Landmark Properties

Old St. Hilary's

201 Esperanza Street, Tiburon
Old St. Hilary's is a mission church, built on land donated by Hilarita and Benjamin Lyford in 1888, for the railroad workers in Tiburon. It served as a mission of St. Raphael�s until 1919 when it became part of the parish of the Star of the Sea Church in Sausalito before being deconsecrated in 1953. The vaulted interior of redwood and fir is noted for its excellent acoustics and is one of the few remaining Carpenter Gothic churches to survive in its original setting. Surrounded by a rare wildflower preserve, Old St. Hilary's overlooks downtown Tiburon and the San Francisco Bay.

China Cabin

52 Beach Road, Belvedere
The Social Saloon of the S.S. China, was built in 1866 in a New York shipyard for the Pacific Fast Mail Ship Company which carried mail and passengers from its home port of San Francisco to and from Asia. The elegant room was salvaged when the side-wheel steamer became obsolete and was burned for scrap metal in Tiburon Cove. It has been resorted with 22k gold leaf, walnut woodwork, cut-glass floral windowpanes, and oil burning chandeliers. It is a National Maritime Monument.

Tiburon Railroad & Ferry Depot Museum

1920 Paradise Drive, Tiburon
The Museum is the only surviving railroad and ferry terminal West of the Hudson River and is in the National Register of Historic Places. In 1884, Peter Donahue completed the extension of the San Francisco and North Western Pacific Railroad to Point Tiburon (Punta de Tiburon) and Tiburon became a major railroad-ferry terminus and maintenance yard. The last train ran in 1967. Southern Pacific deeded the shoreline and the Depot building to Tiburon for use as open space and a museum. Upstairs is the restored stationmaster's living quarters, 1913-1940. On the ground floor is a railroad & ferry museum featuring a working model of the Point Tiburon yard circa 1900-1910.

Art & Garden Center

841 Tiburon Boulevard, Tiburon
Circa 1870, the cottage is the oldest structure on the Tiburon Peninsula. The building is representative of Tiburon's housing during the farming-railroad era housing brick kiln laborers and tenant farmers. Purchased by the Newman's in the mid �1940s, Helen Newman terraced and planted the one acre gardens. The restored cottage, overlooking Richardson Bay, has two galleries for exhibits and receptions. The delightful gardens and paths are maintained by master gardeners, based on the original design.

History Collections