San Mateo founder -- Charles Polhemus

Polhemus was born in New Jersey in 1817 and migrated to San Francisco in the late 1840s to work for Allsop and Company at California Street in San Francisco. He became very successful and rich enough to buy property in 1854 in the village of San Mateo. He purchased the land from Fifth to Ninth avenues from Henry Dubbers. Here he built a three-story, 13-room house. In 1866, he sold the property to his partner Peter Donahue, who in turn sold it to Alexander Austin and then finally it was sold to William H. Kohl in 1873. This property became Central Park. The original wrought-iron fence still stands facing El Camino Real.

Also in the 1850s, Polhemus purchased property east of Ed Taylor’s residence that was once the San Bruno House at the corner of Second and El Camino Real. Taylor’s property south of the San Mateo Creek blocked direct access to Charles Polhemus’ property from El Camino Real. Polhemus bought the property from the San Mateo Creek to Fifth Avenue and from A Street (South Ellsworth Avenue) to D Street (Delaware Street). It had been used as a wheat field and was a choice piece of property. Polhemus was intent on it becoming the core of the village of San Mateo. The rumor of a railroad from San Francisco to San Jose was the motivation for Polhemus to purchase the property as he believed that the railroad would have to pass through this land on its path down the Peninsula. He was right, but his timing was off. The railroad was unable to secure funding after two tries in the 1850s. However, by the 1860s it became a reality and the land became valuable. Unfortunately, San Mateo had little to offer the railroad company in the way of products to ship or passengers to carry, and San Mateo became only a whistlestop on the Peninsula for many years. Polhemus plotted 176 lots to sell, but had sold only 40 of these by 1865.

In 1860, John Parrott bought the 260 acre estate west of El Camino Real from Capt. Macondray for $30,000. Parrott remodeled the Macondray house into a mansion of his own taste and called the estate Baywood. It was completed in 1868, and here he raised his family who became the leading socialites of the village of San Mateo.

South of Polhemus’ property, Alvinza Hayward bought acreage from the Country Road (El Camino Real) east to the marshlands and south to the San Mateo homestead. On this land, he built a massive stick-style mansion that equaled any other mansion on the Peninsula, as well as a magnificent stable. Hayward sold land to James Byrnes, John C. Maynard and many other wealthy and influential men. The Maynard residence still stands today at 809 Lawrence Road, although it has been much modified over the years.

The village of San Mateo was becoming settled, albeit ever so slowly, and mainly by rich landholders. However, they supplied a great deal of the business for the downtown core that was developing around the train station.

In 1863, Polhemus bought 680 acres of land west of the railroad tracks, in the hills, that could be reached by the Crystal Springs Road built primarily for passage of the stagecoaches that traveled between San Mateo and Half Moon Bay. The land was used for cattle grazing. In 1876, land was purchased by the county for use as the County Poor Farm, and the road to it from Crystal Springs Road was called Poor Farm Road. Later the name was changed to Polhemus Road (County Road 17) and the road to the old County Poor Farm was renamed Tower Road.

In 1862, James Byrnes bought 10 of Polhemus’ lots for $1,200 and erected the Union Saloon (which still stands at Third and Main streets) and a warehouse by the railroad depot. Byrnes became a county supervisor, then a state assemblyman in 1873, and finally a state senator in 1880.

Charles B. Polhemus moved on to Gilroy and San Jose. He died at the turn of the century in San Jose.