Point San Pablo / Terminal 4

Point San Pablo is a regional landmark. With Point San Pedro in Marin County, Point San Pablo defines the San Pablo Straits separating San Francisco and San Pablo Bays.  While exploring from Mission Dolores in 1811, Father Abella wrote in his diary “gave to Point.Huchones the name Point San Pablo and to the opposite point (Abastos) that of San Pedro”. Thus, the name of the local Huchunes Indians was erased from modern maps in the process of honoring Saint Paul and Saint Peter.

The flame of the City of Richmond's Terminal 4 burned brightly at Point San Pablo early in the 20th century but has since flickered and burned out. The whaling station -- the last operating in the United States -- shut down in 1971 followed by closure of Pacific Molasses operations and Paktank's vegetable oil and petrochemical product business. No longer viable economically as a marine terminal, most of the old tanks shown in these photographs have been dismantled. Terminal 4 now lies derelict with piers rotting into the Bay. Recognizing this blighted situation, the City Council adopted a resolution making this a Redevelopment Area in 2005.

The San Francisco Bay Plan of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) calls for recreational uses at Point San Pablo Terminal 4 when no longer needed as a marine terminal. The Metropolitan Transportation Commission and BCDC officially recognized that Terminal 4 no longer was needed as a marine terminal by removing it from Port Priority Use in their Seaport Plan. The $210,000 Point San Pablo Peninsula Open Space Study ( link to land use page map ) completed in 2005 by the City of Richmond, California State Coastal Conservancy, Chevron, East Bay Regional Park District, Muir Heritage Land Trust and Trails for Richmond Action Committee recommends that Terminal 4 should be developed for recreational use as the key to success of an open space plan for the Peninsula.

The question now is whether Point San Pablo will be quarried away as has been done to Point San Pedro, sold off to the highest bidder for a private development project or become a signature regional park such as those operated by East Bay Regional Park District at Point Isabel, Ferry Point and Point Pinole in Richmond as called for in the San Francisco Bay Plan and the San Pablo Peninsula Open Space Study.

The Point San Pablo Preservation Society has been formed to preserve Point San Pablo as public open space and enhance shoreline access at the nearby yacht harbor.

Photos of Terminal 4 by Ellen Gailing