Why I Never Get Tired of Old Tiburon
I am drawn to Old Town Tiburon. You come down the hill, the bay opens up, and there is that little stretch of Main Street that feels like it belongs to another century. I wanted to share some of what makes it special, because the history here is part of what people are really buying into when they fall in love with this town.
The name comes from the Spanish word for shark. Early explorers called the point Punta de Tiburon, and it stuck. Long before that, this was Coast Miwok land for thousands of years, and I think it is worth remembering that every time I walk the waterfront.
Most of what you see downtown grew up around the railroad. Tiburon was once the spot where the trains met the ferries, the end of the line where people and freight crossed the bay to San Francisco. The old rail yards and depot shaped the whole waterfront for decades. When that era ended, the land became the Point Tiburon community you see today, and the original depot is still here as the Railroad and Ferry Depot Museum. I love that you can stand there and picture what it used to be.
My favorite piece of trivia is Ark Row. Those charming little shops just off Main Street started life as floating summer houseboats, called arks, that families moored out in the cove. When that fashion faded, they hauled the arks up onto land and turned them into the boutiques you can wander through today. So when you are browsing a shop on Ark Row, you are standing inside a hundred year old houseboat. I never get tired of telling people that.
Up on the hill sits Old St. Hilary's, a beautiful little Carpenter Gothic church from the late 1800s, now a preserve. The wildflowers on that hillside are famous, including one rare lily that grows almost nowhere else in the world. The view of the bay and the city from up there is one of the best in all of Southern Marin, and it is free to anyone willing to make the walk.
Down on the water you have Sam's Anchor Cafe, which has been serving people on that sunny deck since 1920. On a clear afternoon there is no better place to understand why people move here. Tiburon is also the launching point for the ferry to Angel Island, which has its own deep and layered history well worth a day trip.
This is a town that held onto its character instead of paving over it, and you feel that the moment you arrive. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to call a place like this home, I would love to show you around.
Tammy Riemer, eXp Realty
