May 2024 First Wednesday Talk: Sausalito ‘Houseboat Wars’ – What Really Happened? with John Byrne Barry

In 1942, the Bechtel Corporation opened Marinship in Sausalito, where workers built 93 cargo ships and oil tankers in three years. After the war, Bechtel abandoned the shipyard and boatbuilder Donlon Arques bought the large waterfront parcel and transported old boats onto the mudflats and rented them to G.I.s searching for housing after returning from the war. Over the next several decades, artists, carpenters, beatniks, bohemians, and hippies built floating homes on barges and rafts. Arques’ property became the epicenter of Sausalito’s development battles of the seventies — what became known as the “houseboat wars.” Join author John Byrne Barry to learn about this part of local history.