A different downtown

A "five-and-dime" store called Ben Franklin's stood at 3rd and Ellsworth (now Aaron Brothers). Wisnom Hardware stood at 130 South B Street, before it moved to its 1st and Delaware location, while PG&E operated a customer service site at 87 E. 3rd Avenue. Across the street from PG&E, just east of the Benjamin Franklin Hotel, the San Mateo Theater offered first-run films to the residents of San Mateo. The theater closed in the early '70s, the last time downtown San Mateo had a movie house. Despite Macy's having become the cornerstone to the Hillsdale Shopping Center in 1953, downtown remained the hub for the city's retail industry.

Surprisingly, neither the Chamber of Commerce nor the Downtown San Mateo Association had much information on central San Mateo of yesteryear. However, there are certain businesses which, despite the myriad of changes, have continued to thrive. These enterprises, clinging to the crannies and crevices of an evolving downtown mercantile, have found a way to survive forty years or more. These merchants offered their own remembrances and perspectives on the how downtown San Mateo has changed.

Ken Takahashi watched his father Tokutaro open Takahashi's Groceries on the corner of Claremont and 3rd Avenue in 1906. Ken began running the business in 1920, and his son Glen became involved around 1960. In the beginning, Takahashi's catered primarily to newly-arrived Japanese immigrants. Over the years, its inventory expanded to serve a more eclectic Asian clientele. Today, its groceries include a large sample of Hawaiian foods, particularly for Hawaiian customers who come to the Bay Area as airline employees.

Glen Takahashi thinks San Mateo has lost a lot of its small-town atmosphere -- with positive and negative consequences. He says the downtown streets are more upscale, with pedestrian benches and flower patches at the corners, and disabled ramps at the curbs. But downtown is more crowded now, he says, and the drivers seem more rude. In a lot of ways, Takahashi says, "San Mateo has become just another big city."

Jackie Loveridge has worked for Collin's Pharmacy since 1960 -- thirty-one years after the business first opened on Railroad Avenue in 1931. The pharmacy now stands at the former site of Noah Williams' fabled Noah's Ark Restaurant. Loveridge agrees with Glen Takahashi that the downtown area has lost some of its neighborly charm. "The surrounding businesses seemed more like a family back then," Loveridge said. "More supportive and friendly." Now, she says, both customers and merchants seem more in a hurry, less relaxed. The pace is just so much quicker.

Andrew Bundy opened his optician shop on the southeast corner of 2nd Avenue and San Mateo Drive in 1958. His son, Jerry Bundy, started to work for his father in 1972 and took over the business in 1978. But Jerry's memories of downtown reach much further back, to the downtown area of the early sixties.

Since then, he says, much of the retail business has been replaced by the service industry, particularly restaurants and boutiques. He also says there is a greater multicultural mix of merchants now. Another change is the arrival of the dot-com businesses, with two currently moving in on B Street, plus another on the corner of 4th and San Mateo. "If a landlord can get three or four storefronts together," Bundy says, "he could rent to dot-coms, and charge much higher rent." Bundy also says the family business -- such as his or Wisnom Hardware -- now seems to be a rarity.

San Mateo Lock Works first opened in San Francisco in 1927, moving to San Mateo in the 1930s. First located at 273 Baldwin -- the site of today's Walsh's Coffee Roaster -- San Mateo Lock Works moved to its current 2nd Avenue location in 1976, where customers recognize it by the distinctive keyhole entryway.

John Chiappe has been with the company for fifty-five years. He manages its auxiliary store, the Safe Center, located at 148 Main Street. Chiappe remembers when Main Street was actually a street, before the parking garage went up in 1970. In 1960, several businesses lined Main Street, including Southern Pacific warehouses and other industries supporting the railroads. At that time, San Mateo Lock Works still occupied its Baldwin Avenue location. The Pacific News bar -- a hangout for reporters from the San Mateo Times -- occupied the corner of 2nd and Main.

Chiappe misses the mom-and-pop stores from forty years ago, businesses whose owners maintained roots in San Mateo. He says it's hard for corporations and chain stores to have the same personal investment in preserving the heart of the city. On the other hand, he sees the number and assortment of restaurants as a positive development, offering consumers a greater variety of choices.

Paul Kaplan established Carlyle Jewelers -- designated after his stepbrother's middle name -- in 1946. It first stood next to the Benjamin Franklin Hotel, when the hotel catered to a much larger, more diverse clientele. The store moved to 4th Avenue in 1966. Kaplan retired in 1986, but still watches the development of the store and the downtown with interest.

Kaplan remembers when consumers regarded Third Avenue as the shopping hub of the midpeninsula area, while Burlingame Avenue lagged way behind. Now, he says, it's the reverse. "Hillsdale (Mall) killed us," Kaplan declared. "And Burlingame Avenue is still a popular shopping area because there is nothing like Hillsdale competing with it."

These hearty merchants reflected on the possible effect of the controversial downtown multi-screen movie theater complex, which is being planned almost thirty years after the San Mateo Theater closed its doors. Bundy says the theater would probably not effect Bundy's Opticals very much, since the projected location is at the Main Street parking garage, between 1st and 3rd Avenues.

Bundy sees the issue clearly from both sides. Apart from the problem of parking, the real concern would be how the theater would affect dining establishments in the area. The theater could actually stimulate business for the dinner crowd. But if it becomes a "final destination" business, offering a competing food service, it could seriously jeopardize the success of the surrounding restaurants.

Chiappe thinks the biggest problem with the "monsterplex" theater project is that it will cut off access for those working and living on Main Street. He says several businesses and residences still exist along Main Street, the garages of which will be cut off by the construction. Chiappe is also doubtful the new parking structure accompanying the theater will adequately accommodate the additional traffic. "Hopefully, City Council won't come back in five years saying we need to build another parking structure," he says.

Loveridge, on the other hand, remembers fondly the San Mateo Theater, and welcomes a new movie house in the center of downtown. "Now that the Hillsdale Theater is gone, there is no place nearby to see a movie," she says. She thinks the theater would bring business to the area, but concedes parking would be a problem.

Kaplan agrees with Loveridge, saying a downtown theater would be great for the area. But he sees parking not as a problem, but a good indicator of success. "Actually, a parking problem is good," he says. "It means there's a lot of business in the area." Kaplan would like to see a main pedestrian corridor downtown, or perhaps a shuttle service.

Amazingly, these merchants represent a combination of more than 325 years of historic, commercial enterprise in the heart of downtown San Mateo. They credit quality products, loyal customers, and good employees for their longevity.<