Shopping LOCAL in San Rafael: Fourth Street, the West End and the markets

Most of San Rafael's independent shopping lines up along one street. Fourth Street runs west from the Lincoln Avenue end of downtown, past Courthouse Square and the Art Works Downtown building, and on into the West End Village, and the Downtown San Rafael Business Improvement District counts the whole length of it, plus its side streets, as its patch. Walk it end to end and you pass a bookshop, a hatmaker, a record store, a jewelers' cooperative, a photography gallery and a textile-craft supplier that has been in business since 1969.

Add the farmers markets at the Civic Center and the monthly art walk, and you have a shopping week that never needs the freeway.

Downtown: books, galleries and the Art Works block

The heart of downtown shopping is the stretch of Fourth Street from B Street west toward F Street. Copperfield's Books, at Fourth and B, is part of a small independent group of bookshops in Marin, Sonoma and Napa counties, and its San Rafael store keeps a full calendar of author talks and children's events alongside new books, magazines and gifts.

A few blocks west, the 1300 block is the closest thing San Rafael has to an arts district under one roof. Art Works Downtown, a nonprofit founded in 1996, fills a building more than a century old with four galleries, a couple of dozen artist studios, a ceramics center, a frame shop and a restaurant. Admission to the galleries is free. Inside the same complex, the Marin Jewelers Guild is a cooperative of local metalsmiths who make necklaces, rings, earrings and brooches by hand in silver, gold, copper and bronze, and who take custom commissions directly with the artist.

Across the street, the Scott Nichols Gallery shows fine art photography, with a particular focus on the classic California photographers of the twentieth century alongside contemporary work, and hosts talks in its new Fourth Street space.

Further along, near F Street, Madge & Me Hats makes handmade hats for women and men: ready-to-wear styles, custom one-of-a-kind pieces and sizing for hats you already own.

The West End Village

At F Street, on the way into the West End Village and its few blocks of older storefronts, Dharma Trading Co. has sold textile craft supplies since 1969 and whose San Rafael store has served knitters, crocheters and weavers since 1975. Expect walls of yarn, fabric by the yard, silk scarves and clothing blanks ready for dyeing, and racks of tie-dye and silk-painting supplies, with dyed samples on display to show what they can do.

At the far end of the village, Buteo Books is a family-owned bookshop devoted to birds and the natural world: field guides, new and used titles, rare and collectible books, children's books and a book club, plus author talks and advice on where to go birding locally. It keeps short afternoon hours several days a week, so check before you set out.

Back toward the eastern end of Fourth Street, Red Devil Records is San Rafael's place for vinyl. It sells new and used records and buys collections, which keeps the bins turning over for regulars who stop in to dig.

Markets and shop walks to put on the calendar

San Rafael's recurring markets give the shops a steady rhythm.

• 2nd Friday Art Walk: on the second Friday of every month, Art Works Downtown and its neighbors open their galleries and studios in the early evening, free to the public.
• Marin Farmers Markets at the Civic Center: the Agricultural Institute of Marin runs a Sunday market and a Thursday market at the Marin County Civic Center, both in the morning, rain or shine. The Sunday market includes a handful of artisans among more than a hundred farmers and food makers.
• Shop Small Saturday: each holiday season the Downtown San Rafael Business Improvement District marks Shop Small Saturday, and its Holiday Window Walk leads past decorated storefronts through the season.
• The Elf Hunt: from November into January, the district hides elves inside downtown businesses for families to find, with prizes for the hunters.
• San Rafael Summer Market: from May to September, AIM and the city close Fourth Street between A Street and Lootens Place one Friday evening a month for produce, baked goods and handmade crafts; AIM posts each season's dates in the spring.

Why it matters here

What makes Fourth Street worth the walk is that the people behind the counter are often the makers. The jewelers sell what they solder, the hatmaker fits the hat, and the bookseller at Buteo can tell you where the hawks are this week. That only lasts if people keep coming through the door.

The downtown district has been adding reasons to come. In 2026 it finished five new public art installations funded by a California Arts Council grant and launched a self-guided historic walking tour with more than twenty stops, both of which turn a shopping errand into an afternoon.

If you want a simple way to start, pick a second Friday, park in one of the downtown garages, and walk Fourth Street from Copperfield's to the West End. You will be home with a book, a record or a pair of earrings, and you will have met the people who chose them.