Artist Squatters Built This Floating Village in the 1950s — Houseboats Now Sell for Over $2 Million

Sausalito, California

Picture a Mediterranean fishing village dropped onto the San Francisco Bay. That’s Sausalito: where old-school boat builders work next to art galleries, tech millionaires live in hillside houses, and floating homes bob in the harbor. But before it became a luxury town, it was a humble refuge with a colorful history.

Artists turned abandoned boats into homes after WWII

When the Marinship Corporation closed in 1945, the shipyard that built 93 vessels during the war became a blank canvas. Artists and workers turned abandoned boats into makeshift homes, creating what local historian Jeff Costello called “the closest thing to a functioning utopian anarchy.”

By 1950, over 50 converted vessels dotted Richardson Bay. The community had a jazz club on the Charles Van Damme ferry, an art gallery on the ferry Vallejo, and homes made from lifeboats, barges, and even four horse-drawn streetcars nailed to a raft.

Houseboat residents fought against developers for ten years

During the 1970s, developers and police battled houseboat residents in fights known as “The Houseboat Wars.” On July 15, 1977, police with chainsaws tried to tear down the Galilee schooner while people were still inside.

At another raid, officers maced Catherine Lyons-Labate while her husband Bill defended their home with a knife until firefighters blasted him with high-pressure hoses. The fights lasted until 1983 when the Gates Co-op was formed, saving 38 original houseboats as a living museum of the community’s rebel roots.

Otis Redding wrote his famous song while staying on a houseboat

Soul singer Otis Redding wrote “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” in 1967 while staying on Bill Graham’s houseboat at Waldo Point Harbor. The song hit #1 on the Billboard charts in March 1968, becoming the first posthumous single to top the US charts after Redding died in a plane crash.

The exact dock where Redding found inspiration is now part of Bridgeway Promenade near Gate 6 Road. In 2019, Sausalito put up a plaque marking this historic spot.

Famous writers and thinkers hung out on a converted ferry

The SS Vallejo, a converted ferry anchored in Richardson Bay from 1949-1969, became a famous creative hub.

Artist Jean Varda and philosopher Alan Watts hosted parties attended by writers Allen Ginsberg, Henry Miller, and Anaïs Nin. Maya Angelou performed there as a singer before becoming a famous writer.

Timothy Leary did some of his earliest LSD experiments on the boat. The ferry’s impact on culture was celebrated in the “Ship of Dreams” exhibition at the Sonoma Valley Museum in 2018, showing over 200 artifacts, photos, and artworks from the Vallejo’s glory days.

The author of “The Giving Tree” lived on a houseboat here

Children’s author Shel Silverstein lived in a quirky houseboat named “Evil Eye” during the 1970s and 80s.

While living there, he wrote his famous books “The Missing Piece” (1976) and “A Light in the Attic” (1981). His friend Larry Moyer got the boat after Silverstein died in 1999. The 1,200-square-foot vessel has unique porthole windows and a wooden desk where Silverstein wrote many of his famous stories.

Evil Eye remains one of the most photographed houseboats and sits at Issaquah Dock next to another famous boat called “The Owl.”

A teenager gave birth on a historic ferryboat

In 1974, teenage hitchhiker Catherine Lyons-Labate arrived in Sausalito without any money and was taken in by houseboat residents.

She later had her first baby aboard the Issaquah, a 130-foot ferry built in 1925 that had been turned into multiple floating homes. The Issaquah ferry, which once carried people between Seattle and Vashon Island, was brought to Sausalito in 1972.

Lyons-Labate became an important person in the floating home community, helping with talks during the Houseboat Wars and eventually buying her own boat called “Shanti Ghar” on Liberty Dock in 1988.

City streets run under the water beneath houseboats

When Sausalito was first mapped in 1868, city planners drew streets like Pescadero, Eureka, and Teutonia expecting the shoreline to expand with landfill.

These streets still legally exist but are physically underwater in Richardson Bay. In 2017, the California State Lands Commission ruled that 43 floating homes sitting above these submerged streets were technically on public property.

After a three-year legal battle, the commission agreed to move the theoretical streets instead of the homes, which would have cost residents over $5 million in total.

Floating shacks now sell for millions of dollars

What started as rent-free squatter shacks now includes luxury floating mansions worth over $2 million.

As of April 2025, the median listing price for Sausalito floating homes is $1.85 million, with an average cost of $1,253 per square foot. The most expensive sale in 2024 was a 3-bedroom, 2,200-square-foot architectural showcase on Liberty Dock that sold for $3.4 million.

Even the smallest floating studios now start at $600,000. The community has changed from its rebel roots to become one of America’s most unique luxury housing markets, with waiting lists for prime dock spots.

Homeowners painted their houses in bright, wild colors

The floating homes show off a riot of artistic expression that reflects their bohemian heritage. “Alien Lifeform Research” has orange paint with hot-pink trim, while the “Psychedelic Snail” features swirling rainbow murals across its exterior.

The 36-foot-tall “Owl” houseboat on Issaquah Dock has a three-story owl face with windows as eyes. Artist Victoria Colella created a cobalt-blue cottage with hand-painted stars and moons covering 85% of its surface.

Many homes use salvaged materials, including a house built from parts of four different railroad cars with 17 stained glass windows from torn-down churches.

The community attracted famous artists

Sausalito’s artistic legacy goes beyond the houseboats. Phil Frank, who created the popular comic strip “Farley,” lived on the waterfront from 1972-2007 and documented the community’s stories.

The Antenna Theater, started by Chris Hardman in 1980, pioneered “walkmanology” shows where audience members experienced performances via headphones while moving through spaces.

The Sausalito Center for the Arts, opened in 2021 at 750 Bridgeway, now hosts exhibits by over 100 Bay Area artists. Their first exhibition in 2022 raised $27,000 for Ukrainian relief efforts.

A newspaper tycoon almost built a mansion on today’s waterfront path

The popular waterfront path known today as Bridgeway Promenade was originally called “Water Street” until 1937.

The area where the Sea Lion statue stands was once called “Hearst Point” because newspaper owner William Randolph Hearst planned to build a 30-room mansion there in 1917. City officials rejected his building permits because neighbors complained about his “sensationalist journalism.”

Hearst gave up on Sausalito and instead built Hearst Castle in San Simeon. The promenade got renamed Bridgeway after the Golden Gate Bridge opened, and the concrete path you walk on today was built in 1969.

You can paddle right up to the floating homes in a kayak

Richardson Bay’s calm waters are perfect for water activities. Sea Trek Kayak & SUP Center, open since 1982 at 2100 Marinship Way, rents equipment with discounts on weekdays.

Their 2025 summer kayak camps for kids ages 9-14 run weekly from June through August. You can paddle right up to the floating homes, see harbor seals that hang out on the docks, and get up-close views of Angel Island. Cavallo Point Lodge offers guided kayak tours past the houseboats that include all the equipment and instruction you need.

Residents created a festival for fish that kept them awake at night

Local residents once organized the “Humming Toadfish Festival” because of loud underwater mating calls that kept houseboat dwellers awake.

The midshipman fish, nicknamed “humming toadfish,” makes a drone so loud it vibrates steel-hulled boats. The sound, which ranges from 100-400 Hz, was worst during summer mating seasons from 1981-1989.

The yearly festival had a marching kazoo band, toadfish-flavored ice cream from Lappert’s, and marine biologist Dr. John McCosker as Grand Marshal. Though it ended in 1990 when the fish moved away, the Sausalito Historical Society plans to bring back the event on April 30, 2025.

Visiting Sausalito’s floating homes

To see Sausalito’s famous floating homes:

• Head to Waldo Point Harbor on Gate 5 Road, north of downtown

• Visit Liberty Dock and Issaquah Dock for most photogenic views

• Respect privacy and avoid walking on docks marked “private”

You can join the annual Floating Homes Tour (September 2025) for interior access. For the best San Francisco views, walk along Bridgeway Promenade from Richardson to Princess Street. The Visitor Center at 780 Bridgeway offers maps and self-guided tour information.