Joe Capote – Certified Investment Agent Specialist Expert in Real Estate Investments and Properties

History

In the 1770’s, the El Camino Real that runs through San Bruno started as a path that the Spanish developed for traveling up and down the peninsula.

Originally a stop on the Butterfield Stage Coach Line in 1849, San Bruno was little more than a lean-to at the corner of what is now El Camino and San Mateo Avenues. The lean-to, opened by Jack Thorp, was a stopping point on the way to San Francisco for food and water. In 1849, Thorp’s lean to gave way to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a roadhouse located at Crystal Springs Road near the creek that flowed across the El Camino (currently the site houses a Walgreens and Auto Dealership). The roadhouse flourished and eventually became a landmark on the San Francisco Peninsula. Stagecoaches, often call “mud wagons”, stopped for food and water before completing the long trip to San Jose or San Francisco.

Uncle Tom’s Cabin prospered greatly as a roadhouse, gambling and dining establishment. It was home to the meetings of several community organizations and boasted a huge bar downstairs while games of chance were rumored to be played on the second floor. The original property consisted of nearly 30 acres in the 1800’s, but in the early 1900s, land was sold off for housing developments in the Huntington Addition. By the 1940s, all sections of the land had been sold save for the site where the original building had been constructed.

On August 7, 1912, a huge crowd gathered on the grounds of the Cabin to celebrate the construction of the new El Camino Real, the state’s first paved highway road. The construction broke ground right in front of Uncle Tom’s Cabin and the celebration lasted all day long.

Sadly, Uncle Tom’s Cabin was demolished in 1949 after the structure was condemned by the fire marshall due to fire code violations. An auto dealership now occupies the site.

On December 18 and 19, 1914, 471 citizens of San Bruno voted to incorporate the city while 296 citizens voted to retain the status quo. Louis Trager was voted and sworn in as the first city mayor. The first city council meeting was held at 444 San Mateo Avenue in Green’s Hall. The council moved their meetings to the “Little Tin Schoolhouse” on El Camino Real and that structure became the town hall until the new building was built in 1953 at 567 El Camino Real

In 1905, the Third Addition was platted an it included San Bruno’s Unique “Heart Area”. This area, which runs from El Camino to Huntington Avenues just south of San Mateo Avenue, actually exhibits double hearts in the street layout (Hence the slogan, “The City with a Heart”.