Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns · #129 of 847 in California. What drives it
Most of San Mateo was built recently: 10% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1965. 7 places in town are on the National Register, among them two historic districts with 4 buildings between them. Below: 8 old photos and papers, maps from 1888 on, and the census since 1880.
The San Mateo post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name.
More historic than 55% of U.S. towns, on its age, its old homes and the National Register.
On its age, its old homes and the National Register, San Mateo is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #129 of 847 in California. Its National Register listings hold the grade up; its age pulls it down.
Among the 400 U.S. cities of 100,000 or more, San Mateo ranks #224 on History.
Few California towns list much on the Register (a typical California town has 0.0 per 10,000 residents, the U.S. 2.4), so San Mateo’s 1.0 sits above most of its state (76% of California towns have fewer) while its 10 historic buildings outnumber those of 76% of U.S. towns.
Founding year: the first post office (other dates in Quick answers). Homes: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register: National Park Service, May 2026 list; each listing counted once (boundary changes and added documentation belong to their listing), and a historic district counts its contributing buildings. How TownRatings grades history →
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of San Mateo. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.
U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of San Mateo.
Fire insurance maps drew every building, what it was made of and what it was used for, so insurers could price the risk of fire. Pick a year, then a sheet.
1888Sheet 1 of 4Sanborn Map Company, via the Library of Congress. Editions published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
From Wikipedia’s history of San Mateo.
The earliest known settlers of the Bay Area were the Ramaytush people, since at least 10000 BC.
In 1789, the Spanish missionaries had named a Native American village along Laurel Creek as Los Laureles or the Laurels (Mission Dolores, 1789). At the time of Mexican Independence, 30 native Californians were at San Mateo, most likely from the Salson tribelet.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Passages that mention San Mateo, cut from the printed page as they were published.
Haver is still alive and a resident of San Mateo. C. B. Polhemus, in September, 1863, laid out and platted the town of San Mateo. Here it may be mentioned that the name of this town, the county and the creek, is the Spanish for Saint Mattheio,ihe name being given the creek by the Mission fathers.
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
San Mateo. — The growth of the town of San Mateo has been very similar to that of other places in California, outside of the mining regions. It did not spring up in a night at the rubbing of some Aladdin's lamp. It is a sort of spontaneous growth of a rich agricultural and pasturing district, in contiguity with the great mart of the coast. The same charms and advantages that attracted the first settlers there, have drawn each succeeding one, until now we see a beautiful flourishing town, claiming no small degree of importance as a tributary to the San Francisco market, and as an appurtenant to the great
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveMission San Mateo Old Granary
In the archiveCarleton Watkins (American - At the Residence of John Parrott, Esq., San Mateo, Cal. - Go…
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
In the archivePostcardSanMateoBStreetCirca1909
In the archiveStore of Baskette's Drug Co
In the archiveSan Mateo, California. Tying knots is part of training at United States Merchant Marine C…
Born hereKeith Carradine is born here
Born hereDennis Haysbert is born here
Born hereTom Brady is born here5 decades in the archive, from the 1850s to the 1940s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
c. 1909PostcardSanMateoBStreetCirca1909Postcard1920Store of Baskette's Drug Co1943San Mateo, California. Tying knots is part of trainin…
1943San Mateo, California. Bailing out a life boat at a U…
1943San Mateo, California. Learning the use of power tool…
1943San Mateo, California. Cadets get instruction in the …No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on San Mateo’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Grew from 932 people in 1880 to 105,661 in 2020, more than tenfold.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on San Mateo’s Wikipedia page.
San Mateo’s post office has been open since 1857.
US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.
The San Mateo post office opened in 1857, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
San Mateo is more historic than 55% of U.S. towns, #129 of 847 in California. The History grade combines the town’s founding era, the share of homes built before 1940 and its National Register listings. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
7 listings: 5 buildings, among them the US Post Main Office-San Mateo (listed 1988, the first), and 2 historic districts, the De Sabla, Eugene J., Jr., Teahouse and Tea Garden and the Yoshiko Yamanouchi House, with 4 contributing buildings. 10 historic buildings in all.
10% of San Mateo’s homes were built before 1940 (Census estimate), against a typical 3.4% for a California town; the median home was built in 1965.
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).
From Wikimedia Commons (7), the Library of Congress (5), the National Register of Historic Places (7), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System, Sanborn fire insurance maps (Library of Congress) and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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