Uncle Tom's Cabin in San Bruno

Horses needed rest on such a journey and they, like their human fellow travelers, also needed feeding and watering. One of the early roadhouses that sprang up to serve these needs was Richard Cunningham’s San Bruno House, with the extra attraction of catering to hunters who had access there to huge numbers of migrating waterfowl. San Bruno House also had the longest bar in Northern California.

Probably one of the most colorful and well-known was a roadhouse that came to be called Uncle Tom’s Cabin. It began in 1849 when a man named Thorpe moved to the property at the intersection of San Mateo Avenue and El Camino Real in what is now San Bruno. Here on the north side of Crystal Springs Creek, he built a 12-foot by 12-foot cabin with stables nearby to care for the horses from the stagecoaches that traveled down the El Camino. The waystation was known alternately as Thorpe’s Place or 14-Mile House since it was located 14 miles from Mission Dolores in San Francisco. The cabin was soon enlarged to form a two-story hotel with a large bar.

In 1871, Thorpe sold the property to J. Gamble who renamed it the Star and Garter. The structure was enlarged again and a new dining room was added. One day, a black man, an ex-slave named Thomas Rolle, stopped at the tavern on his way to Searsville where he’d been offered a job as a cook. Gamble made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, so Rolle accepted. Rolle must have brought some terrific recipes with him for it wasn’t long before word spread about the culinary creations "Uncle Tom” was cooking up in the kitchen. Wealthy San Franciscans began stopping there on their way down the Peninsula to their weekend mansions. Soon the tavern was a destination on its own, from both directions.

In 1875, Thomas Rolle promoted himself from cook to proprietor, with some financial help from William C. Ralston, banker, bon vivant and frequent guest. Rolle removed the Star and Garter sign and replaced it with his own. The roadhouse was now officially called "Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” Families often came now, sometimes bringing their own picnic food, and enjoyed the acres of beautiful flowers and trees, including orchards.

After Rolle’s tenure, August Jenevein managed the cabin off and on from 1889 through 1905, including the rebuilding of the tavern after a fire destroyed it in 1895. The property was sold and re-sold a number of times, and continued to operate even through the Prohibition Era. The garage at the rear of the cabin, it was said, was frequented more often than its use as a storage facility would seem to warrant.

After Prohibition was repealed, the cabin re-acquired a liquor license. The roadhouse was then purchased by Caesar Martinelli, a well-liked host, and patronage grew even more. The porch surrounding the cabin on three sides was enclosed and patrons could take their meals there while enjoying the view of El Camino Real. The horsepower used by travelers now was in the form of the automobile.

All through the years, the list grew of the ordinary and the extra-ordinary who walked through the doors, the rich, the poor, the famous, the infamous (a bank robber stopped in for a drink, was recognized and apprehended). Historic firsts were witnessed here. In 1850, the new governor of California, Peter Burnett, stopped in around noon and announced that California had just became a state. A celebration, and then the governor resumed his journey to tell the people of San Jose the good news.

In 1878, at a banquet, someone from the Bell Telephone Company brought one of the new contraptions to show the crowd, telling them he had been to a demonstration four days earlier which had actually "enabled two persons to converse with each other between two points one-eighth of a mile apart, as easily and as clearly as if standing face to face.” In 1883, the first telephone line was established down the Peninsula from San Francisco to San Jose. The first telephone installed in northern San Mateo County was at Uncle Tom’s Cabin.

In August of 1912, smack-dab in front of the tavern, the first shovelful of earth was turned, beginning California’s multi-million dollar state highway system. The event was celebrated at a banquet within the cabin, attended by city and county and state officials. Outside, the public celebrated at a barbecue picnic on the spacious grounds. A number of feature motion picture productions used the locale, bringing producers, directors and famous stars into the Cabin for sustenance and to be seen.

The 1906 Earthquake and fire had brought a great influx of people down the Peninsula. They were refugees and many elected to stay and establish new homes in the vicinity of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The citizens voted for incorporation, and in 1914 the city of San Bruno was born. A banquet was held to celebrate the birth. Twenty-five years later, in 1939, the last big public banquet was held at Uncle Tom’s to celebrate the silver anniversary of San Bruno’s incorporation.

By 1949, the site, which had shaded picnickers and sheltered soldiers camped en route to Monterey from the San Francisco Presidio, had outlived its usefulness. In 1939, the land behind the cabin had been sold and subdivided for housing. The cabin itself was demolished in 1949 and a Safeway store erected on the site. Then an auto dealership, Grace Honda, and a Walgreens.

You can still sit in an eatery, of course, watching the world go by on El Camino Real. You won’t be able to order Thomas Rolle’s southern fried chicken or Virginia baked ham or enjoy a fine cigar at the well-stocked bar. But you can eat and you can view. You want fries with that? For here or to go?