Living on the Water

Iconic Communities, On the Road
on March 24, 2002

Few homeowners would consider water more vital to their house than land, but in Sausalito, Calif. (pop. 7,330), the 400 houseboat owners anchored in Richardson Bay prefer the water any day.

For 120 years now, houseboats have been a colorful and defining feature of the Sausalito landscape just north of San Francisco. The town, founded in 1838 by Englishman William Richardson, was initially called Rancho Del Sausalito—Ranch of the Little Willow Grove—and remained mostly dormant until the 1870s, when the railroad came through, linking the town with the lumber empire further north. Soon after, Sausalito became a transportation junction, profiting from its proximity to the Golden Gate. As early as the 1880s, San Francisco families escaped to Sausalito to vacation, enjoying warm sunshine, calm breezes, and gentle tides from their arks—the houseboat style of that era.

But vacations weren’t the only useful outlets for the houseboats. When the 1906 earthquake destroyed much of San Francisco, the arks became emergency shelters for many homeless families. In March 1942, Sausalito again assisted in an emergency. The U. S. Maritime Commission selected the small residential community for a much-needed Bay area shipyard.

Marinship, as the yard came to be known, produced an extraordinary effort to aid the United States in wartime—perhaps the proudest moment in Sausalito history. Using assembly-line technology specially designed for Marinship, women and men recruited from all over the country built and launched 15 Liberty cargo ships, 62 tankers, and 16 oilers, while outfitting and repairing 23 other vessels. And they did it all in a record-breaking three and a half years.

The 20,000 workers brought to Marinship created a serious housing shortage, however, so a few ingenious workers set up housekeeping along the shore in abandoned boats. After the war, soldiers discharged from nearby military bases joined the residents.

By the mid-1960s, Sausalito’s houseboat community was a mix of free-spirited people who seemed to embrace an expressively diverse look to their homes. But the “works of art” created in Richardson Bay wound up posing a health hazard. Officials offered a permanent berth in a new marina to any residents bringing their vessels up to safety codes. Docks were built with hook-ups for water, gas, electricity, and much-needed sewer lines.

As with a legal residence, houseboat ownership includes mortgages, property taxes, and homeowners insurance. Though the responsibilities are similar to living on land, houseboat owners believe the benefits far outweigh the costs.

“It’s a very seductive environment,” says San Francisco native Larry Clinton. “A lot of people who move here, including myself, quickly find a way to work from home.”

When Jim and Eve Lubalin decided to move from the East Coast to be closer to their daughter, the farthest thing from their minds was a houseboat. “Now we can’t imagine ever living on land again,” says Jim.

A stroll along the public-access docks becomes a walk through a garden that would rival any greenhouse. Containers of different size and design filled with fruit-bearing trees, vines, and flowers line both sides of every dock. The private homes range from simplistic to ornate, with each floating home expressing a personal nautical theme.

“While we think of ourselves as unique,” says Clinton, “you can see we’ve all got salt water in our veins.”

If you’re interested in getting a peek at these floating wonders, every September residents open their doors in the name of charity.

“It started in 1984 as a community relations event,” says Jim Lubalin, co-director of the tour. “Now our Open Homes Tour attracts about 1,200 visitors.”

Though only a few miles across the Bay from cosmopolitan San Francisco, Sausalito has preserved its small-town contentment. Residents don’t move away, wildlife is abundant, and visitors return. It wouldn’t be out of the ordinary to hear local expression of a classic area song, I Left My Heart in Sausalito.