Burlingame

Burlingame is a city in San Mateo County, California, situated on the San Francisco Peninsula approximately 14 miles (23 km) south of San Francisco. Incorporated in 1909, it covers roughly 6.1 square miles and had a population of 30,117 as of the 2020 U.S. Census. The city is named after Anson Burlingame, an American diplomat and congressman who served as U.S. Minister to China and negotiated the 1868 Burlingame Treaty. Bordered by Hillsborough to the west, Millbrae to the south, and San Mateo to the southeast, it sits along the western shore of San Francisco Bay.

The city's position midway between San Francisco and the broader Silicon Valley corridor has shaped its economic character. Its economy draws from technology, healthcare, and hospitality sectors, anchored in part by the proximity of San Francisco International Airport (SFO), which lies about two miles to the north. Burlingame's downtown, centered on Burlingame Avenue and Broadway, is known for its concentration of independent shops, restaurants, and pre-war commercial architecture. The city's residential neighborhoods are largely single-family, with tree-lined streets that give the city much of its recognizable character.

History

Burlingame's origins lie in the Mexican-era land grant known as Rancho San Mateo, established in the 1830s and encompassing much of the present-day mid-peninsula region. After California statehood in 1850, the rancho lands passed through several owners and were gradually subdivided. William C. Ralston, a San Francisco banker and founder of the Bank of California, acquired a substantial portion of the land in the 1860s and developed a country estate in the area. Following Ralston's death in 1875, the land was purchased by a group of San Francisco businessmen who laid out the Burlingame Country Club and residential lots intended for wealthy San Franciscans seeking a rural retreat accessible by rail.

The community incorporated as the City of Burlingame on June 6, 1908, making it one of the earliest incorporated municipalities in San Mateo County. Growth accelerated following the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, as many displaced residents relocated to the peninsula. The Southern Pacific Railroad had long operated a station in Burlingame, and commuter rail service made the city practical for San Francisco workers long before the automobile era.

Through the mid-20th century, Burlingame developed steadily as a middle-class residential city. The opening of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge in November 1936 and the postwar expansion of the regional highway network drew additional growth, though Burlingame retained more of its pre-war character than many surrounding communities. The expansion of SFO—originally established in 1927 as Mills Field—brought hotel and hospitality development along the Bayshore corridor, a pattern that continues today.

In the early 21st century, in April 2025, the city marked a civic milestone by sealing a 50-year time capsule intended to be opened in 2075, containing artifacts and messages documenting contemporary Burlingame life.

Geography

Burlingame occupies approximately 6.1 square miles of total area, of which about 4.4 square miles is land and the remainder water along the bay margin. The city sits on the western edge of San Francisco Bay, with flat bay-front land giving way to gently rising terrain toward the hills to the west. The eastern portions of the city, near the Bayshore Freeway (U.S. Route 101), are predominantly low-lying and were historically tidal marsh before landfill operations in the 20th century. The western residential neighborhoods climb into the lower foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, reaching elevations of several hundred feet and offering views across the bay toward the East Bay Hills.

The city is bordered to the north by the city limits of San Mateo County's unincorporated areas near SFO, to the south by San Mateo, to the west by the town of Hillsborough, and to the south-southwest by Millbrae.

Burlingame's climate is Mediterranean, characterized by dry summers and mild, wet winters. The bay moderates temperatures considerably; summer highs typically range from the low to mid-60s °F (around 17–18 °C), and winter lows rarely drop below 40 °F (4 °C). Most annual precipitation—averaging around 20 inches (510 mm)—falls between November and April. Heavy rainfall events can cause localized flooding in low-lying bay-margin areas, and the city has undertaken storm drainage improvements to address this risk. The city's Climate Action Plan sets targets for greenhouse gas reductions and directs planning efforts toward sustainability and flood resilience.

History of the Name

The city takes its name from Anson Burlingame (1820–1870), a Massachusetts-born politician who represented Michigan in the U.S. House of Representatives and later served as U.S. Minister to China under President Abraham Lincoln. Burlingame's diplomatic work in Beijing led to the landmark Burlingame Treaty of 1868, which formalized relations between the United States and the Qing dynasty and established reciprocal immigration rights. He died in Saint Petersburg in 1870 while on a diplomatic mission. The country club and residential subdivision laid out on the former Ralston estate in the 1860s and 1870s was named in his honor, and the name carried forward when the city incorporated.

Culture

Burlingame's cultural life is organized around its downtown districts, public institutions, and annual community events. The Burlingame Public Library, located on Primrose Road, serves as a civic anchor with collections, programming, and community meeting space. The city supports arts programming through the Burlingame Arts Council, which coordinates exhibitions, performances, and public art installations throughout the year.

Annual events include the Burlingame Art in the Park festival and the city's holiday parade, both of which draw residents from across the peninsula. Burlingame High School and Burlingame Intermediate School maintain active arts and music programs that feed into the broader community cultural calendar. The city's proximity to San Francisco—about 25 minutes by Caltrain—gives residents easy access to institutions including the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Opera, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, supplementing what the city itself offers locally.

The city's restaurant and café scene reflects its demographic diversity. Burlingame Avenue and Broadway function as the two main commercial corridors, with independent businesses predominating over chains. The concentration of pre-war commercial buildings along these streets, many listed on local historic registers, gives the downtown a physical coherence uncommon in suburban settings.

Economy

Burlingame's economy is anchored by three sectors: hospitality and travel services tied to SFO, healthcare, and a growing presence of technology companies. The cluster of hotels along the U.S. 101 corridor—representing thousands of rooms—makes the city one of the largest hotel markets on the peninsula, supported by business travel to and from the airport and corporate campuses throughout Silicon Valley.

The healthcare sector is anchored by Sutter Health's Mills-Peninsula Medical Center, a major regional hospital serving Burlingame and surrounding communities. The facility employs a substantial portion of the city's workforce and draws patients from across San Mateo County.

Technology companies have established offices in Burlingame, drawn by the city's location between San Francisco and Silicon Valley and the availability of commercial real estate near the Bayshore corridor. Among these is Xona Space Systems, a navigation technology startup that opened a manufacturing facility in Burlingame as it scales production of its Pulsar satellite constellation, which aims to provide a high-precision alternative to GPS. The city's Burlingame Business Development Program supports small businesses and startups through permitting assistance and economic development initiatives.

The local government has worked to maintain a diverse economic base, recognizing the risks of over-reliance on any single sector. Hotel tax revenues, in particular, have been a significant source of city funding, making the municipal budget sensitive to downturns in business travel—a vulnerability exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic when SFO passenger volumes collapsed.

Transportation

Burlingame is served primarily by Caltrain, the commuter rail line running the length of the San Francisco Peninsula. The Burlingame Caltrain station, located on California Drive near the downtown core, provides direct service to San Francisco to the north and San Jose to the south, with frequent weekday trains during commute hours. The station building itself is a historic Spanish Colonial Revival structure listed on the National Register of Historic Places, constructed in 1894 and considered one of the oldest surviving railroad depots in California.

SamTrans bus routes connect Burlingame to neighboring cities including San Mateo, Millbrae, and communities to the west. U.S. Route 101 (the Bayshore Freeway) and Interstate 280 both run near the city, providing highway access north to San Francisco and south through the peninsula. San Francisco International Airport is approximately two miles north of the city limits, and the BART SFO/Millbrae station in neighboring Millbrae—reachable by a short Caltrain ride or by car—provides connections to the broader Bay Area rapid transit network.

Pedestrian and cycling infrastructure within the city includes bike lanes along several major streets and a network of sidewalks maintained by the city. Plans under discussion in recent years have focused on improving the connection between the Caltrain station and the downtown commercial district, a walk of only a few blocks.

Autonomous vehicle testing has become a familiar sight on the peninsula. Residents have reported observing vehicles from companies including Waymo operating during early morning hours in Burlingame and surrounding communities as part of ongoing testing programs, reflecting the broader regional role that the mid-peninsula plays in AV development and deployment.

Infrastructure and Public Works

A significant infrastructure project underway as of 2024–2025 involves the redesign of El Camino Real, the historic road that runs the length of the peninsula through Burlingame. The project involves the removal of hundreds of mature trees along the corridor as part of a streetscape renovation, a decision that drew substantial public attention and debate among residents concerned about the loss of established urban tree canopy. City officials have stated that the removals are necessary due to root damage to utilities and sidewalks, and that replacement plantings are planned as part of the broader streetscape design.

Public Safety

The Burlingame Police Department and Burlingame Fire Department provide municipal public safety services. In 2024, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed by the family of a four-year-old child killed in a crash involving an e-bike rider in Burlingame, drawing attention to concerns about traffic safety and the city's infrastructure for pedestrians and cyclists along busy corridors. The case prompted renewed discussion in the city about traffic calming measures and the regulation of micromobility devices on public streets and paths.

Attractions

Burlingame's most visited areas center on its two downtown commercial corridors. Burlingame Avenue, running east-west from the Caltrain station toward Broadway, is lined with independent boutiques, restaurants, and cafés occupying a row of historic storefronts. Broadway, the second main commercial street, offers a similar mix with its own distinct neighborhood character. Both districts attract shoppers and diners from across the peninsula.

The Burlingame Museum of Pez Memorabilia, a privately operated museum on California Drive, is perhaps the city's most distinctive attraction—a collection of Pez candy dispensers and related memorabilia that has drawn international media coverage and is believed to be the largest such collection on public display. Washington Park, the city's central municipal park, provides sports fields, tennis courts, a playground, and open lawn space in the heart of the residential neighborhoods. The city maintains several additional neighborhood parks and the shoreline area along the bay, including access points to the San Francisco Bay Trail.

Neighborhoods

Burlingame's neighborhoods are informally defined and vary considerably in housing stock, elevation, and character. The area immediately surrounding the Burlingame Avenue Caltrain station and downtown core contains a mix of older apartment buildings, small condominiums, and single-family homes, many built in the 1910s through 1940s. Moving west and uphill, neighborhoods become more exclusively single-family, with larger lots and more substantial homes dating from the postwar decades through more recent construction.

The Ray Park and Easton Addition neighborhoods, located south and west of downtown, are known for their Craftsman and Spanish Colonial Revival homes from the early 20th century. Burlingame Hills, in the western portion of the city, occupies the steeper terrain near the Hillsborough border and is characterized by mid-century custom homes with bay views. The Bayfront area along the eastern edge of the city, near U.S. 101, is predominantly commercial and industrial in use, anchored by the hotel corridor serving SFO travelers.

Education

Public education in Burlingame is administered by two separate districts. The Burlingame School District oversees the city's elementary and middle schools, operating several campuses including Franklin, Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt, and Washington elementary schools, along with Burlingame Intermediate School for grades 6 through 8. High school students attend Burlingame High School, which is part of the San Mateo Union High School District. Burlingame High, located on Carolan Avenue, serves students from Burlingame and portions of adjacent communities.

Several private schools also operate in or near the city. The proximity of San Mateo, San Francisco, and the broader peninsula means residents have access to a wide range of independent and parochial school options.

For post-secondary education, the nearby College of San Mateo—part of the [[San Mateo County