San Mateo Park

In the Beginning…A Chronicle of the Original Sale of Lots in San Mateo Park

Editor's note: This is the first half of an article written over 10 years ago by Chad Krakow, with notes from Don Ringler and Betty Horn. We did not update or edit the article. If anyone has any other articles/histories on San Mateo Park, please let us know, and we will try to organize and publish them.

San Mateo Park….Very Desirable AT AUCTION-----97 VILLA LOTS -----SAN MATEO PARK-----MAY 10, 1902

It was another turn-of-the-century peninsula Land sale. Up for subdivision was Clark's Horse Field. Into history would pass San Mateans, sedate Sunday afternoons, viewing the trotters coursing Clark's circular race track….and afterwards, no more breakneck horse-and-buggy sprints 'cruisin' the El Camino. For this auction the Southern Pacific would be running three special excursion trains from the city. Cost? Just 60 cents, round trip.

The auctioneer would mount the platform at Library Hall, 2nd and B Street, San Mateo's first City Hall. (The brick building went down in the 1906 earthquake, was rebuilt, and still stands today.) The first one hundred enterprising excursion-ticket buyers would get a free lunch. They could dine at the Union Hotel (3rd and Baldwin Avenue, still standing) or at the Hotel Mateo, at Baldwin and Ellsworth. (It burned down in 1903)

Beautiful San Mateo Park!….Nature's Fullness… Refined Associations…..The Sunshine Country… One Hour by Trolley…..Grow strong in body… Grand outlooks Towards Hills and Mountains, Bay and Woodland

So the 1902 entrepreneur boomed his real estate.

TERMS: one-third cash. A 10% deposit at the fall of the hammer. Interest rate 7%, or 5% if the purchaser accepts a bond for the deed. Balance in one or two years. Principal and interest payable in United States gold coin.

Without doubt, it was a beautiful piece of property, one of the best parcels, if not the best, of William Davis Merry Howard's fabulous 6,000-acre Mexican Land Grant Mr. Howard came from Boston to be the Hudson Bay representative in San Francisco. He picked up the prime Rancho in 1846 for $54,757.7 or $52.20 per acre. This land known as Rancho San Mateo was purchased from Pio Pico the last Mexican Governor of California. The Spanish explorer Gaspar de Portola established his encampment on our coast in 1769- on the Feast Day of Saint Matthew. Hence the name of San Mateo for the entire region surrounding this leg of his expedition.

To convince the U.S. Land Commission of his right to title, Mr. Howard enlisted the legal expertise of two San Francisco Attorneys, W.H. Clark and W. Wheeler. For services rendered each received about 200 acres apiece. Clark's claim covered the dimensions of the San Mateo Park sub-division today. Wheeler's bordered Clark's on the west, with an offset boundary enabling both parties access to the creek. Wheeler's eastern boundary was some distance west of Hillsborough Boulevard and included what later became known as the Brewer property (sub-division) and the Barroilhet property, that later became the Henderson-Crocker property.

BACK TO THE AUCTION It was a beautiful May morning and the buyers-excursionists left San Francisco depot to be greeted in San Mateo with the incomparable Peninsula Sunshine as well as traps and buggies to convey them through tree-lined streets to the pastoral quietude of San Mateo Park. They were surprised at the already 20-foot high shade trees. They were smitten with the bright green circles and verdant oval beds planted by E.W. McLellan, the Burlingame florist (Hillsborough was not yet a town). McLellan's son would later be known as the "Orchid King", and his Acres of Orchids still flourishes today. Eventually the islands in The Park would be planted by a Scottish gardener named John McLaren who would go on to landscape Golden Gate Park. McLaren's original plan was to have each island represent a different country. You can still see this today as you drive through the Park. Cork trees from Spain, Date Palms from Africa, and Flowering Plum trees from the Orient to name a few.

After tramping the turf and sighting the lot lines, prospective buyers climbed back into the rigs and headed downtown. Following a sumptuous lunch at either of the two hotels, the convivial crowd convened around the auctioneer J.H. Howell who ably and convincingly elucidated the halcyon opportunities awaiting future residents of San Mateo Park. Following the glowing welcome, Howell's partner Baldwin took the platform and promptly put on the block what was declared to be "The Best Lot in The Park", It fronted 221' on El Caiman, and had a back boundary of 104'. After a spirited bidding, H.H. Lynch, superintendent of construction of the United Railroads of San Francisco (predecessor of what later became the 40 Line) demonstrated his faith to the Park by upping the bids to $1825. He took title to the first and highest priced lot on the Subdivision #1. Parenthetically, the first streetcar arrived in San Mateo from San Francisco December 31, 1902.

In that May day of 1902, 53 lots were sold, far short of the 97 "Cracker Jack Villa Lots" that were offered for sale, The combined sales figures of those 53 lots ran to $51,350, nearly $1000 per lot. The lowest priced lot went for $755. (NE corner of Poplar and Crescent, 362' frontage on Poplar and Crescent and 233' * 195' on the interior boundaries.) Most of the lots east of Hurlingham went for $1000, or more, while the average of those west of there went for $800 or $900. Buyers were mostly from Redwood City, San Mateo and San Francisco. One came from as far as Portland, Oregon. The land auction of the Park that May in 1902 could hardly be called a thumping success. The 44 unsold lots were announced as to be disposed "at a private sale". While the San Francisco Post announced that "nearly seven hundred people went from the city to San Mateo", certainly at least six hundred must have gone for a thrifty and salubrious Peninsula outing and some forty-odd even got free lunches. The results of this sale coupled with the fact that many of the landed estates of this period were breaking up- El Cerrito, Baywood, Santa Inez, Town of Burlingame, Burlingame Park (The Country Club) made buying real estate on the Peninsula a real buyers' market.

Nevertheless, despite the modest beginning of the real estate sales in San Mateo Park, the imagination and taste of the arriving property owners soon transposed the former Clark horse Ranch into the most enviable of suburban neighborhoods. Commissioning innovative architects and employing skilled craftsman, the new residents erected some of the most original and captivating architecture that can be found in the Bay Area today. San Mateo Park was and still is today a treasure trove of houses representative of the genteel tradition of the Turn of the Century.