San Mateo, California
San Mateo is the most populous city in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. It is part of the San Francisco Bay Area metropolitan region, and is located about south of San Francisco. San Mateo borders Burlingame to the north, Hillsborough to the west, San Francisco Bay and Foster City to the east and Belmont to the south. The population was 105,661 at the 2020 census. Some of the biggest economic drivers for the city include technology, health care and education.
History
The earliest known settlers of the Bay Area were the Ramaytush people, since at least 10000 BC.Spanish era
In 1789, the Spanish missionaries had named a Native American village along Laurel Creek as Los Laureles or the Laurels. At the time of Mexican Independence, 30 native Californians were at San Mateo, most likely from the Salson tribelet.Mexican era
In 1827, Captain Frederick William Beechey was traveling with the hills on their right, known in that part as the Sierra del Sur, began to approach the road, which passing over a small eminence, opened out upon "a wide country of meadow land, with clusters of fine oak free from underwood... It strongly resembled a nobleman's park: herds of cattle and horses were grazing upon the rich pasture, and numerous fallow‑deer, startled at the approach of strangers, bounded off to seek protection among the hills... This spot is named San Matheo, and belongs to the mission of San Francisco."The city of San Mateo was documented by Spanish colonists as part of the Rancho de las Pulgas and the Rancho San Mateo; the earliest history is held in the archives of Mission Dolores. Rancho San Mateo was granted in May 1846 from Pío Pico to his secretary, Cayetano Arenas; this tract included approximately half of present-day San Mateo, all of Burlingame and Hillsborough, and the Spring Valley lakes. William Davis Merry Howard purchased Rancho San Mateo from Arenas in 1846 for and spent an equal sum erecting a fence around the property.
Post-Conquest era
In the 1850s, following the American Conquest of California, many San Franciscans began building summer homes in the mid-Peninsula, because of the milder climate. The area that is now the city of San Mateo was owned by a few large landowners, including Howard, whose Rancho San Mateo occupied in 1853 north of San Mateo Creek, pushing most of this early settlement into adjacent Hillsborough, Burlingame, and Belmont; other significant landowners in the area included John Parrott, who purchased in 1860 south of the creek and southwest of El Camino Real and Alvinza Hayward, who owned the land south of the creek and east of El Camino. Much of the remaining land south of these areas was used for agriculture until the early 1900s; the owners included John Whipple, who had a large horse farm south of Parrott's land, Lemuel Murray, J.S. Colegrove, and David McClellan.In 1858, Sun Water Station, a stage station of the Butterfield Overland Mail route, was established in San Mateo. It was from both Clarks Station in what is now San Bruno and the next station south at Redwood City.
Several historically important mansions and buildings were constructed in San Mateo around this time. A.P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of Italy, lived here most of his life. His mansion, Seven Oaks, is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is located at 20 El Cerrito Avenue.
The Howard Estate was built in 1859 on the hill accessed by Crystal Springs Road; the building, named El Cerrito, eventually was moved to Hillsborough and served as its Town Hall starting from in 1910, but it has since been demolished. The Parrott Estate was erected in 1860 in the same area, giving rise to two conflicting names for the hill, Howard Hill and Parrot Hill. After use of the automobile changed traffic patterns, neither historic name was commonly applied to that hill. Once San Mateo was incorporated on September 4, 1894, its first mayor was Captain A.H. Payson, a son-in-law of Parrott.
When the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad was under construction during the 1860s, one of its corporate directors, Charles Polhemus, purchased the land south of the creek, now the site of downtown San Mateo, and began laying out the town; the first town plat was laid out in 1862. Polhemus settled on the land which is now Central Park and one of the succeeding owners, William Kohl, built the iron and stone fence which still encloses the park.
The Borel Estate was developed near Borel Creek in 1874 by Antoine Borel. It has been redeveloped since the late 20th century for use as modern offices and shops. The property is managed and owned by Borel Place Associates and the Borel Estate Company.
Hayward Park, the 1880 American Queen Anne-style residence of Alvinza Hayward, was built on an estate in San Mateo which included a deer park and racetrack, roughly bounded by present-day El Camino Real, 9th Avenue, B Street and 16th Avenue. A smaller portion of the property and the mansion, was converted into The Peninsula Hotel in 1908, following Hayward's death in 1904. The hotel burned down in a spectacular fire on June 25, 1920.
William H. Howard, eldest son of W.D.M. Howard, is credited with the first subdivisions in the region, resulting in what is now the Western Addition of San Mateo in 1888; he followed up by creating the first subdivision of Burlingame and Highland Park in San Mateo.
20th century
In 1893, Pedro Evencio had been called the last of the Ramaytush Native American of San Mateo. Although Joseph Evencio was reported to be his descendant living at Coyote Point until World War II, "Indian Joe", was the American Indian who was actually hired by the Howard family to oversee their land holding at Coyote Point. He is reported to have had a tribal affiliation in Montana. His final whereabouts were reported to be a care facility in Oakland after he had been removed from Coyote Point when a Merchant Marine Academy was established there.In the early 20th century, Japanese immigrants came to San Mateo to work in the salt ponds and flower industry. Although Japanese-Americans only account for 2.2% of the population today, they continue to be a major cultural influence and a draw for the rest of the region. The Eugene J. De Sabla Japanese Teahouse and Garden was established in 1894 at 70 De Sabla Road, designed by Makoto Hagiwara, designer of the Japanese garden in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. He arranged for Japanese artisans to be brought to the United States primarily for its teahouse construction.
The parcel was purchased in 1988 by San Francisco businessman Achille Paladini and wife Joan, who have restored it. The garden features hundreds of varieties of plants and several rare trees. A large koi pond surrounds an island. The property was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
In December 1967, Sgt. Joe Artavia, then serving in Vietnam with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division wrote to his sister, Linda Giese, who was a resident of San Carlos working in San Mateo, asking if San Mateo or San Francisco could adopt the company, saying that it would bring "the morale of the guys up as high as the clouds". San Mateo passed a resolution on March 4, 1968, officially adopting Alpha Company and letters and gifts began arriving from the citizens of San Mateo. Joe would be killed in action on March 24, 1968, less than three weeks after the resolution. Linda would travel to Vietnam to meet with the men of Alpha Company for Christmas in 1968 and deliver personalized medallions from the City of San Mateo. In 1972, San Mateo requested and received permission to have Alpha Company visit the city when they left Vietnam, later holding a parade in January 1972, believed to be the only parade honoring the military during the Vietnam War. In 1988, Joseph Brazan wrote a screenplay entitled A Dove Among Eagles chronicling the adoption of Alpha Company by San Mateo and the real-life romance between Linda and Artavia's commander, Lt. Stephen Patterson. The city expanded its support to the entire 1st Battalion in 1991, when they were deployed to Kuwait under Operation Desert Storm.
21st century
was torn down in 2008.In the November 2022 election, Councilmember Diane Papan was elected to the California State Assembly, creating a vacancy on the five-person city council. At the December 5, 2022, council reorganization meeting, two of the remaining four councilmembers chose not to follow the standard precedent of selecting a new mayor, which normally rotates to the councilmember who has been in office the longest. With the vote split at 2–2, the city went a week without a mayor. After a second meeting that also ended without a decision, Amourence Lee was selected as the mayor at the third meeting on December 12.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which are land and, comprising 23.44%, are covered by water.The best-known natural area is Coyote Point Park, a rock outcropped peninsula that juts out into the San Francisco Bay. The early Spanish navigators named it la punta de San Mateo. Crews of American cargo ships carrying grain in the bay renamed it Big Coyote. Sailors had a penchant for naming promontories at the edge of San Francisco Bay after the coyote; across the bay in Fremont are the Coyote Hills, part of Coyote Hills Regional Park. By the 1890s, the shore area was developed as a popular beach called San Mateo Beach. In 1842, the Spanish had named it playa de San Mateo. Today, Coyote Point is home to CuriOdyssey, formerly known as the Coyote Point Museum, a major natural history museum and wildlife center in the state. The animal care facility for the Peninsula Humane Society is also situated at Coyote Point, where the adoption facility is located in Burlingame.
The variety of natural habitats includes mixed oak woodland, riparian zones, and bayland marshes. One endangered species, the California clapper rail, was sighted feeding on mudflats by the Third Avenue bridge in San Mateo. The marsh areas are also likely habitat for the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse, which inhabits the middle and high zones of salt and brackish marshes, as well as for the endangered marsh plant, Point Reyes bird's beak.
Sugarloaf Mountain, whose name has been documented in 1870, is a prominent landform between the forks of Laurel Creek. In the late 20th century, this mixed oak woodland and chaparral habitat was a site of controversy related to proposals to develop a portion of the mountain for residential use. It has been preserved for use as park and open space area, and is home to the endangered mission blue butterfly.
Sawyer Camp Trail, located on the western edge of San Mateo along the Crystal Springs Reservoir, is another popular destination for joggers, pedestrians, and bikers. This roughly trail begins in San Mateo and stretches north toward Hillsborough and San Bruno, parallel to the 280 freeway.