station 6: The roadhouse
Photos above taken in 1910 & 2017
look across the street at the huge vacant property
Now called the Baylands, the barren land across the street used to thrive with railyard activity from the Southern Pacific Railroad. It’s hard to think that hundreds of people worked servicing and repairing trains out there so you can just imagine the amount of toxic oils and chemicals in the soil and rumor has it that there may be railcars buried underground. That all started in the early 1900s and lasted until the 80s.
Now check out this picture of 7 Mile House in the 80s. Would you have bought a dive bar that looked like this? Notice cars were parked right up against the wall? There wasn’t even a sidewalk! See the steel bars that still “adorn” our windows today? Former owner, Camille Stuehler, built a fortress during her time because she had been mugged and beat up inside 7 Mile House a few times. Lucky for us we’ve never had to experience that thanks to Camille, a better neighborhood and the constant patrolling of the Brisbane Police!
Look up. See the sign above the main door with the martini glass? That used to be displayed on top of our building. We placed it there to preserve the past.
Not sure if you’ve noticed but we at 7 Mile don’t like to change things much. We love our old restaurant including its imperfections so I hope you don’t fault us for not upgrading certain things. For example, the bathroom, the wood walls are all original. Each hole, scratch and extra nail that pokes out has a story behind it. That’s how we see it and I hope you appreciate it as much as we do.
Now time to head towards our new patio, called Karrine’s Happy Place
Tour Map
