OUR TOWN
BURLINGAME
NOSTALGIA


Here's a nice old postcard depicting Burlingame High School.

Our parents had a "membership" at the old Hyatt House Hotel on Old Bayshore which allowed us to use the swimming pool.
Here's an old image of the place!

The entrance to the Hyatt House...

It's a whole lot different today!

Greetings from...Burlingame!

The Bayshore Motel...


Early days of Burlingame's Peninsula Hospital...1940s or 1950s?


Here's what the hospital looked like in the 1960s...

And in the 1970s...

This was the entrance along El Camino.
Around 2010, or so, the entrance was moved to Trousdale Drive and a new building was constructed.

Burlingame's Train Station...looks nearly the same today as it did in the 1960s!

Circa 1907...The Burlingame Avenue "train station."

There was, apparently, a trolley car motoring up and down California Drive, once upon a time.

And another view of California Drive at Burlingame Avenue...

ALL ABOARD!

The railway 'stop' at Easton Drive...supposedly.

And the trolley making the rounds...


Here's a newspaper ad from ages ago encouraging city slickers to take the train to Burlingame.

How about a military academy?

How about the Burlingame High School Basketball Team?

This photo, we're told, is from just after World War II.

A front page from the Burlingame Advance (Later it was the Advance Star) newspaper.  There was a local firm building barge ships, apparently.
Barrett & Hilp are the two fellows owning the company.

Here's the building in the above ad...apparently it was a school.



The photo is said to be of the Seventeen Mile Drive around Spring Valley Falls in Burlingame, California!
THE HOME OF GOLF, POLO, MAGNIFICENT COUNTRY RESIDENCES, CHARMING DRIVES, HEALTHY SEA BATHING AND ABOVE ALL A HEALTHY CLIMATE THAT IS SECOND TO NONE, EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES OF THE HIGHEST ORDER AND A SUBSTANTIAL CLASS OF "ALL THE YEAR ROUND" SAN FRANCISCO BUSINESS MEN AND TRADESPEOPLE.
BURLINGAME IS THE HOME OF FLOWERS.  HERE ARE GROWN MORE ROSES, CARNATIONS, SWEET PEAS AND LILIES THAN IN ANY OTHER SECTION OF CALIFORNIA.
COMING MORE AND MORE INTO PUBLIC NOTICE AS A CHARMING COMMUNITY OF HOMES, BURLINGAME IS DOMINATED TODAY BY A SPIRIT OF PROGRESS AND ANY INQUIRY IN REGARD TO REAL ESTATE, BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES OR HOME ADVANTAGES WILL BE CHEERFULLY ANSWERED WHEN ADDRESSED TO ANY OF THE CONCERNS WHOSE NAMES APPEAR BELOW..."

Yeah, no high-rises back then!  This is thought to be a bit before 1920, perhaps.

Burlingame was viewed by San Franciscans as a place to escape to on the weekends...
Here's a shot glass from a grocery store that we think sold liquor (well before Prohibition).

The old Hyatt "Theater in the Round" was a "show business" competitor to the San Carlos theater called "The Circle Star."  The Hyatt has such luminaries as Lena Horne and maybe even Sinatra...It eventually was converted into a movie theater...It finally closed in 2007.

Up the road from the Hyatt was the Prime Rib house called Gulliver's.  This opened in the late 1970s/early 1980s and stayed in business until, perhaps 2013.
The female waitresses were, at least at the beginning, termed "Serving Wenches."

Burlingame Avenue in the 1950s...the theater was called the Peninsula Theater in those days...In the 1960s, it was the Fox Theater.  Now it's Fox Mall.

When the old building housing Morris Auto Parts came down by South Lane, an old mural was discovered.  Now it's still on display by Mike Harvey's car lot south of the Burlingame Avenue Train Station.

Anybody remember this restaurant on Old Bayshore?

SALUTO'S...

Burlingame Motor Company...Pontiac cars...1930s...
East Lane

Across the tracks from the Burlingame Train Station was another auto dealership.

Rector Motors was there, selling Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles.

Oak Drive in Burlingame...

Another view of the Club House...circa 1920.

Here's an old postcard of Burlingame's old City Hall...it appears someone drew in the little cupola on top of the photo...

When I was attending Franklin School, we had a contest every year with the kids all drawing something to do with the fire department.  Maybe it was Fire Prevention Week or Play With Matches Day...I cannot recall.
But I did, one year, win the best art work for my classroom and I was a Junior Fire Marshall.  I received a badge similar to this one, though about ten years later than this...

"Residence District"...Hard to tell, precisely, where this is, but I wonder if this isn't somewhere in the vicinity of our fire station by Palm Avenue...???

J.D. Grant?
Nice little house!

The Easton Residence...was this on what we today call Easton Drive?



Mountford Wilson's Residence...

Was the H.P. Bowie residence (near Burlingame) in Hillsborough?

An old Burlingame cop...maybe a chief???

This photo is thought to be from the 1940s...
"To my Good Friend Bob Hintermann?"
Sincerely,
R.W. Jack.......

-Martin Cohen sent us a note identifying the Chief as Chief R.C. "Jack" Theuer.
Mr. Cohen also wrote:

Someone sent this to us claiming it's an old photo of a Burlingame Fire Truck...

...it does say B.F.D. on the side.

An old snapshot of the fire station on Rollins Road, just north of Broadway.


An old fire truck in front of the old fire station on California Drive.
The station was thought not to be earthquake-safe, so it was demolished and rebuilt (maybe in the early 2000s?).
But the demolition crew found its job to be more difficult than imagined, since the old station was, as it turned out, quite sturdy and unwilling to crumble under the wrecking ball!


If the theater was showing Edward G. Robinson's "Outside the Law," this snapshot may have been taken.
Notice the Broadway-Burlingame Arch is in place (and still there today), having been installed there around 1927.
The Encore Theater remained until the 1990s or early 2000s, when it was purchased by a local real estate magnate who tore it down and replaced it with a strip mall.


A snapshot of the Encore Theater in the late 1960s...

An Old Burlingame High School Student Newspaper from 1938...

And the scouts were on parade...Not sure if the parade was in Burlingame...

...looks more like San Francisco, perhaps?  Apparently this was in the late 1920s... (and you can see the Hillsborough flag on the right...)

How about a ticket to the Little Big Game (before it was called The Little Big Game)?

Said to be photographed in the 1930s...the 1200 block of Broadway.
Photo snapped by Eugene E. Gallagher.

Do You Remember the restaurant "Bob's On Broadway"???

This restaurant was on the south side of Broadway up by El Camino Real.

Another old landmark on Broadway was the Cinnabar.

Today, I believe, that location is Behan's Irish Pub.

They had what they called the "Bamboo Lounge."

Broadway Smoke Shop...
I used to go in there and buy Mad Magazine (back in the 1960s!).

Approximately 1950, well before they had "red light cameras"...

Here's an old postmark from Burlingame, vintage 1952...

There was a "Flying A" gas station on the northwest corner of Broadway and California Drive...and I recall the old, bald gentleman who owned the Broadway Smoke Shop, a cigar-chomping old guy...

An old train engine rolling through town near the High School.

The Broadway train station a zillion years ago!
The train may have been some sort of SF Muni rail car...

Can you imagine the City running a little bus around town?  Today we have The Free B Shuttle, picking up passengers at bay front hotels and dropping them off at Broadway and/or Burlingame Avenue.
But in the 1960s the City paid for its own shuttle bus!

Here's an older view, looking west:

Do you remember the old Five & Dime near El Camino, Sprouse-Reitz?

Here's a card from an old cleaner just up the block from Weimax...

Said to be a 1930's view from the hills, I suppose, toward the Bay.


The 7th Day Adventist Church on El Camino near Oak Grove and the Hillsborough City Hall.
Circa 1940.

Anybody remember the bar called The Black Horse?

Probably California Drive and Burlingame Avenue...
Today occupied by Straits Cafe...


Looking eastbound on Burlingame Avenue...
There's the Fox Theater on the right...

Another view from nearly the same perspective, but perhaps a decade, or so, earlier.
What we knew in the 1960s as The Fox Theater, was called the Peninsula Theatre.

Today there's Blueline Pizza in the address of the old Peninsula Meat Company which was thriving in 1923.
Wonder what a steak cost back then??

A school art project displayed in a Burlingame Avenue area parking lot...probably the late 1960s or early 1970s based on the license plate on that Volkswagen.

Another Art Project:

The Burlingame Main Post Office was a marvelous building!
It was closed in early 2015 and they opened a small office on Primrose where it's difficult to park.
The original post office was situated adjacent to a large parking lot and there were three drive-by mailboxes so you could drop off an envelope.
The building had beautiful brass fixtures, but was allowed to deteriorate until it was a sad shadow of its former glorious self.

 
Today the site of Poole's Restaurant & bar and Russell's cheerful place is Geneve Jewelers...

An old shoe store must have been run by a couple of sharp shooters...

Here's a magazine advertisement for a cabinet company which furnished the then-new Burlingame Towers apartment building (El Camino and Floribunda).

Anyone remember La Baie?

The Fisherman enjoyed a few years of fame...gone now, today the home of a Russian-themed place called Fandorin.


Do you remember "Les Jon" over on Old Bayshore?
These days it's home to a place called Caribbean Garden.

La Piñata was a favorite place on Burlingame Avenue for Margaritas and chips...
Now it's a Sephora store.

The Old Alpine Inn is, today, Stella Alpina, a very popular Italianesque restaurant.


A cocktail lounge on Burlingame Avenue...

Mister J's...

Caine Cleaners 

An old Liquor Store on Broadway...did this pre-date Baleri's Bi-Rite Market, perhaps?

Tia Maria turned into El Torito, which is now shuttered.

Need a muffler?

How about a camera?

Today the old Penguin Lounge, a long-time watering hole, is Basecamp Fitness.

Today that address is a dry cleaning establishment.

Might you recall this fancy Chinese restaurant over on Airport Boulevard?  It was on the top floor of an office building.

This old, long-time drinking establishment is, today, the home of Sixto's Cantina.
The Bit of England!

Near "The Bit" was the upscale clothier, Robert Gates.

The Glamour Nook!
It's not called that these days, but it remains a hair salon.

There's still a Baggy's Liquors in the Burlingame Plaza...not under the same ownership, though.

The Matterhorn was located on California Drive, a short distance south of Broadway...It was open, if we recall correctly, in the 1960s and maybe into the early 1970s.

Still hard to believe Rector is not affiliated with Cadillacs!

A lighting store was on Broadway...I think they offered "black lights" and such...


Today that building is occupied by "A Runner's Mind," a store for joggers and marathon artists.
Howard "Street"?



Today it's The Vinyl Room.
Yesterday it was The Polo Club.

Burlingame had a Round Table Pizza parlor until, what?, 2011 or so?

Today The Piccadilly is a hair salon.

Bell Savings was once in the Burlingame Plaza.

Remember the Airport Marina Hotel?

Here's the Ramada Inn shortly after it was built...

Today what was Schlegel's restaurant is occupied by La Corneta, a lovely Mexican dining spot.

Cheeks?
Today that address is an office building.

Can you imagine the hospital offering books of matches?

They did!

An old map and brochure...

Imagine having to have a city license for your car as well as a state license!




Burlingame Country Club actually had 3 polo fields!



The Bayshore Motel...



A "Rustic Lodge" somewhere in town, probably up in the hills, no?

F. J. Caroline?  Where was this???

Did we have a Harmonica "factory" or maker here in town?  Apparently the Regan family was in the music or musical instrument business, once upon a time.

Pearce Florist on Burlingame Avenue many years ago!

Do you remember the Rod McLellan company?  They owned a large orchid farm in South San Francisco before selling that to a housing developer.   The first McLellan had 20 acres in San  Francisco in the 1860s and then moved to a 188 acre site in San Mateo near what is now Hillsdale.  That McLellan's son Edgar began cultivating flowers.  In 1897 he had 7 acres in Burlingame where he grew chrysanthemums, roses and carnations.  We understand he had the largest installation of greenhouses with 324,000 square feet to grown flowers.
Edgar's son was Rod McClellan and in 1927 they opened a facility in South San Francisco.

We had a Drive-In Movie theater at the south end of Airport Boulevard.  It closed at the beginning of the 21st Century and was purchased by a local development group which had plans for a big office complex.
The plans were scuttled when the economy tanked, but in 2014, a new developer has plans to build an office complex.

This snapshot is of the snack-bar.


One of the last showings at the drive in (which had, I think, four screens at its end) were Bless The Child and The Replacements, both released in 2000.


United Press International sent this photo over their wires and around the world in 1978.
It's of a Burlingame resident named Paul Sahlin who had this pipe organ in his house.
There were 1332 pipes!

UPI noted:  "Burlingame, California:  Paul Sahlin, who great pipe dream has come true, sits at the console of his organ in his home in Burlingame, California, a San Francisco suburb.  Jammed into his modest home are 1332 pipes of the grand pipe organ he built himself.  Sahlin, a personnel manager for a sugar company, began the major undertaking in September, 1974.   By the time he finished recently (the photos were posted in early January of 1978), the pipes filled a living room alcove, a stairway and the entire attic loft.  The organ's pipes range from 5/16th of an inch to 17 feet in length in 26 ranks.
They are made of pine and poplar with an alloy of tin and lead and polished copper.  The console, also handmade, is of oak and walnut..."

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