In March 1927, the Town of Ross held a special election to approve the funding for a new town Civic Center

The Town hired John White, a prominent San Francisco architect, to draw up plans for the new Ross Civic Center. White was a well-known figure in Ross, having designed the Lagunitas Country Club and houses for several of the town’s influential residents.

Howard & White was based in San Francisco and specialized in designing mansions and estates in affluent enclaves in San Mateo and Marin Counties, including Atherton, Ross, Hillsborough, Burlingame, Mill Valley, Palo Alto, and Woodside. The firm’s best-known estates include the J.W. Bothin House in San Mateo, the Kohl Mansion in Burlingame (1914), and the W. I. Glascock House in Hillsborough (1924).

White chose to design the Civic Center in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Historically rooted in the domestic architecture of Spain and its New World colonies, the Spanish Colonial Revival style became the preeminent style in California between World War I and the Depression.

The new Ross Civic Center, which was built at the town’s main crossroads in 1927-28, symbolized the professionalization and growth of government during the 1920s-era building boom. Since its completion, the compact Ross Civic Center, which includes the Town Hall, the Firehouse (now the Public Safety Building), and the Corporation Yard, has served the Town of Ross with few changes. By 1930, Ross had largely been built out, and its minimal civic infrastructure has continued to serve the town’s needs until comparatively recently. The lack of growth in the town has meant that the two main buildings in the Civic Center have not been replaced or significantly modified.

The Ross Public Safety Building is listed in the CHRIS Historic Property Data File for Marin County. It is assigned a Status Code of 2S2, meaning that it is individually eligible for listing in the National Register as part of the Section 106 process conducted by JRP Historical Consulting when the Town of Ross replaced the Lagunitas Road Bridge in 2009. As a consequence of this finding, the Ross Public Safety Building is individually listed in the California Register, meaning that it is already considered to be a “historical resource” under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).