash in rum running. But the celebrants who caroused inside the former speakeasy never knew they were dancing on Indian graves.
Marin County Coroner Kenneth Holmes acknowledged recently that skeletal remains of American Indians were discovered in the ground beneath the brick structure during renovation work over the past 10 months.
The bones may have been the same ones found during a renovation 51 years ago and then quietly reburied underneath the floorboards at a time when folks were less concerned about cultural issues.
“They were Native American,” Holmes said of the new discovery. “They were so fragmented that it was difficult to say whether it was one or more people.”
Marin officials conceded that the centerpiece of their prized new affordable housing complex is smack dab on top of a sacred Miwok burial ground only after inquiries from The Chronicle. California law exempts developers from having to disclose the unearthing of Indian graves, cemeteries and sacred places out of fear that publicity will draw treasure hunters.
The bones, which were examined by archaeologists and reinterred with the blessing of a tribal representative, are not expected to delay the opening later this year of the newly renovated Fireside, which would have been torn down had the nonprofit Citizens Housing Corp. not agreed to restore it as part of a 50-unit housing development.
The building, next to where Highways 1 and 101 come together, is being returned to its original glory as a 1916 roadhouse, with a few new touches, such as solar panels. It will serve as the community center for low-income and elderly residents of the apartments being built behind it.
“We worked closely with the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria to develop a protocol to follow in case any archaeological artifacts were found during construction,” said James Buckley, president of San Francisco-based Citizens Housing. “The protocol requires that a representative of the tribe and a licensed archaeologist be present during all construction work.”
Still, the discovery upset some local residents who were already concerned about traffic and don’t understand why the historic findings were not disclosed before the project was approved.
“I think they really should have disclosed what they found,” said Shawn McGhie, who lives about a half-mile from the Fireside.
Stories of ghosts:
Finds such as this are not rare in the Bay Area, a fertile hunting ground and a popular location for American Indian villages before Europeans arrived. There are 400 recorded burial sites in Marin County alone, Holmes said.
Some believe the burial ground beneath the Fireside explains the ghosts that, legend has it, roam its corridors. The hauntings got so bad, as the story goes, that the owner of the El Rebozo Restaurant, which occupied the Fireside for many years, once held a seance. Stanley Foote, who worked behind the Fireside bar for 38 years, said she crossed two bottles of tequila like a cross and sprinkled the contents all over the building in an effort to ward off the spirits.
It all started 10,000 to 12,000 years ago when the first Indian villages were established around what was then a mighty river where San Francisco Bay is today.
The tribe we now call the Coast Miwok eventually settled in the north side of the bay, establishing major villages throughout Marin and Sonoma counties. The villages were mostly along a trail skirting the bay that eventually became Highway 101.
The shells and artifacts the Indians discarded built up over thousands of years into huge mounds that, at one time, could be found all around the area, said Nick Tipon, chairman of the Sacred Sites Protection Committee for the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, representing both the Miwok and Southern Pomo.
The Indians often buried their dead in these mounds, or middens, along with sacred ceremonial items, he said.
Such a mound existed at the future site of the Fireside when the Spanish, then Mexicans and finally Americans moved into the area, historians say. In 1889, the North Pacific Coast Railroad established a train stop, called Manzanita, at the site. A wooden structure was built on top of the old midden, and the place soon became a popular spot for duck hunters to rendezvous. The bacchanalia would soon follow.
Liquor licenses were granted for an establishment called Manzanita Villa in 1906, but county records indicate the current building wasn’t constructed until 1916 for use by San Francisco liquor and cigar dealers Thomas, James and George Moore as a “hotel and dance hall.”
The speakeasy:
The white brick building was conspicuous, with arching windows and doorways, Mission-style columns and an upstairs balcony reminiscent of a Wild West brothel. By 1923, the place – then called the Manzanita Roadhouse – had earned a reputation as a “blind pig,” a colorful Prohibition-era term for speakeasy.
The Bay Area was a hotbed for bootleg liquor after the Volstead Act established Prohibition, and the Manzanita Roadhouse was one of the region’s wildest gin joints.
A Chronicle story in 1923 told about monthly raids and how authorities eventually shut down the Manzanita Roadhouse “in which it is said was sold every known drink of pre-Volstead days.”
When the owner asked whether he could continue his hotel operation, the judge told him, “You might as well try to placate a pack of hungry wolves by throwing chocolate eclairs as to ask me to permit that place to operate as a hotel.”
It isn’t clear what sweets were used to change the judge’s mind, but the place became known as the Manzanita Hotel after renovations in 1926.
The Moore family operated the place until 1936. In 1941, it was renamed Emil Plasberg’s Top Rail, then the Top Rail Tavern.
In 1947, new owners Paul and Ora Smith built a motel behind the building and placed a neon sign on the roof. It announced, “The Fireside.”
Rumors of ghosts began in earnest when two skeletons were found beneath the floorboards during a 1957 renovation. An archaeologist was called in to investigate and determined that the burials, on either side of the dining room, were American Indian. He noted that the owner, Paul Smith, was against any scientific excavation of the site.
The remains were presumably left in place, and the ghostly sounds have been heard at night ever since.
When the Fireside reopens, it will be eligible for the state and national registers of historic places both as an archaeological site and a rare example of an early 20th century roadside inn. The building will feature a wall mural dedicated to what, in every aspect, is a spirited history.