The beautiful, Queen-Anne home at 1408 Mission St. in San Rafael, now the Falkirk Cultural Center, was once home to shipping and timber magnate, Robert Dollar. “Captain” Dollar purchased the 11-acre estate from Ella Park in 1906 and named it after his hometown of Falkirk, Scotland. According to the Center’s website, Ms. Park, the young widow of attorney Trenor Park, built the home in 1888 after purchasing the land from railroad entrepreneur James Walker. To design the home, she hired architect Clinton Day, who also designed San Francisco's City of Paris building, the Union Trust building, and Gump’s department store.
Robert Dollar’s ‘American Dream’, success story began in the lowlands of Scotland as an errand-boy for a lumber company when only 10 years old. He emigrated to Canada with his family at the age of 13 and held many jobs in the timber trade including “riding” the logs downriver for delivery to the mill. He worked in lumber camps in both Canada and Michigan, eventually purchasing his own timberland in Canada, Michigan, Northern California, and Oregon. He and his wife Margaret moved to San Rafael in 1888. In 1893 he purchased a steam schooner, The Newsboy, to transport his lumber along the Pacific Coast establishing the Dollar Steamship Company. Within a few years his fleet of steam-powered ships had grown to over 50 and he owned four shipping companies and numerous timber
firms. In 1902, after traveling to Asia, Dollar began operating a trans-Pacific trade with Japan, China and Singapore, including chartered passenger voyages to Japan and the Philippines. By the first World War, Robert Dollar was one of the richest men in America and his shipping fleet was plying trade around the world and opening up new markets across the Pacific Ocean.
The Dollars were also philanthropists here in Marin County. They donated land and funds to build the original Sunny Hills Orphanage in San Anselmo, endowed a Chair at the San Francisco Theological Seminary, and donated 31 acres to the City of San Rafael for Boyd Park and the access road to the summit of San Rafael Hill that bears his name. Mr. Dollar did not forget his birthplace either, donating funds for a public park and community center, a library, and a monument commemorating the 1298 battle of Falkirk in the First War of Scottish Independence.
A few years before his death in 1932, Robert responded to a reporter’s question about retiring with, “I was eighty years old when I thought out the practicability of starting a passenger steamship line of eight steamers to run around the world in one direction ... I hope to continue working to my last day on earth and wake up the next morning in the other world.” After his death, two of his sons took over management of the company, but the Great Depression had taken its toll and all of the shipping interests were sold to pay off the company’s debt. Falkirk Mansion passed from the Dollar family and by the early 1970s was nearly razed to build a large condominium and apartment complex. However, the stately home survived due to the hard work and dedication of Mary Dekker of Marin Heritage. She and her organization successfully petitioned San Rafael Mayor Larry Mulryan and the City Council to help preserve the historic site. Falkirk now serves as a Community Center for art exhibits, Master Gardener classes, and as celebration and wedding rental facility where, among many others, the author of this article wed his lovely wife in 1981.
(Originally appeared as History Watch article in the Marin Independent Journal)