Tiburon Railroad-Ferry Museum - Tiburon, CA
Posted by: saopaulo1
N 37° 52.357 W 122° 27.135
10S E 548174 N 4191823
A museum showcasing the ferry and railway history of Tiburon, CA.
Waymark Code: WM635C
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 03/24/2009
Views: 5
"The lovely restored gray building at Shoreline Park captures the past in two museums. On the ground floor, a detailed operating HO-scale model shows Tiburon, the railroad town c. 1900 to 1910. The model’s scale (1:87) is accurate so sizes of landscapes, buildings, trains and boats are accurate when compared to one another. The only exception to authenticity is the palm tree, which was planted twenty years later. It is included in the model as a point of reference.
The three ferryboats in the model were part of a large fleet that operated between San Francisco and Point Tiburon. The Ukiah was built at the local yard and the Donahue was named for Peter’s son, who succeeded him as president of the railroad company. The Ukiah originally carried railroad cars but was rebuilt after World War I to ferry automobiles across the bay — although not to and from Tiburon. Later renamed the Eureka, it is preserved at the San Francisco Maritime Museum’s Hyde Street Pier.
Upstairs is the Depot House Museum, where the stationmaster’s family lived. Restoration was based on the
memories of Florence Bent Palmer, the daughter of the last stationmaster, William Bent, who served from 1913 to 1940. Bent’s family included three children and a dog, as well as his wife, Ann, who milked cows that often spent the night in the railroad yard before continuing the journey to San Francisco.
School children frequently visit the museum to learn about typical middle-class life in the early 1900s. Among the period details are hanging light bulbs and a coal/wood-burning stove in the kitchen, as well as a hot water heater that was connected to the stove.
Items in the museums are donations to the Landmarks Society’s History Collections. Donors also underwrite the cost of models, which is based on the square footage of the footprint of original full-size buildings." (
visit link)