Community Corner

Once a bustling train hub

From its days known merely as "The Junction," San Anselmo has long been a hub of activity.

At least 3,600 years before San Anselmo was known as San Anselmo, the Miwok Indians called this area home. They hunted, fished, and gathered, spreading out in the summer and coming together in larger centers during the winter. Two Miwok archeological sites have been found in San Anselmo.

But the 5,000 Miwok who lived in Marin began to find their numbers decreasing and their groups decimated as the Spanish built missions and -- after the 1821 Mexican Revolution -- when California became part of Mexico. In fact, Marin is named for Chief Marin, one of the last Miwok chiefs.

After Mexican took control of California, much of Marin was parceled out in land grants to various soldiers and prominent citizens. In 1839, the land for Sleepy Hollow and the northwestern half of San Anselmo was granted to Domingo Sais -- a fact that caused much family tension. He built the first structure in town: an adobe house on the top of the hill above what is now Sais Avenue.

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The southern part of San Anselmo, Corte Madera and Point San Quentin was granted to sea captain John Roger Cooper (who became a Mexican citizen and changed his name to Juan Bautista Rogers Cooper).

Timothy Murphy, a large Irishman who also served as Mayor of San Rafael, owned much of central San Rafael and part of the northern part of San Anselmo.

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Still, San Anselmo remained pastoral and largely farming land until the North Pacific Coast Railroad arrived in 1874. The town, known simply as The Junction, served as hub for trains running from San Rafael to Sausalito and westward through Fairfax and the White's Hill tunnel.

In the late 1880s, San Anselmo finally became known as San Anselmo (from the title of the original land grant) and the number of its residents grew. The seminary was dedicated two just 20 students and two halls in 1892. The seminary's influence ran deep -- even helping push the town to became a completely "dry" town in the early 1900s with 30-days in jail for purchasing an alcoholic drink. And the 1906 fire and earthquake drove even more people out of the city and into the lovely weather here.

After the 1907 incorporation of the town, San Anselmo soon got a town hall, adjacent fire station, library, revamped mission-style train station. The bustling hub became truly bustling.

Many families soon built large houses, including Marian and Edwin Wood's house (later sold to son of Albert L. Robson and Frances Harrington) and the dairy ranch at Sleepy Hollow (in fact, named for friend of the family Irving Washington's story about Ichabod Crane).

As highways developed across California and the country, and once the Golden Gate Bridge opened in 1937, the power of the train -- an institution in San Anselmo -- was diminishing. A campaign to save the trains stalled the closure of the line until 1941. All remnants of what had transformed the town to a busy intersection soon disappeared: the depot was converted to a bus station, rails were town up, the train's right-of-way became streets, the switching tower and water tank were torn down.

All that's left are names like Lansdale Station and the raised street on Center Boulevard where trains once ran.

Much of this information courtesy of the San Anselmo Historical Museum.


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