Millbrae

Darius Ogden Mills purchased land in the 1860s from the Sanchez family to build a country estate. The former Mills estate was bordered by what is now Skyline Boulevard, Bayshore Highway U.S. Route 101, 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.” Children swam in three lakes situated on the estate and sold acacias to tourists before the Mills family began to sell the land for development. The estate’s spectacular mansion burned down during a realistic “fire drill” in 1954.

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. 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.

For many Millbrae residents, the original Sixteen Mile House was a direct link to Millbrae’s early days. The rest stop was built in 1872 by members of the Sanchez family, the original landholders of the Rancho Buri Buri, which at one time comprised parts of present-day Millbrae and Burlingame. The building faced demolition but was moved to its current location on Broadway and serves today as a tavern and restaurant.

Spurred largely by the desire to secure the Mills’ estate for residential use and by the efforts of Millbrae’s weekly newspaper, the Millbrae Sun, residents heatedly discussed incorporation for over a decade before voting to incorporate. Finally, on January 14, 1948, residents of Millbrae traveled to Sacramento to present their new city’s charter. W.F. Leutenegger was elected mayor to represent Millbrae’s nearly 8,000 residents. That year, Green Hills Elementary School opened as Millbrae’s first new school in over 25 years, in anticipation of the educational needs of the post-war “baby boom” children. The new city’s chief industries were agriculture, floriculture, dairy, and porcelain manufacturing. Many families that built the new city have never left.

In the 1950s, Millbrae residents united to resist efforts to divide the city by the planned Junipero Serra Freeway (I-280), which was later routed parallel to Junipero Serra Boulevard, then through a canyon in San Bruno up to Skyline Boulevard. An unsuccessful effort to save the original Sixteen Mile House in the 1970s led to the birth of the Millbrae Historical Society and eventual successful crusades to save the Millbrae train station and the historic building that has become the Millbrae Historical Museum. Such challenges, though inevitable, have only strengthened Millbrae’s resolve to preserve the city’s unique character and rich history.

Transportation has shaped Millbrae’s growth. From the start of the 20th century, the #40 “interurban” streetcar traveled through Millbrae, linking the city with San Francisco and San Mateo. Millbrae’s high school children rode the streetcar to attend Burlingame High School until Capuchino High School opened on September 11, 1950. The streetcar line was dismantled just after Millbrae’s incorporation, leaving the Southern Pacific Railroad as the only railway linking Millbrae with surrounding areas. The Sixteen Mile House marked Millbrae along the railroad route, located where Millbrae’s first Corner Frame Shop stands today. In the 1940s, as long-time residents vividly recall, a hilltop literally was shaved away to produce landfill for expanding San Francisco Airport, which received an “international” designation in 1954 with the completion of the Central Terminal.

A wetland area in the eastern part of the city adjacent to U.S. highway 101 is habitat to the endangered species San Francisco garter snake, a species endemic to San Mateo County. At the western edge of the city the San Andreas Lake and the San Andreas Fault may be found.

Millbrae has a reputation for having some of the best schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, despite enduring years of state budget cuts.

Millbrae School District oversees four public elementary schools (Meadows, Green Hills, Lomita Park, and Spring Valley) and one middle school (Taylor Middle School, named after the family that owned land along Taylor Boulevard prior to the city being laid out). MSD is state-funded and does not receive local property taxes, and has endured budget cuts from the state since 2007.

Millbrae has one private school at Saint Dunstan’s, a Catholic church. The school provides education for grades K-8.

Millbrae has one public high school, Mills High School, which is part of the San Mateo Union High School District. Mills High School is the highest-scoring high school, test-wise, in San Mateo County. Mills High School is situated about a block away from the southern border of Millbrae with Burlingame. Although surrounded by land that is part of Millbrae, nearby Capuchino High School is located in San Bruno.

The city is served by the Millbrae Public Library of the San Mateo County Libraries, a member of the Peninsula Library System.

Millbrae is located between San Francisco and San Jose. U.S. Route 101 and Interstate 280 run along the eastern and western boundaries of the city, respectively. San Francisco International Airport is adjacent to the city.

The Millbrae Intermodal Station serves as a major transit hub for the Peninsula, connecting the BART, Caltrain, and SamTrans networks. It is the largest intermodal station west of the Mississippi river, in terms of construction size and land usage. The BART Pittsburg/Bay Point – SFO/Millbrae line and Richmond–Millbrae line serve the Millbrae Intermodal Station. A SamTrans local line 43 serves Millbrae.

Millbrae’s economy is driven mainly by its long strips of hotels. Because of its close proximity to San Francisco International Airport and to the city of San Francisco, and its advanced transit center that can connect people to all major cities/events in the Bay Area, many tourists opt to stay in Millbrae. Its downtown is mainly along El Camino Real and Broadway Avenue. There are many small shops, restaurants, a Safeway, Walgreens, Trader Joe’s, Dress Barn, Office Depot, and Orchard Supply Hardware.