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In post-World War II suburban life on the San Francisco Peninsula, something was needed to pump energy into leisure time. What else but shopping?
Here's the story of how the very first shopping center on the mid-Peninsula came to be.
The city of San Mateo was centrally located and had the largest population therein. It also had a bridge connecting it to the East Bay.
With a large bedroom community in its immediate surroundings, this seemed the ideal location to break ground on what would eventually become a landmark for area residents.
The developer was David Bohannon.
He chose a neighborhood that was originally called Beresford for his project. The name would eventually be changed to Hillsdale, which reflects the name of the aforementioned shopping center.
In 1940, he began by acquiring 850 acres of land.
Along with developing a shopping mall on a scale unheard of at the time, Bohannon was constructing homes for the rapidly growing Peninsula and other parts of the Bay Area.
His first retail project was to construct a grocery store. In 1941, a 15,000 sq. ft. store called Andrew Williams which later became Mayfair opened. Along with this, 84 homes were developed in the vicinity of 31st Avenue and Hacienda, which were priced between $5,000 – $6,000.
The war interrupted the project, and Bohannon switched gears to develop housing nearby military defense facilities.
After the war, he immediately resumed his planned development in San Mateo by adding 300 homes. In addition to the homes, he built over 500 "garden" type apartments along both sides of Hillsdale Boulevard.
As time went on, he concentrated on developing the shopping mall. Eventually, the mall would continue to expand and include huge anchor stores, such as Sears, Macy's, Emporium and others.
The mall also became home to numerous artistic statues created by Benny Bufano.
Today, Hillsdale stands as the mid-peninsula's shopping jewel.
Everything else is just history
