Our Story

John W. “Bill” Brown was born in Chicago in 1863. He, his mother and his sister came to Marin in 1894 and established a camping resort at Willow Camp (Stinson Beach). In 1904 he built a house in unincorporated Homestead Valley on the corner of Ethel Ave. and Richardson St. (now Montford Ave.).  In 1906, Bill Brown opened a saloon in Homestead Valley, on the corner of Richardson and Miller Ave., across the street from the Mill Valley town limits. He named it, “The Brown Jug”. With the advent of Prohibition, in the 1920s the saloon became a grain and feed store. In 1933, when Prohibition was repealed, a local contractor, Joe Hornsby, bought the building and reopened The Brown Jug. In 1939, saloons in the city of Mill Valley were required to close at 10 pm. As a result, many transferred their evening imbibing to The Brown Jug in Homestead Valley. It remained open until 2 AM.  Customers began to refer to it as the 2am Club. In 1939, Pete and Nick Stanich, new owners of The Brown Jug, changed its name to the 2am Club. In 1940, Louis Greyerbiehl and his sons Bill and Breslin purchased the 2am Club.  The 1942 telephone directory lists both The Brown Jug and the 2 AM Club with the same phone number.  In 1951, the city of Mill Valley annexed the commercial strip along Miller Ave. that included the 2 AM Club. But by then, Mill Valley had repealed the 10 pm rule. Bill Greyerbiehl sold the 2 AM Club in 1979. It’s changed hands a couple more times, but has still keep that old time bar feel. The 2am Club is a major landmark. Mill Valley area residents often give directions for getting to a certain address by using the 2am Club as the starting point.