The two buildings at 605–613 Bridgeway look like simple storefronts. They are also some of the last physical traces of how Sausalito's downtown came to be — and of the Asian-American families who helped build it.
One was home to the Marin Fruit Co., run by Yee Tock Chee — “Willie Yee.” During the Depression, the historic evaluation records, Yee carried his neighbors: he “supported both individuals and neighboring businesses,” and kept providing that support for decades. When he died in 1975, the City Council voted within three days to rename Princess Park in his honor. It is Yee Tock Chee Park to this day.
Next door, the Hong Lee Laundry served the community for more than a hundred years, run by the Lee family, moving to 607 Bridgeway after its first home was lost.
That history is why SOS commissioned a Historic Resources Evaluation from preservation consultant Connor Turnbull. It found the property “individually significant” under state law and a contributor to the Downtown Historic District — on the National Register since 1980.
Sausalito has rallied for this block before: in the early 1960s, when the parcel was first eyed for development, hundreds of residents packed council meetings to save the Yee family and the Marin Fruit Co. The project now proposed would gut these buildings to their façades — erasing the very thing that makes the block matter.
Read the full Historic Resources Evaluation — part of the complete record on the 605 Bridgeway campaign page.