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The last stage in the
development of San Mateo County, from the standpoint of the
ownership and apportionment of the soil is now at hand, and consists
of the division of large portions of the magnificent country estates
throughout the county, into generous sized suburban lots and villa
tracts. Although this period is the last stage of the subdivision of
the land into its smallest segments,-it marks the beginning of an
era of the greatest advancement and prosperity that this section of
the peninsula has ever experienced.
San Mateo County is a "community grown up over night."
Twenty-five years ago it consisted of only a few scattered villages
and two good sized towns with a total population of ten thousand ;
today the population is almost four times this amount and growing
more rapidly than ever before.
Previous to the year 1888, the county was altogether
undeveloped in respect to the subdivision of its lands into suburban
lots and acreage home sites. Along the Southern Pacific Railroad
were dotted the older villages of Millbrae, San Mateo, Redwood City
and Menlo Park. In the. adjacent country lay the beautiful estates
of the Eastons and Mills of Millbrae; the Howards, Haywards and
Parrotts of San Mateo ; the Hawes and Brittons of Redwood ; and the
Athertons and Selbys of Fair Oaks.
It was in the year of 1888 that William H. Howard who
owned several acres lying between the village of San Mateo and what
is now Burlingame Avenue, began an active campaign of subdivision,
and employed Davenport Bromfield the civil engineer to lay out what
is known as the Western Addition to the City of San Mateo. Mr.
Bromfield subsequently laid out practically all of the most
important tracts and subdivisions throughout the peninsula, from the
southern boundary line of San Francisco to the Menlo Park vicinity.
The platting of the Western Addition to San Mateo was
followed by the first subdivision of the Town of Burlingame (being
that portion of the town now lying south of Burlingame Avenue).
Later came a subdivision of a portion of Mr. Howard's home place,
now known as Highland Park in the City of San Mateo. This work was
the beginning of the expansion of San Mateo northerly, and the
foundation of the present City of Burlingame.
The coming of the United Railroads from San Francisco
to the City of San Mateo in 1902 and the perfection of their service
into a daily half-hourly headway, between these two points in
November of the next year, contributed largely to the further
subdivision of private holdings.
The William Corbitt property at Burlingame was laid out
into one-quarter acre lots, followed by the subdivisions known as
Burlingame Heights, Lomita Park and Hayward Park. A few years later
the tracts known as Easton and San Bruno were subdivided. All of
these were contiguous to the railroad lines and on the eastern side
of the State Highway. Crystal Springs Park and Highland Park were
also important subdivisions.
As the beauty of peninsula property became more widely
known to the San Francisco homeseeker, and its reputation as a most
exclusive section for country 'homes became more firmly established
; new tracts were thrown open, especially those more elevated lands
lying westerly from the State Highway which were subdivided into
larger residence and acreage lots to meet this higher priced market.
The Sharon Estate in 1889 began the subdivision of its
800-acre tract known as Burlingame Park, where today can be seen the
handsome homes of the Crockers, Scotts, Colemans, Tobins, Carolans
and others. This was followed by the Clark holdings, now known as
San Mateo Park-the Bowie Estate, known as El Cerrito Park-the Ansel
Easton Estate, San Carlos Park, Dingee Park, now known as Redwood
Highlands-Valparaiso Park which is a portion of the Atherton Estate
at Fair Oaks-and Stanford Park. These acreage subdivisions extending
from Easton on the north to Stanford Park on the south, included
every variety and character of land that the most fastidious
homeseeker could desire.
Great care has been exercised by the landscape engineer
in utilizing the natural contour and topography of the ground so as
to place the building sites in elevated positions and allow the
roads to meander along natural depressions. San Mateo and Easton are
good examples of this art of the engineer.
From a bulletin issued by the United States Census
Department over a year ago, dealing with the ownership of San Mateo
County homes built upon the subdivisions of these large estates, the
following comparative figures have been derived: about 80%4, of the
total number of homes in the county today are occupied by urban home
dwellers. Of this number more than half own their homes.
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