Brittan Avenue - Airstrip, Racetrack and Radio Tubes

A stop on San Carlos History Walk, a free self-guided tour.

After the 1940 fire, the Cooleys kept flying from a strip just southeast of this corner, bounded by today's Brittan Avenue, Washington Street, Old County Road and Industrial Road. Planes used it through World War II, until the Cooleys opened a new field in 1948 on the bay side of the highway, now Highway 101. That is today's San Carlos Airport.

Speed came to town even earlier. In December 1921 a 1.25-mile wooden board track, the Greater San Francisco Speedway, opened on the flats toward the bay; local histories say about 40,000 people came to the first race. A brush fire destroyed it in June 1922, after only three races.

The longer story here is electronics. Dalmo Victor opened the city's first large plant in 1944, and Eitel-McCullough (Eimac), Varian Associates and Lenkurt Electric followed, building radio and microwave tubes and telephone equipment. Varian made giant klystron tubes a few blocks away on Washington Street. The low industrial buildings around you grew from that boom.

Getting here: Walk southeast along Old County Road, about 8 minutes, to Brittan Avenue.

Did you know?: In 1955 Lenkurt Electric hired Frank Lloyd Wright to design new San Carlos headquarters, but the building was never built after General Telephone and Electronics bought the company.

Photo op: From the corner of Brittan Avenue and Old County Road, frame the low industrial buildings with the hills behind them.

More on Wikipedia: Eimac · Varian Associates · Lenkurt Electric Company · Board track racing

Stops on this tour

  1. San Carlos Depot - The Stone Station That Started a Town
  2. Arguello Site - Lamchin Land and the Rancho of Fleas
  3. Brittan Party House - A Bohemian Hunting Lodge
  4. Elm Street - Victorian Hopes for a Paper Town
  5. City Hall - From Schoolhouse to the City of Good Living
  6. Casa de Flores - A Church for a Growing Town
  7. Terminal Way - Where San Carlos Learned to Fly
  8. Brittan Avenue - Airstrip, Racetrack and Radio Tubes
  9. Museum of San Carlos History - The Firehouse, Rebuilt
  10. Laurel Street - Main Street of the City of Good Living