Woodside Store's origin? Wood!

It was too much temptation for a young, restless lad, so he left for the gold fields in California. After arriving in San Francisco he filled teeth for $8 each or pulled them for the bargain price of $4 each, good money for his day. However, the itch to find gold made him decide to try his luck in the gold fields, but he suffered a mishap that left him ill for a while.

In San Francisco again, he made friends with a Matthias A. Parkhurst and a Mr. Ellis, and they invited him to recuperate in the warm sun in the Woodside area where they were making shingles. He worked with them for a while, but realized that more money was to be made in taking the entire redwood log to San Francisco as numerous wharves were being constructed in the booming port of San Francisco. Tripp and Parkhurst formed a partnership, along with some other individuals. The original method of getting logs to San Francisco was to pull them with oxen down a very long road to the Ravenswood seaport and float them to San Francisco. This method of transport was very difficult and they looked for a better way. While taking a boat down to Ravenswood from San Francisco, they accidentally discovered a nice cove to put their boat in one night. Exploring this cove, they found what would later be called Redwood Creek with a large body of deep water a short distance inland from the main bay. The group immediately seized upon the idea of bringing the logs down what is now named Woodside Road, a shorter distance than the Ravenswood route, put them in the water in the deep channel of the Redwood Creek and float them to San Francisco. Quite by accident, the group had discovered an area which would later be called Redwood City.

While not much redwood timber had been used for early buildings, the Woodside area had been the location where redwood trees had been cut down for the San Jose and San Francisco missions in the 1700s. The area had attracted renegade Americans such as John Coppinger, grantee of the Rancho Canada Raymundo. He built his house in 1841 at the corner of King’s Mountain and Woodside Roads. The first sawmill in the area was constructed by Charles Brown, who was the owner of 2,800 acres of Mountain Home ranch in 1849. The explosive growth of the city of San Francisco created the need for a phenomenal amount of lumber to construct buildings and Woodside was the closest area that could supply the wood. In addition to the tremendous growth of San Francisco, the city burned down several times between 1850 and 1852. Every rebuilding of the city required lumber.

Woodside became a thriving village and the stagecoach began arriving in 1852. The business of cutting wood, that started out as a one-man operation a few years before, became a multi-man operation with a complex of machinery that cut the wood at organized mills and could supply 56,000 board feet of lumber a day.

Robert Tripp realized that money could also be made in a mercantile establishment and in 1854 he started a country store, the only one between San Francisco and Santa Cruz at that time. The store housed a bar, a post office, a dental parlor and an extensive display of dry goods. Mr. Tripp and his partner, Mr. Parkhurst, hired a young woman named Emeline Skelton to be their housekeeper and Mr. Tripp married her in 1854. To this union was born one girl, Addie Tripp, who lived in the area until her death in 1926. Her mother died in 1886.

When California became a state, Dr. Tripp was elected supervisor for the Third District. He had become a man of great importance in the community. And he was the only dentist. Across the street from the general store, he constructed his home and continued in business at the store until his death in 1909.

For a wonderful experience, visit the Woodside Store in Woodside at the corner of Tripp and Kings Mountain Road. Phone (650) 851-7615 for times and days it is open. The admission is free.