Belmont
Belmont History
Beginnings
Captain Owen O’Neill was an Englishman who brought passengers to and from England and San Francisco on his ship the Hell and Mariah by means of journeying around Cape Horn in South America in the mid 1800s. After his retirement from traveling to and from Europe, O’Neill used the lumber he brought with him around Cape Horn up Belmont Creek from the Bay to build a house and dock in the Belmont marshland to bring people between Belmont and San Francisco.
By the early 1900s, San Franciscans had built cabins of their own in the area ($5 a year for permission to occupy the land) for weekend getaways, creating a community that became known as Shantytown which was eventually demolished. The City of Belmont was incorporated in October 1926. It is thought the city's name comes from the Italian phrase belle monte, which means "beautiful mountain".
Railroad
Although the Southern Pacific Railroad trains stopped at Belmont since 1864, the railroad did not place a depot there until 1867. From 1860 until 1900 the railroad also supplied special trains to Belmont Park, one of the best picnic places on the Peninsula at the time. The depot remained until 1952.
Ralston Hall
Ralston Hall Mansion was the country house of William Chapman Ralston, a San Francisco businessman, a founder of the Bank of California, and a financier of the Comstock Lode. It is an opulent Italianate Villa, modified with touches of Steamboat Gothic and Victorian details. Outside of the mansion, the estate had a stone carriage house, barns, a bowling alley, greenhouses, servants’ quarters, and a gymnasium with Turkish baths. The estate was built to be self-sufficient, with innovative gas and water systems. A reservoir was constructed on the property in 1870. This California Historical Landmark and National Historic Landmark has been part of Notre Dame de Namur University since 1922.
Freeways
Skyline Boulevard was built to be added to the state highway system in 1919. The Dumbarton and San Mateo-Hayward Bridges were built across the San Francisco Bay in the 1920s. The Bayshore Highway became a second route in 1927, but only from San Francisco to where the Dumbarton Bridge would begin, opening with the first two lanes through the Belmont area. The state legislature eventually extended the highway to San Jose. The new highway was officially dedicated in October 1929, changing drastically from the two lane roads to the eight lane roads today. The Bayshore Highway was marked as a bypass of US 101 by 1939.
Camp Belmont and Belmont Airport
Camp Belmont was installed along the Pacific Coast during the Second World War to guard against attacks from Japan. In 1942, the 76th Field Artillery Battalion was transferred to Camp Belmont as temporary headquarters.
Text courtesy of:
https://www.burlingame.org/165/History-of-Burlingame
https://burlingamechamber.org/life-in-burlingame/history/