VIGNETTE > Housing for Marinship

Alto Trailer Park

On March 12, 1942, three months after Pearl Harbor, the Bechtel Company signed a U.S. Maritime Commission contract to build and operate a shipyard in Sausalito. Three months later, the first keel was laid at Marinship. At its peak of production, the workforce consisted of 20,000 men and women. Most of them lived in San Francisco, many in the Fillmore district, from which Japanese families had been relocated. Others lived in Marin and Sonoma County. Planning for a new city near Marinship initially centered on Strawberry Point, which would’ve been accessed by a footbridge across Richardson Bay. But an alternate site was approved. On June 9, 1942, work began on a new city in “lovely Waldo Valley,” which came to be called “Marin City.” By the end of 1943, Marin City’s population was nearly 6,000—about 1,000 in dormitories. Mill Valley also provided housing. In April 1942, a Mill Valley Record editorial urged residents to “rent a room to a Marinship worker.” Three large homes on Throckmorton became Marinship residences. Contractors built houses in Alto and in the El Cerrito tract on East Blithedale. Also in Alto, an 8.1-acre Federal Trailer Park for 75 trailers was established. Ship orders ceased when the war ended in August 1945. The last of 93 vessels (15 Liberty ships and 78 T-2 tankers) was delivered on October 22, 1945—only 600 workers were left. On May 16, 1946, Marinship was history.