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Post Info TOPIC: car ferry store in Sausalito...
JasonLewis


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RE: car ferry store in Sausalito...
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Recovered these from the old Forum:

 

Steve Stephens

 

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Date: Nov 15, 2009
Reply To: car ferry store in Sausalito... (from original forum archive)
  
 

I found a picture postcard of the ferry San Rafael on this site. It was painted white during its last years.



http://www.marinnostalgia.org/slideshow275.html#5



The Charles Van Damn-

http://www.marinnostalgia.org/slideshow275.html#6



Richmond Bridge construction-

http://www.marinnostalgia.org/slideshow64.html#19

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Steve Stephens

 

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Date: Nov 14, 2009
 
  
 

Mark Groody;832 wrote: It was around 1957 and the bridge was almost finished... There are a few remnants of Point Molate left behind. Also the ferry "San Rafael" could be seen just south of the C Van Dame, it had been painted Yellow.



It was in August 1957 that we moved to Tiburon right above the Net Depot Annex (now Paradise Beach County Park) and I started high school at Tam. My entry into Marin for the first time was over the Richmond Bridge which, if memory serves me correctly, had only the upper deck open at the time. Does anyone remember for sure if only one deck was open (to two way traffic) when the bridge first opened? Unfortunately I missed the last operations of the Richmond Ferry. It's sad to see how the once intact Richmond Ferry Terminal has fallen into the bay.



I remember well the old ferries in Saucelito (that is the original spelling of the town which I prefer to use) and when the Charles Van Damn appeared on the waterfront one day. Initially it was floating in the water but, in not too much time, the water around it was filled in.



Down the way a bit towards Saucelito was the ferry San Rafael. It looked vacant at the time a friend and I boarded and looked around but we did see that there must have been a resident living on it. On the car deck walls were porcelain signs "Please Extinguish Lights" referring to the acetylene gas lights in use on cars when the ferry was new.



It was not the San Rafael that was painted yellow; it remained white till it fell apart. The City of Seattle was the "Yellow Ferry". An account and photos of it can be seen here-

http://tinyurl.com/yeje84g



and some more info on the old ferries here as well as some neat photos of "restoration" of the Vallejo-

http://www.vallejo.to/articles/sealetter_01.htm



I have some great memories growing up in Marin. Graduated from Redwood in 1961 and have lived in San Anselmo the past 33 years.

Steve Stephens

San Anselmo

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Mark Groody

 

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Date: Jun 22, 2009
 
  
 

It was around 1957 and the bridge was almost finished. You loaded up near the Marin Rod and Gun Pier ( still there) and went over to Point Molate just upstream from the bridge. There are a few remnants of Point Molate left behind. Also the ferry "San Rafael" could be seen just south of the C Van Dame, it had been painted Yellow. Not sure who owned it. I also remember all the railroad barges from Tiburon.

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goddess1

 

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Date: Feb 24, 2009
 
  
 

On Bridgeway, accross from toy store you will find a really interesting place. Crazy items line the counter in little glass jars, rubber toys in bins line the floor, things that move, shake and hop, a one of a kind store. The front window always has a theme with moving objects. When I worked there, people would call all day long, asking for the Ferry schedule. I asked the owner why he would name it after the Sausalito Ferry, and the story he told may have a connection to this, but I can't remember it all. Something he was recreating from when he was a child. His parents owned the toy store forever, so I think I'm going to look into this a bit more. I have ties to Sausalito as well, this is such a fun site!

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salshine


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Juanita was up in Benecia for a while - I think next to a bowling alley after her place burned in Sonoma..I don't think it was actually in Glen Ellen..it was closer to Aqua Caliente or El Verano?

Last time I saw her was in benecia..she was strolling around the restaurant...he had a long boa around her neck with nipples on the ends of the boa and she would bend down and wrap the boa ends around men's faces.



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JasonLewis


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Juanita Musson of Juanita's Galley Memories?
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I had the pleasure of meeting Juanita Musson a few weeks ago and interviewed her for the site. I hope to get that typed up and added to the site within the next month.

Does anyone happen to have any colorful memories of her or her restaurant they'd like to share?

Jason

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Paul


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RE: car ferry store in Sausalito...
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I remember going to the Charles Van Dam to hear rock bands play ,
it was listing so one had to have sea legs to stand or dance.
There were many bands , but the one I remember the most was
Red Legs , probably some local residents of the gates. This was
in the late sixtys.

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Meadowsweet Rich


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Nice to see a photo of the Trade Fair from that vantage point Paul, I used to enjoy going there as a child, there were always inexpensive toys like Chinese finger puzzles, rubber snakes, etc. in baskets near the entrance, & more exotic goods as you walked further back, I wonder if anybody has an interior photo of the old Trade Fair ?

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Paul Penna


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August 1970 at The Trade Fair in Sausalito. My sister and her kids. Taken during my regrettable foray into instant photography.



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Pangolin


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I loved visiting the Trade Fair as a chlld. I remember how the decks sloped and I also remember going into the various curiosity shops. They always sold these abalone shells that were filled with smaller shells and dried miniature starfish and seahorses, all wrapped in plastic. Also my primary source for Mexican jumping beans! I have often wondered about the old boat and am glad to find it remembered here.

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Rosemary


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Juanita Lives!!! See the link below to Fine Life of the Sonoma Valley Sun about a roast being given in her honor on April 24 at Little Switzerland in El Verano.
http://www.finelifesonoma.com/FL-2007/FL-041207/FL-10Q-041207.htm

Had dinner at her place in Glen Ellen in the early-mid 1970s. Herb Caen was there.

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Rosemary
SteveC


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Do you people know the quanset hut (?) building where Purity Market was at Bridgeway and Princess ? Didn't it become some sort of import/head shop type place.
Where I'm talking about is the last place on the left before the water. It was rebuilt with Houlihan's there for a while.

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Anonymous

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I've lived away from Marin for 33 years, but whenever I go through Sausalito part of me always looks for Trade Fair and Village Fair (also there was a shop on the shoreline that sold nothing but braid and buttons...) The ambiance of the boat/store as described in the initial posting, and all those intriguing shops built into the hillside was so excellent, especially from a kid's perspective. Re the actual car ferry - c. 1959 my mom realized at the last minute that it was the last run of the ferry to S.F. -- we zoomed down there in our car, from Corte Madera, and got to the dock just in time to see it pulling away. I probably only remember it because my mom most likely had a fit for missing it. At least it gave me my little direct link to transporation history. - Nancy Reichard

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Sepiatone


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Here's what it looked like:

-- Edited by Sepiatone at 08:34, 2007-01-09

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Anonymous

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Thanks for that!

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Anonymous

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Trade Fair: I was working as a laborer for Heath Ceramics in Sausalito around 1973 when I was sent to pick up some stuff at Trade Fair in its old wooden ferry because it was closing down. I think the GGB district was about to build a new ferry terminal and was kicking out the Trade Fair, an old Marin institution. Anyway, the old guy who ran it, he was like an old sea salt skipper-type, he was so sad about closing, it was heartbreaking to be hauiignaway some of his stuff. By the way, the old Village Fair in downtown Sausalito had originally been the parking garage for the old ferries. Edith and Brian Heath were some of the original tenants when they remodeled it into a marketplace, in the '40s or so. They produced their original ceramic works there before moving down to the Gates.

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Anonymous

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I know for sure the monkey made it to Glen Ellen, that thing used to freak me out when I was a kid!

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ted


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That's right, It was the Charles Van Damne which was closed down by the Health Dept once, and then later by the I.R.S. as she never payed her employees by check, she always payed cash. I don't know if that every changed when she moved to El Verano. She had several animals that lived with her up stairs in the Charles Van Damne, and I wondered if the animals went along with her when she moved. She then moved to Glen Ellen and the restaurant had a fire, which put her out of business for a while. I don't know if she ever recovered from that.

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Anonymous

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I was wrong, Juanita's was in the old ferry The Charles Van Damne, I think it later was a music venue, nightclub, etc.

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Anonymous

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I just found it, it was called the Trade Fair: "The Southern Pacific used Berkeley mostly in San Francisco-Oakland service. After she retired in 1958, Berkeley was docked in Sausalito for many years and served as a floating mall, called the Trade Fair. The shops, which I don't remember, were on the main deck. The cabin deck, with a stained-glass clerestory, looked just as it did when she carried passengers."

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Anonymous

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The Eureka was the ferry I believe you are thinking of...and here's a blast from the past...Juanita's Galley!....she had a resturant in the ferry for many years before moving up to Glen Ellen and El Verano...now watch the memories come flooding in from the old timers.

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Anonymous

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Here's a tough one, what was the name of that old car ferry in Sausalito that was a Black Market/Cost Plus knock off? I remember all the bins full of crazy stuff, my favorite being the rubber tipped bamboo spears and hatchets. And the thing had these long wood decks that were curved and it moved with the tide. So cool, so Marin, so not gonna happen again!

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