The history of Belmont Joshua Baxter
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In October of 1926, the city of Belmont was incorporated into San Mateo County as a residential suburb of San Francisco. Nearing the century mark of its incorporation, Belmont has come a long way to become the thriving community it is today: a community where many residents enjoy the people and places around them. “My favorite part about living in Belmont is the people that I am surrounded by. The community is filled with friendly individuals who I have known for a while. I am privileged to be in a place where there are so many affable families,” Thaddeus Duffy, a senior, said. But before Belmont was even considered as a suburb, it started out as a part of a 35,240-acre Spanish land grant known as Rancho de las Pulgas in 1795. It was on this land where many local Ohlone tribes lived, who the Spanish converted to Christianity. In 1850, Belmont was settled with the purpose of serving as a stagecoach station. That year, Charles Aubrey Angelo, an Englishman, established Angelo’s Road House on the intersection of current day Old County Road and Ralston Avenue. The location was originally known as Angelo’s Corners, before officially becoming known as Belmont in 1853, which is thought to have been derived from “bel monte,” the Italian phrase for beautiful mountain. A year later, a U.S. Post Office was established and became the third post office in what was then known as San Francisco County. According to a document from the Historical Resources Inventory of Belmont prepared by the San Mateo County Historical Association, in 1856, former governor John McDougald was instrumental in
Belmont becoming the first seat in the newly formed San Mateo County. Ten years later, a financer in San Francisco named William Ralston, who Ralston Avenue is named after, purchased property once belonging to Italian consul Leonetto Cipriani. Ralston turned this land into a mansion, which today is a part of Notre Dame de Namur University. The first train station opened in Belmont in 1867, which not only increased business but brought in many tourists to the newly opened of Belmont Park (now Twin Pines Park), created by Carl Augustus Janke The Janke family is also credited with opening the first Belmont industry when they established a soft drink bottling and brewing service in 1876, known as the Belmont Soda Works. Another major aspect of Belmont in the late 19th and early 20th centuries was its Japanese presence. The Belmont School for Boys was known to be the first school in America where Japanese elites sent their children to be introduced to Western culture. The effect of the Japanese in Belmont was seen up until World War II, as their skills in growing and trading chrysanthemums helped Belmont blossom into the chrysanthemum center of the U.S. until the relocation of Japanese-Americans following the attack on Pearl Harbor. Belmont was also well known for its many sanitariums. In 1901, Dr. Alden M. Gardner founded the Gardner Nerve Sanitarium after expanding a wing of Ralston’s Mansion. Gardner’s sanitarium was the first of many that would be established in upcoming years. The next major sanitarium, the California Sanitarium, was founded in 1910 for lung related issues, and in 1915 Annette S. Alexander purchased land which later was turned into the Alexander Sanitarium. Aside from the Nerve Rest Sanitarium founded by Maude Reed in 1918, the last
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