E.K. Wood Lumber Yard, 1910
E.K. Wood Lumber Yard, 1910
View from Post Office parking lot, 2011
The E. K. Wood Lumber Yard opened in 1905 on San Anselmo Avenue between Belle and Mariposa Avenues. It was the largest and most complete lumber yard in the area, with a wood shop and planing mill that turned out moldings, doors, shingles and shakes. It was one of the most important local businesses during the post-1906 earthquake building boom in the Ross Valley. Thirty men were employed, and six teams of horses hauled lumber, cement, and pipe from the freight yard at the Hub to the mill. Later, a railroad spur track ran directly into the yard.
The yard was part of the vast holdings of the E.K. Wood Lumber Company which had a fleet of vessels hauling lumber up and down the coast, docks in Oakland and San Pedro, and other yards and mills in Los Angeles, Oakland, San Rafael, Fresno, San Francisco, and Bellingham, Washington. The company’s president was Edwin Kleber Wood, the original owner of the Robson-Harrington House.
On the night of July 8, 1918, a fire broke out at the lumber yard. It was a big blaze that lit up the sky like a great forest fire. By the time that it was brought under control, the Fairfax, Ross and San Rafael fire departments had joined the San Anselmo firefighters and a large amount of lumber and parts of the yard were destroyed at a loss of $10,000.
The E.K. Wood Lumber Company eventually sold the lumber yard, and it then continued for a number of years as the San Anselmo Lumber Company with Charles Wright and Hother Glahn as the proprietors.
Safeway built a new building on the lumber yard site in 1951 and remained there until relocating to Red Hill Shopping Center. The San Anselmo Post Office moved into the Safeway building in 1969 where it remains today.
In the first circa 1910 photograph, the view is from the lumber yard (where the post office is today) to the east toward the railroad tracks, San Anselmo Avenue, and the County Road (Sir Francis Drake). The two-story house on the left, with its distinctive jerkinhead roof, was constructed around 1891 and was the home of Sarah W. I. Taylor, widow of Samuel P. Taylor, and her son George from 1895 to 1907.
The house was moved in 1913 to 50 Mariposa Avenue to accommodate the railroad spur track which entered the lumber yard. It served as a residence for the McLaren family and then as a convent for the Sisters of Loretto and Sisters of the Holy Names who taught at St. Anselm School. Converted back to a private residence, the house still stands.
The second 1910 photograph shows the other end of the lumber yard with its lofty water tower and Mt.Tamalpais in the background. Teamster Filbert Bacigalupi stands on the wagon and yard foreman, Charles Cartwright, stands beside.