Do you know the way to Easton?

The Eastons wanted to live in a real California adobe house, so Ansel had the old Sanchez adobe dismantled to reuse the bricks in their new home. Unfortunately he was not familiar with earthquakes or traditional adobe building structure. The Easton home was built with timber on the first level and adobe walls on the second floor. It lasted until 1868, when a sizable earthquake brought to light the error of their building plan. A new house was built and subsequently replaced by a third structure when a falling tree damaged the second.

Aside from their home and the beginnings of a horse farm with a race track, Ansel hadn't developed the property much before his untimely death in 1868. He had named it Blackhawk Ranch for his favorite racehorse. Easton had imported Blackhawk at great expense to improve the breeding line of his horses. Ansel's son, Ansel Mills Easton, began subdividing the family property in 1905. His timing was ideal, because it was the great earthquake and fire of 1906 that created the exodus from San Francisco that populated the peninsula so quickly.

In 1906, Easton Station was opened on the railroad tracks at what is now Broadway in Burlingame. The little town grew as A. M. Easton opened four subdivisions. In 1910 the town of Burlingame annexed its neighbor. The residents of Easton were relative newcomers with no particular loyalty to their old town name, so they happily agreed to the annexation.

Easton continued his development, opening an electric trolley from the Broadway station along California Street and up into the hills to Hillside Circle. This modern transportation was intended to encourage property sales to the west. The Easton property originally ran from the Bay to the valley of lakes, and between Sanchez Avenue and the creek at Adeline Drive. A bus replaced Easton's trolley in 1918.

Perhaps you have wondered why Burlingame seems to have two downtown areas, centered around both Broadway and Burlingame Avenue. At one time it really was two towns. One could have been the town of Easton to the north of Burlingame if the residents had preferred to retain their separate identity and the name of Ansel Easton. Instead, the family is remembered in the street names of the county, Adeline Drive, Ansel Avenue and Easton Drive.

Meanwhile, A. M. Easton moved on to the East Bay and established a new Blackhawk Ranch in 1917 with his son-in-law William Q. Ward. Ansel Mills Easton would probably be proud to see how today this second Blackhawk Ranch, east of San Ramon, was turned into a multi-million-dollar modern development.

Rediscovering the Peninsula appears in the Monday edition of the Daily Journal. For more information on this or related topics, visit the San Mateo County History Museum, 777 Hamilton St., Redwood City.