You’ve probably driven on Shoreline Highway in Tam Junction past this landmark and asked, “What’s its story?” There’s a neon sign still standing that all but screams, “FIRESIDE MOTEL.”
Here’s the story. It started hundreds of years ago as a coastal Miwok fishing spot and burial ground. Then, in the late 1880s, the North Pacific Coast Railroad built a station nearby and, for unknown reasons, named it Manzanita. The railroad had not only a line, but a station in that area. And until 1931, when the first Richardson Bay Bridge was completed, Shoreline Highway was the only way to reach Sausalito and catch the ferry into San Francisco.
Some dispute the date, but many agree that in 1916, shortly after Shoreline Highway was first paved, a cigar dealer named Thomas Moore acquired the key Tam Junction property, built a distinctive two-story, two-arch edifice and, hoping to capitalize on the nearby train station, named his structure Manzanita Villa. Many say it was a tavern and dance hall and, in fact by 1923 with Prohibition in full swing, Moore made his intentions ever so clear by changing the name to Manzanita Roadhouse.
It soon became known as a “blind pig;” Prohibition era code for a speakeasy. Moore’s Manzanita Roadhouse lasted until 1936, when for unknown reasons he closed it. In 1941 it reopened as Emil Plasberg’s Top Rail Tavern and it remained open through World War II when Paul and Ora Smith bought the place. The new owners surrounded it with 26 motel units and, in a nod to the massive stone fireplace in the original main building, named it Fireside Motel. As noted in the above postcard, it was a “Class A motel.”
Though Janis Joplin, Clint Eastwood and the stripper Carol Doda were reportedly among its many patrons, the entire enterprise ceased to exist in 1997. The buildings sat vacant until the late-aughts, when the motel units were demolished. However, the familiar two-arched structure still stands. Today it is the social center and administrative office for the 50 units of low-income and senior housing that have been built and occupied and now surround it.
This article originally appeared in Marin Magazine’s print edition with the headline: Looking Back: Fireside Chats.
