Andres Oddstad, house builder

In the 1950s, the Peninsula was booming with construction projects involving family houses. A number of developers such as Henry Doelger (Westlake-Daly City), Bohannon in San Mateo, Eichler (throughout the Peninsula), and Conway, as well and many others, were making their mark as construction kings in developing farmland throughout the Peninsula. The Peninsula was experiencing a construction boom. The population of San Mateo County was in the 300,000 area with many thousands a month moving into the Peninsula. In the early '50s, Pacifica was still a series of isolated communities without much industrial base or tax base except from the county. Although spread out along the coast for a number of miles, it had many sparsely populated, isolated valleys such as Manor, Vallemar, Sharp Park, and the largest, Linda Mar, in the San Pedro Valley that had been the home of Francisco Sanchez. The Ocean Shore Railroad had attracted a small number of settlers when it was built through the valleys and alongside the ocean on its way to Half Moon Bay. However, it had failed economically and its only reminders were a few train stations and acreage that was still owned by the railroad company. A San Francisco real estate developer, Ray Higgins, had purchased land in the San Pedro Valley, along with the adobe built by Francisco Sanchez, from the Edward Kirkpatrick heirs. The future city of Pacifica was still isolated and looking for an identity, however.

Andres Oddstad, born in 1918, was a nephew of Henry and Ellis Stoneson. His mother was Stephanie Oddstad of San Francisco. In World War II, Andy Oddstad was a member of the forth Underwater Demolition Team (UTD 4) fighting in the South Pacific. He returned from the war with a vision of what he wanted to do with his life