Broadway Station recalls B'game railway

There has been a train station of one variety or another serving the northern area of Burlingame for more than a hundred years. It has provided a platform for passengers of steam engines, diesel trains, and street cars. It even served as the starting position for a tiny trolley which served the residents of North Burlingame, run by a man who had once named the area after himself.

The actual train depot building emerged in 1911 soon after a small town, organized by a man named Ansel Mills Easton, had been annexed into Burlingame. According to Burlingame Historical Society and San Mateo County Historical Association records, Easton's father - Ansel Ives Easton - had acquired 1,500 acres of land from father-in-law Darius Ogden Mills in 1857. In 1905, Ansel Mills Easton acquired this property, which surveyor Davenport Bromfield began to subdivide. This area became known as Easton, which stretched from Sanchez Avenue to the south, to Mills Avenue to the north, to Crystal Springs to the west, and to the baylands to the east. A sign reading Easton Station hung over the train station, which actually stood closer to Carolan Avenue than California Drive. The little town briefly flourished after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, which motivated many urban residents to find housing accommodations elsewhere. Finally, Burlingame annexed Easton, becoming known as North Burlingame in 1910.