Overview of Burlingame

In Burlingame, you don’t buy a house—you buy a home.  Relationships run as deep as the roots of the huge heritage trees that shade the streets of this mid-Peninsula city. An advertising slogan adopted by merchants and real estate agents in the 1920s—“You are a stranger here but once”—still rings true today.  The Burlingame community welcomes the newcomer to share all the best California has to offer—exceptional weather, architecturally unique homes, lush landscaping, highly-rated public schools, fine dining, great shopping and a wide array of civic clubs and religious institutions.  Situated within a 15-mile commute to either San Francisco or Silicon Valley, the frequent air traveler will also love Burlingame’s location, just ten minutes away from the San Francisco airport.

The city’s iconic emblem is its 130-year-old Spanish mission revival style train station, situated at the foot of its main commercial shopping street, Burlingame Avenue.  There, in the late afternoon, one can bask in the warmth of the California sun while enjoying the cool breeze and lovely views created by the scarves of fog that drape the city’s western hills nearly every sunset.  The train station – a California historical landmark — once welcomed wealthy San Franciscans to the prestigious Burlingame Country Club, the oldest country club west of the Mississippi.  Founded in 1893, 15 years before the city’s incorporation, the country club gave the community its name and its cachet.  Around the turn of the 19th century, the club and its activities, including fox hunts originating at the train station, helped define Burlingame as “perhaps the most exclusive hometown in California” where San Francisco high society had its country headquarters.  Now, the Chamber of Commerce resides in the old stationmaster’s quarters and The Burlingame Hillsborough History Museum occupies the station’s former waiting room and ticket office.

The Burlingame community consists of several smaller neighborhoods. The ones fanning out from the train station –

Lyon-Hoag and Burlingables to the east and Burlingame Park to the west– contain some of the city’s oldest homes, dating from a time when walking distance to the train station dictated home locations. As one proceeds north, the changing architecture bears visual witness to the growth of the city.  The bungalows and Victorians of the older neighborhoods give way to the English Tudors and Mediterranean style homes of the Easton Addition, which is within easy walking distance of Burlingame’s other commercial street, Broadway.  Ray Park and Mills Estates, two of the last areas of the city to be developed on the former D.O. Mills estate, feature mid-century modern homes and Eichlers, all close to the Burlingame Plaza shopping area.  Each neighborhood offers something unique and each boasts an excellent neighborhood elementary school.

If you’re ready to create a home in a city that prides itself on its active and involved community, its schools, its history and its towering trees, then call me and we’ll begin exploring the neighborhoods to find the perfect fit for you.

Raziel’s All Time Favorite Pastry and Dessert Shop: Copenhagen Bakery, on “The Ave” (make sure you ask for their chocolate pizza!)

Town Nickname: The City of Trees

Fast Facts: Burlingame is the home of the Pez Museum, It’s It Ice Cream, and the Guittand Chocolate Company, whose chocolaty aromas are frequently smelled in northern Burlingame!

Read Raziel’s New Burlingamers Guide to Burlingame