The history of the Hillbarn Theater building stretches across two cities, as well as more than one hundred years of history. The theater itself, in its third reincarnation, is one of the oldest theaters of its kind in the United States. It remains perhaps the most venerable landmark in Foster City.
The story of the Hillbarn begins with the story of the Borel estate, the last of the great family manors in San Mateo. San Mateo County Historical Association records indicate that on March 1, 1874 Swiss-born banker Antoine Borel purchased three hundred acres of property from the pioneering French banker Francois Pioche. This land stretched to the southwest of early downtown San Mateo. Appointed to the position of Swiss Consul to California and Nevada, Borel served on the boards of several prominent northern California companies, including the Spring Valley Water Company, the California Street Railway Company, the Wells Fargo Express Company, and the Bank of California Company.
Antoine and his wife Grace Canitrot moved into the old Pioche mansion, located within the land now bordered between El Camino Real and Alameda de las Pulgas, 20th Avenue and Borel Avenue.
A road named Arroyo Mocha ran through the center. Over the years Borel gradually enhanced the mansion, where Grace gave birth to seven children: Chonita, Alice, Sophie, Grace, Antoine A., Alfred, and Guadalupe. For forty years, Borel worked to create his own Swiss chateau in San Mateo County, adorning the acreage surrounding his estate with trees, gardens, lakes, and bridges.
Antoine would eventually return to Switzerland, finally dying in his homeland in 1915, having never become an United States citizen. Before he died he built a chapel in 1892, which came to be known as the Geneva Chapel. Located to the west of County Road (El Camino Real), the chapel featured a 30-foot tower, with a steeply pitched gable section, and a small gabled portico entryway in between. The quaint sanctuary would stand as a San Mateo landmark for more than 69 years.
Borel allowed the local Presbyterian and Congregational communities to worship in the chapel, while young ministers would be allowed to practice their fiery sermons in the empty interior. In 1902, Borel sold the chapel for $1,200 to the Vestry of the Episcopal Church of St. Matthews, although his daughter Alice Borel married future San Mateo County Judge Aylett Cotton there in 1907. St. Matthew's retained ownership of edifice until 1937.
In the 1940's, Robert Brauns' Peninsula Little Theater
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