About The Spanishtown Historical Society

Who We Are
The Spanishtown Historical Society deals with maintaining the history in the Coastside (around Half Moon Bay, California). Our intent is to keep the history of this magnificent area alive. From the historic jail to the passing of the Ocean Shore Railway we hold events, activities, make books, maintain buildings and much, much more. Meetings are held on the third wednesday of every month for members to discuss the activities of the society. Just some of the things that have been done and are being planned by the society are; historical plaques for old buildings in Half Moon Bay, the restoration of the HMB Jail, an in depth walking tour of the historical aspects of Half Moon Bay and more.

A Brief History of Half Moon Bay (Spanishtown)
Half Moon Bay owes its picturesque reputation not only to the sea and natural barriers of the surrounding country, but no to the peoples who migrated from foreign shores to settle on the Coastside.

In 1769, while searching for Monterey Bay, Gaspar de Portola and members of his part, including Father Crespi, halted an expedition at the mouth of the Pilarcitos Creek-just north of the present town of Half Moon Bay. Tiburco Vasquez and Candelario Miramontes each received grants from the Mexican government in 1840 of a square league on opposite sides of Pilaracitos Creek. These absentee landlords, to avoid trouble with the Americans who were taking cattle to feed their solders in exchange for sometimes-worthless promissory notes, moved their large families to the Coast and formed the nucleus of San Mateo County's oldest town, San Benito.

Soon immigrants came from Mexico and Chile and in Pilarcitos Cemetery on San Mateo Road and graves of Spanish pioneers whose presence helped to give San Benito its nickname, Spanishtown.

Seven adobe brick houses were built by a contractor who brought a crew of captive Native American laborers from the Tulare country in the San Joaquin Valley. In 1853, James Johnston, who came west to make his fortune in the Gold Rush, built the first American house in the area for his Spanish wife, Petra. The remains of this New England saltbox still stand in a field south of town on Higgins Road. According to C. Malcolm Watkins, Chairmen, Department of Cultural History of the Smithsonian Institution, it is a true case of cultural transfer as it was build from scratch in California while incorporating traditional ideas traceable to the beginning of the colonial period.

In 1855 the County of San Francisco graded a road over the mountains and in 1866 the first good road - a privately built toll road - was completed.
The Portuguese immigration began in 1860 with whalers, dairymen and farmers settling on the Coast. In 1878 the wife of Rufus Hatch (who operated a sawmill in Purissma Canyon and sold lumber in town) noted in her diary that the Portuguese settlers were putting on a strange celebration - probably the first enactment here of the Chamarita, a folk festival that has become an annual all-community affair in Half Moon Bay. So the Spanish families associated with the Anglo-Americans, the Portuguese arrived and were accepted and, in turn, another wave of newcomers came from Italy to become and important part of Half Moon Bay's population.
Robert I. Knapp, noted pioneer of the area, built wagons and carriages, published a newspaper and invented and manufactured the side-hill plow which is on display in the Smithsonian Institution today.

In 1892, the town newspaper claimed a thousand inhabitants and rivaled Redwood City for the distinction of being the county's largest town.

Half Moon Bay appears first on the Coast Survey sketch of 1854 as a name for a triangulation station on the hill east of town. The settlement appears as Spanishtown on the maps of Whitney Survey, and the post office is listed as "Halfmoon" Bay in 1862; since about 1905 the Post Office has spelled the name Half Moon Bay.

The Ocean Shore Railway ran from San Francisco to Half Moon Bay from 1908 to 1920 and brought visitors and commercial activity to the town. The railway went out of business when motor trucks and buses successfully solved the Coastside's perennial transportation problem.

Today fields of flowers, pumpkins, brussel sprouts and artichokes surround the city of Half Moon Bay. However, we are involved in another era of change - not a foreign migration but the development of the Coastside for recreational and residential use. The Spanishtown Historical Society works to preserve the records and artifacts of the early Coastside pioneers and to promote an awareness of the history of Half Moon Bay from the time it was San Benito or Spanishtown, San Francisco County.

Ref : Historic Spots in California, Hoover Rensh, Stanford Press
South from San Francisco, Stanger, 1963, San Mateo County Historical Association Correspondance - Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.