In 1866, Fair Oaks (Atherton) was a flag stop on the California Coast Line of the Southern Pacific Railroad between San Francisco and San Jose for the convenience of the owners of the large estates who lived north of Menlo Park. The entire area was called Menlo Park. It had been part of the Rancho...
Belmont is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is in the San Francisco Bay Area, located half-way down the San Francisco Peninsula between San Mateo and San Carlos. It was originally part of the Rancho de las Pulgas, for which one of its main roads, the Alameda de las Pulgas,...
he first inhabitants were the Costanoan Indians. They built dome-shaped dwellings of boughs and tules. By 1776, Spanish explorers had arrived and the Franciscan missionaries soon followed leaving numerous large land grants in their wake. With Mexican rule, the lands controlled by the Mission were...
Burlingame is on the Mexican land grant Rancho San Mateo given by Governor Pio Pico to his secretary, Cayetano Arena in 1845. Cayetano soon sold the land to San Francisco based merchant William Davis Merry Howard. Howard retired to live on the rancho for the remaining eight years of his life. Howard...
The community of Colma was formed in the 1800s as a collection of homes and small businesses along El Camino Real and the adjacent railroad line. Several churches, including Holy Angels Catholic Church, were founded in these early years. The community founded its own fire district, which serves the...
Archaeological evidence suggests the San Francisco Bay Area has been inhabited as early as 3000 BC.[12] People of the Ohlone language group occupied Northern California from at least the 6th century.[13][verification needed] Though their territory had been claimed by Spain since the early 16th...
The Ohlone tribe of Native Americans inhabited this area at least by 1500 to 1000 BC. One tumulus was discovered in 1951 during development of the University Village subdivision near today's Costaño School. After a year-long excavation of 60 graves and 3000 artifacts, researchers concluded Native...
El Granada's unusual concentric-circular street layout was designed by the influential architect and city planner Daniel Burnham. Burnham's other works included overseeing the design for the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago and designing the 1902 Flatiron Building in New York City. Burnham's...
Foster City is an affluent planned city located in San Mateo County, California, 94404. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 28,803. Forbes ranked Foster City #10 on their 2009 list of America's Top 25 Towns to Live Well. Money (magazine) has also recognized Foster City...
Half Moon Bay began as a rural agriculture area, primarily used for grazing of cattle, horses, and oxen used by Mission San Francisco de Asis (established in June 1776). Following the secularization of the Mission, Tiburcio Vásquez received the Rancho Corral de Tierra Mexican land grant in 1839 and...
Hillsborough is located on the Rancho San Mateo Mexican land grant which was purchased by William Davis Merry Howard, son of a wealthy Hillsboro, New Hampshire shipping magnate, in 1846. Howard settled his family in this area, which attracted wealthy San Franciscans. Hillsborough is near Burlingame....
Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (pages of which were written all over the restroom wall of his La Honda residence) and other books, owned a home in La Honda, which served as the base of operations for The Merry Pranksters where they used LSD and other drugs.[1]
Loma Mar is a small unincorporated community in San Mateo County, California. It is near San Mateo County Memorial Park on Pescadero Road and is in area code 650. The United States Postal Service has assigned it ZIP Code 94021. As of the census[1] of 2000, there are an estimated 170 residents in...
n the nineteenth century two Irish immigrants, Dennis J. Oliver and his brother-in-law D. C. McGlynn, purchased a 1,700-acre (6.9 km2) tract of land on the former Rancho de las Pulgas.[1] In the 1850s they erected a gate with a wooden arch bearing the inscription "Menlo Park" at the entrance to...
Darius Ogden Mills purchased land in the 1860s from the Sanchez family to build a country estate. The former Mills estate was bordered by what is now Skyline Boulevard, Bayshore Highway U.S. Route 101, Millbrae Avenue and Trousdale Drive. The estate became known as "Millbrae" from "Mills" and the...
A lighthouse was established at Point Montara in 1875. The Montara area was first settled by farmers in the late nineteenth century. A commercial flower farm, still in operation, was established in 1900. In 1905, Montara became a stop on the new Ocean Shore Railroad, then under construction. The...
Moss Beach is a coastal census-designated place in San Mateo County, California, with a year 2000 census population of 1953. Located in Moss Beach are the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, a marine sanctuary; the Half Moon Bay Airport, the historic Moss Beach Distillery and the Seal Cove Inn, a destination...
Prehistorically, Pacifica was home to two significant Ohlone Indian villages including Pruristac located at San Pedro Creek near present day Adobe Drive and Timigtac on Calera Creek in the Rockaway Beach neighborhood.
Pacifica is the location of the oldest European discovery of the San Francisco...
Pescadero is located on the Rancho Pescadero Mexican land grant; former Mission Santa Cruz pasture given to Juan José Gonzalez in 1833. Alexander Moore (1823?1902), an American pioneer, built his home in Pescadero Valley in 1853. The rich, fertile soil of the valley had attracted other...
Portola is a city in Plumas County, California, United States. The population was 2,227 at the 2000 census. Portola is located on the Middle Fork of the Feather River, and was named for Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola (though he never explored this area of the state).
Redwood City is a suburb located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Redwood City is the county seat of San Mateo County. It was originally part of the Rancho de las Pulgas. As of the 2006 census, the city had a total population of 79,000. The Port of Redwood...
Redwood City is a suburb located on the San Francisco Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. Redwood City is the county seat of San Mateo County. It was originally part of the Rancho de las Pulgas. As of the 2006 census, the city had a total population of 79,000. The Port of Redwood...
San Bruno was the location of the Ohlone village Urebure. It was explored in November 1769 by a Spanish expedition led by Gaspar de Portola. Later, more extensive explorations by Bruno Hecate resulted in the naming of San Bruno Creek after St. Bruno of Cologne, the founder of a medieval monastic...
Prior to the Spanish arrival in 1769, the land of San Carlos was occupied by a group of Native Americans who called themselves the Lamchins. While they considered themselves to have a separate identity from other local tribes, modern scholars consider them to be a part of the Ohlone or Costanoan...
Named after Pope Gregory I (Saint Gregory the Great)[citation needed], San Gregorio was a booming town in the 1850s, when wealthy San Franciscans would travel to the San Gregorio House by stagecoach to enjoy fishing, hunting, sea bathing, and boat races. The building still stands, but is no longer...
Originally part of the Rancho de las Pulgas (literally "Ranch of the Fleas") and the Rancho San Mateo, the earliest recorded history is in the archives of Mission Dolores. It indicates in 1789 the Missionaries had named a Native American village along Laurel Creek Los Laureles or the Laurels...
The City of South San Francisco occupies the basin and portions of the sides of a broad valley formed by the San Bruno Mountains on the north and the Coast Range on the west. Most of the valley faces adjacent San Francisco Bay, affording sweeping vistas, from higher levels and a definite sense of...
The Woodside area was originally home to natives belonging to the Ohlone tribe. In 1769, led by Gaspar de Portolà, Spanish explorers searching for San Francisco Bay camped at a site near Woodside.
Woodside is located on the Rancho Cañada de Raymundo Mexican Land grant. Woodside is said to be the...