Tale of a Sausalito Home erected in 1849
by Laurie Thompson
An interesting article published in the November 16, 1895 Sausalito News recounts the history of one of Sausalito’s very first structures, brought over by a party from Baltimore and erected in 1849:
Early in 1848 a ship sailed from Baltimore. Among its passengers were men who intended to make a home in California…. These people came well prepared to establish homes. On board the ship were several houses all framed and ready to be put together…. The beauties of the [Sausalito] hills attracted two families who at once made a home along Richardson Bay — a Mr. Story near Waldo Point and one Mr. Mildwater, at the dividing line between what is commonly known as Old and New Sausalito. Here upon this point, on a beautiful hillside sloping to the rising sun, the Mildwater family built a home, which stands there to-day and constitutes the oldest landmark in the town.
It is one of the buildings brought from Baltimore, and was erected on the site where it now stands, in 1849. Mildwater lived in it until his death when it was purchased by a Mr. Kerr, who in turn sold it to Captain Story, the present owner….
Mrs. Kerr opened in this house the first school…. She was a woman of culture and refinement and as such conducted a very good school, at which many of the belles of the day received a very good education. Mrs. Burdell, Mrs. Judge Hansen and Mrs. Eliza Chochrane…were Mrs. Kerr’s pupils in the old Story house.
Originally published at https://annetkent.kontribune.com.
