Redwood City History Walk

Photo: Coolcaesar, CC BY 4.0 (cropped)

Redwood City began as a landing on a tidal creek, where redwood logs and lumber from the hills were loaded onto schooners bound for San Francisco. It became the seat of the new San Mateo County in 1856 and in 1867 the county's first incorporated city.

This walking loop covers that story in ten stops, all within a few blocks. You start at Courthouse Square and the domed 1910 courthouse, now the San Mateo County History Museum, then visit the Lathrop House, built for the county's first clerk, and the Fox Theatre. From there you follow Broadway east to where Redwood Creek still runs under the street, find the Path of History kiosk at Broadway and Main, and see Main Street's oldest survivors: an 1859 brick store, a 1900 bank, a 1912 hotel and an 1896 theater. The loop ends back at Courthouse Square.

The walk is level, on sidewalks, about 1.5 kilometers (1 mile), and takes about an hour and a half with time at each stop. Start in Courthouse Square, 2200 Broadway.

10 stops on this tour:

Old County Courthouse - The Dome That Outlasted the Quake

Lathrop House - Steamboat Gothic for the First Clerk

Fox Theatre - Gothic Dreams on Broadway

Redwood Creek Crossing - The Buried Landing

Broadway and Main - The Kiosk at the Old T

Diller-Chamberlain Store - The County's Oldest Shopfront

Main Street Corner - A Bank and a Grand Hotel

Alhambra Theater - Opera, a Saloon and Wyatt Earp

Main Library - Fire Station No. 1 Reborn

Courthouse Square - Climate Best by Government Test

Stops on this tour

1. Old County Courthouse - The Dome That Outlasted the Quake
2. Lathrop House - Steamboat Gothic for the First Clerk
3. Fox Theatre - Gothic Dreams on Broadway
4. Redwood Creek Crossing - The Buried Landing
5. Broadway and Main - The Kiosk at the Old T
6. Diller-Chamberlain Store - The County's Oldest Shopfront
7. Main Street Corner - A Bank and a Grand Hotel
8. Alhambra Theater - Opera, a Saloon and Wyatt Earp
9. Main Library - Fire Station No. 1 Reborn
10. Courthouse Square - Climate Best by Government Test

More tours nearby

• San Carlos History Walk (2 mi) - From Lamchin villages and a stone depot to a 1917 airfield and radio tubes: a walking loop through the City of Good Living.
• Canada College Campus Walk (3 mi) - An hour on a hillside community college in Redwood City: student services, the library, science labs, a theater, two pools and olive trees.
• Menlo College Campus Walk (3 mi) - A one-hour loop around a small Silicon Valley college: where students study, eat, play and live, and the stories behind the buildings.
• Silicon Valley Tech Heritage Tour (5 mi) - Where Innovation Became History

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