San Carlos History Walk

Photo: Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)

San Carlos still uses the motto it chose when it became a city in 1925: the City of Good Living. This walking loop traces how it got there, from its first people to its electronics boom, in ten stops.

You start at the 1888 stone depot, then head toward the hills where the Lamchin lived and the Arguello family ran cattle on Rancho de las Pulgas, and on to the Brittan family's Victorian party house. Back toward downtown you walk early residential streets and pass the site of the 1918 schoolhouse and a 1929 church. Then you cross the tracks to the spot where San Carlos learned to fly in 1917 and where radio and microwave tubes made it an electronics town. The loop ends at the rebuilt 1923 firehouse that holds the free Museum of San Carlos History, and on Laurel Street, a block from where you began.

Plan on about two and a half hours and roughly 6 kilometers (4 miles) on sidewalks, with one steady climb. Private homes are seen from the sidewalk. Start at the San Carlos Caltrain depot, 599 El Camino Real.

10 stops on this tour:

San Carlos Depot - The Stone Station That Started a Town

Arguello Site - Lamchin Land and the Rancho of Fleas

Brittan Party House - A Bohemian Hunting Lodge

Elm Street - Victorian Hopes for a Paper Town

City Hall - From Schoolhouse to the City of Good Living

Casa de Flores - A Church for a Growing Town

Terminal Way - Where San Carlos Learned to Fly

Brittan Avenue - Airstrip, Racetrack and Radio Tubes

Museum of San Carlos History - The Firehouse, Rebuilt

Laurel Street - Main Street of the City of Good Living

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

More tours nearby

• Redwood City History Walk (2 mi) - Lumber schooners, a dome that outlasted an earthquake and a slogan nobody could prove: a loop through Redwood City's old downtown.
• Canada College Campus Walk (4 mi) - An hour on a hillside community college in Redwood City: student services, the library, science labs, a theater, two pools and olive trees.
• College of San Mateo Campus Walk (5 mi) - A hilltop loop through a 1963 modernist campus: student services, arts, athletics, a planetarium and the bay spread out below.
• Menlo College Campus Walk (5 mi) - A one-hour loop around a small Silicon Valley college: where students study, eat, play and live, and the stories behind the buildings.

All Bay Area tours →