The Peninsula's Fastest growing district
By June 1936, Harry Friend who was 46 by now, was already an established realtor up and down the Peninsula and living in Friendly Acres, with 6 homes already built in the district and ten more under way.Having purchased several hundred acres of the Sweeny Ranch, south of Redwood City and on the eastern bayside of Fair Oaks, he was continuing a tradition of development and home building that had started before him with the creation of the Fair Oaks subdivision after the 1906 earthquake, which lured San Franciscans to the seemingly safer and more bucolic southern end of San Mateo County.
One of the earliest advertisements for Friendly Acres is from 1936 showing him headquartered out of San Francisco and operating a local tract office.
The San Mateo Times in June of that year announced to its readers that "Ten New Homes in Friendly Acres" were under construction, 1 mile south of Redwood City, close to the Bayshore Highway.
"The new homes, according to Friend, are in acre, half acre, and fifty foot lots, and are supplied with Hetch Hetchy water, sidewalks, curbs, gutters, streets and sewers. They are said to be assessment free.
"Several homes have already been completed, a few of which are now open for inspection. The additional ten homes should now round out the general appearance of the tract which is easily seen from Bayshore.[...]"
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| Burlingame - The Times and Daily News Leader, page 5, June 6, 1936 |
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| Burlingame - The Times and Daily News Leader, June 13, 1936 |
Two years later, in 1938, further advertizing was featured in the Burlingame Times, along with other interior and exterior home improvement and housing related firms, sponsored by the Federal Housing Administration. This time, the pitch entertained the notion of raising chickens, fruit, berries and garden products.
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| Burlingame - The Times and Daily News Leader, March 28, 1938 |
For the record, in the past couple of years I've seen chickens and Roosters out in the front yard of a couple of homes on Rose and 17th. Am not sure how they survive what with all the cats and dogs and raccoons around these parts. I've also seen bunny rabbits hopping around in a front yard on Hoover (that ironically had a chicken wire fence around it) - not exactly a safe thing as they kept tunnelling out...
As to fruits and berries - I'm going to have walk around the 'hood and see if I can find some legacy fruit trees and berry bushes and in front yards.
By 1939, Harry Friend had moved out to the higher and drier pastures of San Carlos where he went on to purchase and develop the Devonshire Tract, while still promoting and selling Friendly Acres.
