The Flatiron Building and railroad crossing at the corner of Second and B Streets, 1906.
Marin History Museum Collection. P1999.8260.1-2
As a fresh transplant from Minnesota in the late 1990s, the Flatiron Bar in San Rafael was the rare location where I could see my NFL team, the Vikings, play on a Sunday morning. Whenever I walked in and asked which TV was showing the game, I secretly hoped it was upstairs. I loved the funky shape of the main room up there which, more than anywhere else, reflected how the building interestingly tapered to a fine point.
The unusual shape of the Flatiron Building at the corner of 2nd and B Streets can only be explained by understanding the history of that intersection. After all, there’s no visible reason for a triangular building to exist at a square intersection. Unless… In the 19th century, if you were to take a train from Mill Valley to San Rafael, you’d hop the old Northwestern Pacific Railroad, ride it up to The Hub in San Anselmo, then branch east into San Rafael. Once in the downtown area, its tracks ran right down the middle of 2nd Street (if you can imagine that). Then at B Street, it veered to the southeast at a diagonal before straightening back out and heading toward San Quentin, along what’s now Anderson Drive.
Wedged between those railroad tracks and 2nd Street at the southeast corner sat the Flatiron Building. Built in 1883 in the Eastlake style, it made practical use of an awkward slice of land created by the rails. It served double-duty as both a boarding house and a saloon for the men who worked on the railroad all the livelong day. By the 1930s, it no longer housed railroad workers, and the exterior had been covered with stucco. But the saloon endured. Nearly a century after the building went up, the stucco was removed following a fire, and in 1982 the Flatiron was officially designated a city landmark.
The railroad’s impact on architectural design isn’t limited to the Flatiron itself. The neighboring building to the south – now home to Saigon Village – also has an angled side conforming to the same diagonal rail line, but from the opposite side of the tracks. Like the Flatiron, it once served as both a saloon and boarding house. Today, standing behind the buildings in the parking lot off 1st Street, the former path of the railroad becomes easier to picture. This stretch once included the San Rafael depot, which remained here until 1930, when it was replaced by the Mission Revival–style station across A Street – a building now the site of His and Hers Barbershop and Hair Salon.
Today, the Flatiron gives its name to the latest iteration of the saloon. Like its predecessors, the bar serves food and beverages, but also posts witticisms outside its doors like, “Our cheesesteak tastes a lot like you’re going to the gym tomorrow,” and “Weekends are like puppies – everyone loves them!” And of course, they still screen sports to members of the public, even ones who might’ve just recently moved to Marin from Minnesota.
Steve Fait is a volunteer with the Marin History Museum and a history docent at
China Camp Village.
The unusual shape of the Flatiron Building at the corner of 2nd and B Streets can only be explained by understanding the history of that intersection. After all, there’s no visible reason for a triangular building to exist at a square intersection. Unless… In the 19th century, if you were to take a train from Mill Valley to San Rafael, you’d hop the old Northwestern Pacific Railroad, ride it up to The Hub in San Anselmo, then branch east into San Rafael. Once in the downtown area, its tracks ran right down the middle of 2nd Street (if you can imagine that). Then at B Street, it veered to the southeast at a diagonal before straightening back out and heading toward San Quentin, along what’s now Anderson Drive.
Wedged between those railroad tracks and 2nd Street at the southeast corner sat the Flatiron Building. Built in 1883 in the Eastlake style, it made practical use of an awkward slice of land created by the rails. It served double-duty as both a boarding house and a saloon for the men who worked on the railroad all the livelong day. By the 1930s, it no longer housed railroad workers, and the exterior had been covered with stucco. But the saloon endured. Nearly a century after the building went up, the stucco was removed following a fire, and in 1982 the Flatiron was officially designated a city landmark.
The railroad’s impact on architectural design isn’t limited to the Flatiron itself. The neighboring building to the south – now home to Saigon Village – also has an angled side conforming to the same diagonal rail line, but from the opposite side of the tracks. Like the Flatiron, it once served as both a saloon and boarding house. Today, standing behind the buildings in the parking lot off 1st Street, the former path of the railroad becomes easier to picture. This stretch once included the San Rafael depot, which remained here until 1930, when it was replaced by the Mission Revival–style station across A Street – a building now the site of His and Hers Barbershop and Hair Salon.
Today, the Flatiron gives its name to the latest iteration of the saloon. Like its predecessors, the bar serves food and beverages, but also posts witticisms outside its doors like, “Our cheesesteak tastes a lot like you’re going to the gym tomorrow,” and “Weekends are like puppies – everyone loves them!” And of course, they still screen sports to members of the public, even ones who might’ve just recently moved to Marin from Minnesota.
Steve Fait is a volunteer with the Marin History Museum and a history docent at
China Camp Village.