Old St. Hilary’s in Tiburon: Redwood Craft and a Protected Grassland Setting

By Matthew Martinez, Founder, CEO & Managing Broker, Diamond Real Estate Group. California DRE #01869679.

Some landmarks are inseparable from the ground around them. Old St. Hilary’s in Tiburon is one: a small wooden chapel whose architectural identity is strengthened by its open hillside setting.

The place brings together two kinds of preservation. The building carries a history of construction, worship and community use. The adjoining landscape supports rare plants and connects with a larger open-space system. Understanding both gives a fuller picture than the familiar white exterior alone.

The chapel’s architecture is made from recognizable materials

The Belvedere-Tiburon Landmarks Society identifies the 1888 building as Carpenter Gothic, with redwood construction and doors, and a Douglas fir ceiling. Its account connects the original church with local railroad workers.

The materials give substance to the stylistic name. Gothic forms were expressed through timber construction at the scale of a small local chapel, rather than through the masonry of a monumental cathedral.

Looking at the material and form together makes the building easier to understand as a work of local craftsmanship.

The interior contains several layers of care

The Society describes a restored stained-glass window above the door, amber glass elsewhere and electric replicas of earlier coal-oil lighting. It also identifies original altar furnishings and later donated objects.

Those distinctions help explain the interior as an accumulated history. Some elements survive from the earlier church, some replace lost features and others reflect later community contributions.

A historic room can retain its identity through that combination. Understanding which features belong to which period makes the experience more precise without diminishing the whole.

Saving the building required a local organization

The Town of Tiburon’s heritage page identifies Old St. Hilary’s among the peninsula’s recognized historic sites under the Landmarks Society’s care. It describes cooperation between the Town’s Heritage and Arts Commission and the Society.

The Society’s 2019 historical newsletter recounts the effort to preserve the chapel after a larger church opened. It describes the old building’s varied community uses and the subsequent protection of adjoining land.

The story reveals why the chapel’s survival cannot be attributed to construction alone. People organized to retain it and to maintain a setting in which its scale and form would continue to make sense.

The surrounding preserve is a living resource

Marin County Parks currently describes a 232-acre preserve, including Tiburon Ridge acreage acquired in 2024. Its account identifies serpentine grassland, seasonal wildflowers and volunteer work removing invasive plants.

This landscape adds ecological specificity to the view. The open hillside is habitat with particular soil conditions and plant communities, rather than empty space surrounding a building.

The preserve’s expansion also shows that the setting has its own conservation history, continuing long after the chapel’s original construction.

The building and the preserve therefore have related but distinct caretakers and histories. Recognizing that distinction helps explain how both cultural and natural resources remain present in one setting.

Rare plants require looking with care

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Tiburon jewelflower profile describes an annual mustard-family plant with dark purple flowers associated with shallow serpentine soils. The plant is protected under both state and federal endangered-species laws.

County guidance asks visitors to remain on roads and trails and leave wildflowers undisturbed. Appreciating the landscape depends on protecting the conditions that make it distinctive.

For someone learning Tiburon, Old St. Hilary’s demonstrates how architecture and landscape can reinforce one another. The chapel’s timber craft, the work of local preservation and the living grassland together form a landmark with more depth than its silhouette suggests.

Explore real estate and home for sale in Tiburon, or contact Diamond to discuss a location that fits your plans.

Sources checked October 28, 2026. Historical details are attributed to the linked primary records and site operators. Check the operator for current visiting arrangements.