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The City of Burlingame is an American suburban city of approximately 28,000 people in San Mateo County, California. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after Anson Burlingame who was an attorney and a diplomat. Burlingame was settled by wealthy San Franciscans looking for a better climate.
It is known for its high residential quality of life and is often referred to as the City of Trees. Industrial growth was spurred in the 1960s and 1970s by proximity to the San Francisco International Airport. The City of Burlingame has many beautiful hotels along the San Francisco Bayfront and is a significant vacation spot for people wishing to visit the San Francisco Bay Area.
Before there was ever a person named “Anson Burlingame,” the area that would later take his name was inhabited by Native Americans. Their shell mounds (or refuse heaps) were four to six feet high and were located along Mills, Easton, Sanchez and Burlingame Creeks.
In the late Eighteenth Century, Spaniards began to build Catholic missions in California. In 1821, Mexico (which at that time included California) gained independence from Spain. The Mexican government seized the Catholic missions and granted the church’s land to private owners. In 1835 Jose Antonio Sanchez received title to the land known as Rancho Buri Buri. The property stretched from San Bruno Mountain in the north to Sanchez Creek (near Sanchez Avenue) in the south. The Sanchez home stood just East of El Camino Real on the current Burlingame-Millbrae border. The land that extended south of Sanchez Creek into what is now the northern part of the City of San Mateo was Rancho San Mateo.
The rancho system of land ownership met its demise when American pioneers arrived and began to take control over land in the West. After the Mexican-American War and California statehood, court cases were filed to clear title to the land. The lengthy and expensive lawsuits frequently left the land-rich, but money-poor, Californio ranchers with little money and they lost their land to foreclosure. Rancho Buri Buri, for example, was eventually divided among numerous owners and the Sanchez heirs were left with almost nothing. On the other end of town, the Gold Rush merchant, William Davis Merry Howard and family, won their title dispute and retained their Rancho San Mateo land.
By the mid-1860s a railroad line down the Peninsula was built and many of the wealthy built mansions along the Peninsula as well. They began only as "summer homes" but many became permanent residences.
Land was being sold to the wealthy at a rapid pace. In 1866, Anson Burlingame, the U. S. Minister to China, stopped in the Bay Area on his way to China. He was wined and dined by banker William C. Ralston and by the time he left he was the owner of 1043 acres of land. His name “Burlingame,” was put onto the parcel map for reference. Sadly, that visit to the San Francisco Peninsula, was Burlingame’s last. On a visit to Russia in 1870, Burlingame died. With his death the land reverted to Ralston.
Ralston had grand plans for the area and planned to call the area “Ralstonville.” He died just five years after Burlingame without many of his plans being realized. The land passed to William Sharon, who died in 1885. Sharon's son-in-law, Francis Newlands, became executor of Sharon’s estate. Newlands had grand plans of his own. His vision was to build estates that surrounded a country club, similar to the development he helped create in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
The Burlingame Country Club was organized in 1893. The founding members chose the name “Burlingame,” and the area surrounding the club came to be known by that name as well. In 1894, the Burlingame Train Station was built to service the Country Club and was paid for mostly with private funds supplied by its members. The station was built to be reminiscent of the California missions. The tile roof was garnered, in part, from the Mission San Antonio De Padua and part from the San Mateo Mission Hospice. Today, the station is on the National Register of Historic Places; and it also has been designated a State Historic Landmark.
When the great earthquake and fire of 1906 devastated San Francisco, many people looking to escape the hardships of a city in ruins flocked south. Hundreds of lots in Burlingame were sold in 1906 and 1907.
Just two years after the quake, in 1908, the town of Burlingame was incorporated on the former Rancho San Mateo land. By 1910, the neighboring town of Easton, on the former Buri Buri Rancho, was annexed and became part of Burlingame as well.
Also in 1910, the residents closer to the Burlingame Country Club, fearful of losing their country setting, broke away from Burlingame and incorporated their own town called Hillsborough.
During the 20th century much has come and gone. For example, Coolidge School at Paloma and Grove Avenues no longer exists. Neither does Pershing School. The Peninsula Theater, the Broadway Theater, and the Burlingame Drive-In Theater no longer exist. The ivy-laden brick building on Park Road that was City Hall from 1914 to 1970 is now a parking lot. Only its cupola remains.
Some things haven't been lost at all, but have changed. For example, Kohl Mansion built in 1914 became the home of The Sisters of Mercy and Mercy High in the 1920s. The Bank of Burlingame at the NW corner of California and Burlingame Avenue is now the restaurant Straits. The Burlingame Garage is now the Steelhead Brewery and the Dodge Brothers dealership is now Il Fornaio Restaurant. The Bank of America building at the NW corner of Broadway and Capuchino is now the Broadway Grill. The North Burlingame Community Club building is now the Easton Branch of the library.
And some things have remained the same. The Burlingame Public Library is still a library. Burlingame High School is still a high school, (although it was threatened in the 1970s). The Burlingame Train Station is still a train station and the Burlingame Country Club is still a country club, but ironically, it is no longer located in Burlingame.
Learn more about this city
City of BURLINGAME, CA official site
City of BURLINGAME, CA chamber of commerce
City of BURLINGAME, CA general information
City of BURLINGAME, CA yellow pages
County of SAN MATEO, CA official site
State of California official site