San Mateo Park History

Gardening and landscaping services in San Mateo CA

A Brief History of San Mateo Park

In the late 19th century, San Mateo Park was a part of the extensive Howard Estate, which included a lot of the previous Mexican Land Grant, Rancho San Mateo, as well as encompassed a lot of what today is San Mateo, Burlingame, and Hillsborough. The land that would come to be San Mateo Park, approximately 1,200 acres, was later on sold by the Howard Estate to the Clark household that, for a number of years, ran a dairy farm and also cattle ranch.

City Beautiful Movement

In 1896, when San Mateo Park was founded, there was a fad in the USA known as the “City Beautiful Movement.” It was the objective of George Howard, Jr., kept in mind regional designer, as well as John McLaren, noted landscape engineer as well as developer of Golden Gate Park, to establish San Mateo Park as an upscale area that reached the highest ideals of this activity.

Together, Howard and McLaren, laid out delicately winding streets, adjusting them to the moving terrain. The entry into San Mateo Park from El Camino Real would be a wonderfully landscaped crescent. At every junction, and randomly put throughout the growth, would certainly be 62 designed circles, means and crescents. The trees would be native oaks as well as redwoods from Northern The golden state, elms, maples, and poplars from the Eastern USA, plus hands, cedars, olives, and also various other exotic trees from throughout the globe. To assure that every home constructed by San Mateo Park landscapers would certainly be of top quality, both in construction and also layout, stringent action restrictions were developed.

Today, the objective of these two visionaries, George Howard, Jr. as well as John McLaren, has mainly been realized. “The Park,” as San Mateo Park is affectionately called by residents, is now a digital arboretum of indigenous and unique plants as well as trees and filled with a treasure of duration residences of all dimensions and also descriptions– turn of the century Queen Annes and Mission rebirths, very early 20th century artisan cottages, plus English Tudors, French Normandy, Colonials and Mediterraneans from the ’20s as well as 30s. Included among these are several landmark homes by such kept in mind architects as George Howard, Jr., Bernard Maybeck, as well as Julia Morgan. For many years, a number of these landmark houses have actually been wonderfully recovered to their original glory.

San Mateo Park has a pleasant area sensation with its rather wayward houses and exuberant greenery, an unwinded informality. San Mateo Park is a neighborhood where homeowners walk, and where children ride their bikes along the peaceful streets. It is this area feeling, along with the pep of its design and landscape design, that offers San Mateo Park its one-of-a-kind character and also makes San Mateo Park so desirable.