Overview

The El Monte Hotel was one of three main hotels serving rural Marin County in 1892, that included the El Monte, the Hotel Sausalito and the Central Hotel in San Rafael. J.E. Slinkey was the proprietor of this 3-story, wood-frame hotel in 1892. The area below the hotel, close to the ferry terminal, was filled with bars in the 1890s, and the hotel had an air of civility to it that contrasted with the beer-soaked saloons greeting docking ships.

Building History

Owner J.E. Slinkey managed the Overland Hotel in San Francisco, CA, and owned the El Monte on two occasions. In 01/1876, he bought the property from Sausalito Land and Ferry Company, and operated it as the "Bon Ton Hotel." (In 1868, the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company purchased 1,160 acres of Anglo pioneer William Richardson's 19,571-acre land grant in this part of Marin County. It was the Sausalito Land and Ferry Company that platted the streets and built this hotel to attract land buyers to its new "Saucelito Ranch" development.) Slinkey sold the hotel and, for some length of time during the later 1870s and/or early 1880s, it operated as the "Clifton Hotel." Slinkey repurchased the establishment in the 1882, and renamed it the "El Monte." During the 1880s, he maintained the hotel and added guest cottages on his surrounding acreage; these small houses catered to vacationing families from San Francisco and elsewhere. (See Stephen Woody LaBounty, "El Monte Hotel, Sausalito," accessed 09/21/2016.)

Building Notes

The L-shaped building was built up on high foundations, and covered by a cross-gabled roof. The long portion of the L had a covered front porch on the first floor whose roof also served as a porch for those on the second floor. On the short end of the L, front windows were twin-light casements, while the long part featured narrow double-hung windows. It may have been that the short portion of the L was a later addition. A cupola rose in the center of the long portion's gable roof.

PCAD id: 20613