Millbrae is a city in northern San Mateo County, California, United States. To the northeast is San Francisco International Airport; San Bruno is to the northwest, and Burlingame is to the southeast. It is bordered by San Andreas Lake to the southwest. The population was 23,216 at the 2020 census.
History
The oral tradition of the Ohlone people suggests they have been living in the Bay Area for thousands of years. Anthropological evidence suggests Ohlone ethnogenesis occurred around 700 CE following a wave of migration from the Central Valley.For origin, arrival and displacement based on "linguistic evidence" in 500 CE per Levy, 1978:486, also Bean, 1994:xxi (cites Levy 1978). For Shell Mound dating, F.M. Stanger 1968:4. The local Ohlone people are today called the Ramaytush Ohlone; however, this name is a linguistic designation that arose relatively recently. Prior to colonization, the Ohlone did not operate as a single consolidated unit; they identified more with their local tribe and village than with the nation at large. The several local tribes that lived in the area prior to colonization coalesced into the modern Ramaytush people following the precipitous decline of their population in the 1800s. The closest villages to what is now Millbrae were located by the banks of San Bruno Creek, and they are known as Urebure and Siplichiquin. A third nearby village—whose original name is unknown—is called CA-SMA-299.
1500s Anthropological evidence and oral tradition indicate the Ohlone people were living in the Bay Area prior to the 1500s. The Spanish empire claimed much of what is now the United States during the early period of Spanish colonization of the Americas. In 1535, the Spanish empire established the kingdom of New Spain, which inherited the empire's claims to much of what is now the western United States.
In 1542, Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo explored the Pacific coast near what is today Millbrae, though the expedition did not see the Golden Gate or the San Francisco Bay, likely due to the San Francisco fog. The Ohlone people may have met this expedition as they explored the Monterey Bay, about 50 miles southeast of Millbrae.
In 1595, Philip II of Spain tasked Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho with mapping the west coast of the Americas. Soromenho set sail on Manila Galleon San Agustin on July 5, 1595, and in early November they reached land between Point St. George and Trinidad Head. The expedition followed the coast southward and on November 7 the San Agustin anchored in Drakes Bay, about 40 miles northwest of Millbrae. In late November, a storm sank the San Agustin and killed between 7 and 12 people. On December 8, 80 remaining crew members set sail on the San Buenaventura, a launch which was partially constructed en route from the Philippines. Seeking the fastest route south, the expedition failed to notice the Golden Gate, arriving at Puerto de Chacala, Mexico on January 17, 1596.Aker (1965)
1600s In 1601, New Spain tasked Sebastián Vizcaíno with mapping the California coastline in detail and locating safe harbors in Alta California for Manila Galleons to use on their return voyage to Acapulco from Manila. In 1602, members of Vizcaíno's expedition explored as far north as Coos Bay, however like previous expeditions, they missed the Golden Gate. In 1603, this expedition landed in Monterey Bay, about 50 miles southeast of Millbrae, leading to the first documented interaction between the Ohlone people and European explorers.Milliken, R., Shoup, L. H., Ortiz, B. (2009). Ohlone/Costanoan Indians of the San Francisco Peninsula and Their Neighbors, Yesterday and Today. United States: Archaeological and Historical Consultants. Little came of this expedition, and for the next 150 years, Alta California remained a distant frontier land, largely outside of the kingdom's control, despite its claims. Anthropological evidence and oral tradition indicate the Ohlone people were living in the Bay Area throughout this time.
1700s The San Francisco Bay may have been explored and mapped in the early 1700s. José Cabrera Bueno's 1734 Navegación Espéculativa y Práctica describe it with the following:Through the opening in the center enters an estuary of salt water without any breaking of the waves at all, and by going in one will find friendly Indians and can easily take on water and wood.On November 4, 1769, the Portolà expedition climbed Sweeney Ridge and descended southeast parallel to San Andreas Creek before camping overnight near what is today San Andreas Lake and Millbrae's western border. The Portolà expedition continued southeast along the peninsula before turning back and returning to San Diego.
Gaspar de Portolá returned to the Bay Area the following year, accompanied by Junípero Serra, who established Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo—the second Spanish mission in Alta California—in what is today Monterey on June 3, 1770. Between 1769 and 1824 a total of 21 missions were established across Alta California.
The sixth Spanish mission in Alta California, Mission San Francisco de Asís was established on October 9, 1776, in what is today San Francisco's Mission District, about 10 miles north of Millbrae. Over the next few decades, many of the Ohlone people who lived in and around what is today Millbrae relocated to Mission San Francisco de Asís, where they were baptized. Nearly all the Indigenous people of the area around what is today Millbrae were baptized between 1777 and 1783, and by 1793, the 8 village sites in what are today San Francisco and northern San Mateo county had been abandoned and most of the Indigenous people of that area had relocated to Mission San Francisco.
The missions maintained authority over much of Alta California even after Mexico's independence from Spain 1821.
1800s The First Mexican Empire came and went with little change for residents of the area. The First Mexican Republic was established in 1824, and one of the most significant changes came when José María de Echeandía, Governor of Alta California, issued a "Proclamation of Emancipation" (or "Prevenciónes de Emancipacion") on July 25, 1826.Engelhardt 1922, p. 80, San Diego Mission, "The military district of San Diego embraced the Missions of San Diego, San Luis Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel." Following this proclamation, the Indigenous people within the military districts of San Diego, Santa Barbara, and Monterey who were found qualified were freed from missionary rule and made eligible to become Mexican citizens.Bancroft, vol. i, pp. 100–101: The motives behind the issuance of Echeandía's premature decree may have had more to do with his desire to appease "...some prominent Californians who had already had their eyes on the mission lands..." than with concern for the welfare of the natives.Stern and Miller, pp. 51–52: Catholic historian Zephyrin Engelhardt referred to Echeandía as "...an avowed enemy of the religious orders." In 1827, Echeandía granted permission for sub-lieutenant José Antonio Sánchez to occupy Mission San Francisco's Rancho Buri Buri—which included parts of present-day Millbrae and Burlingame—for “grazing and agricultural purposes."
The Mexican Secularization Act of 1833 opened the lands of nearby Mission Dolores to civilian settlement, and the small town of Yerba Buena, which later changed its name to San Francisco, was established that year. Settlement was slow however; in 1847 San Francisco was said to have only 459 residents. Few people lived in what is now Millbrae at this time, likely only a few Californio families. California came under American rule in 1848 following the Mexican–American War, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, and the Mexican Cession and California became the 31st state in of the United States in 1850. The discovery of gold relatively nearby in 1848 led to massive population growth, with San Francisco's population growing 5446% in just a few years, from 459 residents in 1847 to 25,000 in 1850. San Francisco County was one of the state's 18 original counties established at California statehood in 1850,Report of Committee on Counties, January 4, 1850, revised to 27 counties on February 18, 1850 – however in 1856, the California state government divided the county. A straight line was then drawn across the tip of the San Francisco Peninsula just north of San Bruno Mountain, and everything south of the line became the new San Mateo County while everything north of the line became the new consolidated City and County of San Francisco.
In the 1860s, Darius Ogden Mills purchased a portion of Rancho Buri Buri from José de la Cruz Sánchez to build a country estate. The San Francisco and San Jose Railroad, predecessor to Caltrain, began operations in 1863, directly connecting Millbrae and other peninsula towns to Market Street, with service extending to San Jose in 1864. In 1872, members of the Sánchez family built the original Sixteen Mile House, a historical restaurant and rest stop near the Mills estate, and direct link to Millbrae's early days. The Mills estate was bordered by what is now Skyline Boulevard, U.S. Route 101 (the Bayshore Freeway), Millbrae Avenue and Trousdale Drive. The estate became known as "Millbrae" from "Mills" and the Scottish word "brae," which means "rolling hills" or "hill slope." Millbrae grew slowly during the 19th century; according to the 1890 US Census, the town had only 243 residents.
1900s The early 20th century saw rapid growth in Millbrae's population, which increased 3692% from 243 in 1890 to 8,972 in 1950. Transportation has shaped Millbrae's growth; Legislative Route Number (LRN) 2, which is today known as California State Route 82 or El Camino Real, was established in 1909 largely parallel to the San Francisco and San Jose Railroad, and in 1919, Skyline Boulevard, which runs along Millbrae's western boundary, was established as LRN 55, connecting San Francisco and Santa Cruz via the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Construction on the Bayshore Freeway, which runs parallel to El Camino and the SF&SJ railroad tracks, began in 1924 and by 1929, it connected Millbrae with the East Bay via the newly completed San Mateo-Hayward Bridge. Southern Pacific double tracked the SF&SJ railroad in 1904 and by the 1940s, 26 trains ran between SF and SJ per day, with headways as low as 5 minutes (traveling north) in the mornings and 3 minutes (traveling south) in the evening. Additionally, until 1948, Muni's #40 "interurban" streetcar traveled through Millbrae, providing passenger rail service between San Francisco and San Mateo.
Millbrae's Green Hills Country Club was built in 1929 and designed by famed golf course architect Dr. Alister MacKenzie, who also designed other noteworthy courses such as Augusta National, Cypress Point, Royal Melbourne, and Pasatiempo. The course was originally known as the Union League Golf Club of San Francisco (1930 to 1933) and Millbrae Country Club (1933 to 1945). The course provides a green belt in the center of the city that is the home of many animals, such as the red-tail fox, that otherwise would not be able to survive in the urban setting. It also may be the only area of the city where natural creeks still flow above ground.
In 1931, citizens organized a volunteer fire department, which remained entirely volunteer until 1938. The police and fire departments were housed together for several years at Hillcrest Boulevard and El Camino Real before the vital services moved to their permanent location in Millbrae's civic center, a few blocks west of El Camino. Millbrae used a private patrol financed by fees from merchants and residents until 1941, when the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors created the Millbrae Police District. Records of the Internal Revenue Service document the licensing of several Millbrae bars for gambling; only after incorporation were gambling laws enforced in Millbrae and not until the 1950s was gambling defeated.