The origin of San Rafael’s Falkirk Cultural Center
The beautiful Queen Anne building at 1408 Mission Ave. in San Rafael, now the Falkirk Cultural Center, was once home to shipping and timber magnate Robert Dollar. “Capt.” Dollar purchased the 11-acre estate from Ella Park in 1906 and named it after his hometown of Falkirk, Scotland. According to the center’s website, Park, the young widow of attorney Trenor Park, built the home in 1888 after purchasing the land from railroad entrepreneur James Walker. To design the home, she hired architect Clinton Day, who also designed San Francisco’s City of Paris building, the Union Trust building and Gump’s department store.
Dollar’s American dream success story began in the lowlands of Scotland as an errand boy for a lumber company when he was just 10 years old. He emigrated to Canada with his family at age 13 and had many jobs in the timber trade, including “riding” the logs downriver for delivery to the mill. He worked in lumber camps in both Canada and Michigan, eventually purchasing his own timberland in Canada, Michigan, Northern California and Oregon.
He and his wife, Margaret, moved to San Rafael in 1888. In 1893, he purchased a steam schooner, the Newsboy, to transport his lumber along the Pacific Coast, establishing the Dollar Steamship Co.
Within a few years, his fleet of steam-powered ships had grown to more than 50 and he owned four shipping companies and numerous timber firms. In 1902, after traveling to Asia, Dollar began operating a trans-Pacific trade with Japan, China and Singapore, including chartered passenger voyages to Japan and the Philippines. By the first World War, Dollar was one of the richest men in America and his shipping fleet was plying trade around the world and opening up new markets across the Pacific Ocean. The Dollars were also philanthropists in Marin County. They donated land and funds to build the original Sunny Hills Orphanage in San Anselmo, endowed a chair at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, and donated 31 acres to the city of San Rafael for Boyd Park and the access road to the summit of San Rafael Hill that bears his name. Dollar did not forget his birthplace either, donating funds for a public park and community center, library and monument commemorating the 1298 battle of Falkirk in the First War of Scottish Independence. A few years before his death in 1932, Dollar responded to a reporter’s question about retiring with, “I was 80 years old when I thought out the practicability of starting a passenger steamship line of eight steamers to run around the world in one direction. … I hope to continue working to my last day on Earth and wake up the next morning in the other world.”
After his death, two of his sons took over management of the company, but the Great Depression had taken its toll and all of the shipping interests were sold to pay off the company’s debt. Falkirk Mansion passed from the Dollar family and by the early 1970s was nearly razed to build a large condominium and apartment complex. However, the stately home survived, thanks to the hard work and dedication of Mary and Fred Dekker of Marin Heritage. They and their supporters successfully petitioned San Rafael Mayor Larry Mulryan and the City Council to help preserve the historic site. In November 1974, voters approved a four-cent tax to allow for the purchase and maintenance of the estate. With those funds, San Rafael paid off the mortgage on the property, but shortly after Proposition 13 canceled such taxes.
Falkirk now serves as a community center for art exhibits, Master Gardener classes and as a celebration and wedding rental facility where, among many others, I wed my lovely wife in 1981.