THE BEGINNINGS OF THE CITY

On December 21, 1896, 57 people voted to incorporate Belvedere as a city. Thirty-three people voted for it, 27 voted against it, and three votes were invalidated. Before that there was the Belvedere Land Company, so by the incorporation there were homes and building sites, a water system, roads and other amenities already in place thanks to the developers.

Until the city manager form of government was adopted in 1954, the style of governing was by commission, each of the five council members taking a specific responsibility and, like the mayor, serving for two years until the following election. There were commissions of the basic public services: sewers, road, fire protection, police. Residents called the particular commissioner at his house if there was a problem or complaint.

Belvedere City Hall, twice enlarged, was once the local Presbyterian Church. The building was rolled down the hill from its original site at Bayview Avenue and Laurel Avenue in 1949. Many of its beautiful features have been preserved at its present site on San Rafael Avenue.

In the early days when Belvedere matrons living or summering on Belvedere Island eschewed the rough and tumble of their neighboring railroad community's Main Street in Tiburon, there was no need to trade there. Belvedere had Beach Road and if housewives did not order groceries from San Francisco or buy from the Asian fruit and vegetable man, here were the post office, grocery store, telephone exchange, beauty shop, laundry, boatyard, plumber's shop, coal, wood and ice yard, the blacksmith's shop, and later a gas station and even a jail. The main commercial building which also had living units was the Belvedere Land Company, at 83 Beach Road, designed by architect Albert Farr who also designed the Farr Cottages across the street at 80-88 Beach Road. All these buildings exist today almost as they were then.