The arrival of the railroad helped San Anselmo grow in the 1870s. With the railroad’s completion, San Franciscans came for warmer days and a break from the summer fog. The San Francisco Theological Seminary followed in 1892, and families displaced by the 1906 earthquake and fire soon made homes here. The town incorporated in 1907. A year later, the building that would become the inn was constructed—beginning its own chapter in San Anselmo’s story.