An historic landmark in California


"…one toilet stands out from the rest…because it’s the only thing there."
Supplyhouse Blog


Travel along California Highway 37 from Vallejo toward Sears Point and the Sonoma Raceway. As you're hitting the high spot of the Richard "Fresh Air" Janson Bridge, look to your right. In the middle of the marshes is a singular sight. A few yards from the creek is a lone outhouse. This is the Lone Toilet.

I have driven past it a hundred times and wondered whence it came, and finally my curiosity got the better of me. I'd long thought it was put there by fisherpeople, or by a resident of one of the nearby houses as a joke. It turns out that there was once a small community there, named Tubbs Island. Probably the best-known resident was an artist named Dick Janson. He lived in an ark, basically a raft on the marshland. There was even a hotel there.

The outhouse itself was built by the grandfather of another local, Wally Lordeaux, who relates that many of the neighbours would use it. It is allegedly a double-banger, so two people could sit in comfort (maybe) and converse. The town is now sunk, but the lavvy remains, testament to the eccentrics who once lived in the vicinity. Over the years it has had many visitors, one of whom "installed" a porcelain pedestal, visible in the open doorway, possibly the most public of all public conveniences.

It really should be the county seat of Sonoma.




YouTube mini-documentary
ABC News
Google Maps
Open Street Map


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