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The
lumber for the Sheppard Hotel, a two story structure, was said to
have sailed around the horn. The lumber was used for a hotel at El
Campo, later known as California City, on the Tiburon pennisula and
across the bay from San Quentin. When that area did not develop, as
predicted, the hotel was dismantled in sections and reassembled at
San Quentin on a narrow strip of land, in later years, was known as
Newby Point, located
only a few hundred feet from the main entrance to the prison grounds.
No
one knows for certain just who built the Sheppard Hotel or who
transported it from El Campo but it was moved to San
Quentin about 1872.
Mrs. Margaret Landers, granddaughter of Jack McRae, said her
mother's diary mentioned the name of Juan Bautista Cooper who acquire
the Rancho Punta de Quentin in 1840, that it was next owned by
Benjamin R. Buckelew, an another owner named Cook, but no date was
given when the hotel was re-constructed on the site or who was
actually responsible for it.
In
the early days, before 1880, when the prison was leased to private
interests, many of the supervisors lived at the village. One of them,
an early superintendent of the sash and window factory, lived at the
Shepherd Hotel.
The
hotel was the scene of many social functions, during the early days.
It hosted transients, workers, sightseers
and the many who stayed overnight waiting to greet a released inmate
back into the outside world.
Around
the turn of the century, the horse and buggy was the standard means
of transportation from Greenbrae after the trains stopped running to
San Quentin. During the early days of prohibition the hotel was
converted to four five room apartments. Later
the building was shingled
covering the original ship lap. See photo below.
The
weathered shingle structure, though still standing sturdily, was
badly in need of repair. In 1962 the property was sold to John F.
Varney, Jr. The hotel was demolished and several new structures were
built in it place.
Reference:
Independent Journal - Wed., April 11, 1962 - Page 18
Reference:
Independent Journal - March 18, 1950 - Pages M8-10
