The Shops at Tanforan

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Main entrance
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The Shops at Tanforan is a shopping mall and business area in San Bruno, California, in the Peninsula area of the Bay Area, 10 miles (16 km) south of San Francisco. It is served by the adjacent San Bruno BART subway station and is served by several local SamTrans bus lines. It was reopened in October 2005 after several years of remodeling. Prior to its current role as a shopping mall, Tanforan was a racetrack, serving at various times as an airfield, military training center, internment camp, and golf course. Currently, the site is occupied by a shopping mall which features JCPenney, Sears and Target as its anchor stores.

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[edit] History

[edit] Racetrack

Tanforan Racetrack was built in 1899, after San Francisco passed an ordinance banning gambling within its borders. It was named after Torribio Tanforan, the grandson-in-law of Jose Antonio Sanchez, owner of El Rancho Buri Buri. Horse, dog, motorcycle, and auto races were held at the track during the early years. Tanforan's most famous resident while it was used as a racetrack was Seabiscuit who, for a time, was stabled there. Today, a statue of Seabiscuit may be found on the grounds of the Tanforan mall.

[edit] Airfield

Tanforan also served, for a time, as an airfield, with the center of the track used as a runway. On January 18, 1911, aviator Eugene Ely made naval aviation history when he took off from Tanforan and made a successful landing on the armored cruiser USS Pennsylvania anchored in San Francisco Bay.[1] This marked the first successful shipboard aircraft landing.[2] A plaque on the grounds commemorates this event.

Tanforan was temporarily converted into a military training center during World War I.

[edit] Tanforan Assembly Center

Line outside of a mess hall, Tanforan Assembly Center.
Line outside of a mess hall, Tanforan Assembly Center.

During World War II, Tanforan was used as a Japanese American internment center. Tanforan was one of 17 "Civilian Assembly Centers", where internees were sent before being relocated to more permanent (and remote) "relocation centers". Horse stalls were used as housing. About 8,000 people were kept at Tanforan during the war.

A plaque outside the mall notes this history.

[edit] Shopping mall

After the war, Tanforan returned to its former role as a race track, with a golf course in the center of the track. The track went into decline in the 1950s due to competition from Bay Meadows, then burned down in 1964. The mall, Tanforan Shopping Center, opened in 1971.

The mall was rebuilt in 2003, in order to take advantage of the BART San Francisco International Airport extension. The entrance to the BART station has been blocked by a chain link fence since the mall reopened, however, due to a dispute between the mall's owners and BART.

Target has recently remodeled its store and a new garage is currently under construction on the Target side of the mall. A large garage on the Sears side has also been built (with the bottom floor having been open to the public during the 2006 Christmas shopping season and) with a Century Theatres under construction above it. On April 18th, 2008, the theaters had its grand opening, with a walkway between the mall and theater connecting the two structures. The bottom floor of the garage also serves as a walkway to both the San Bruno Police Department and the BART station.

[edit] Old Navy

Tanforan is home to a concept store for Old Navy, which has corporate headquarters about 0.5 mile (800 m) away on Cherry Ave and 15 minutes downtown to Folsom St. in San Francisco. The concept launched in March with a very natural design (sans the typically seen truck) and is designed to be a concept for future Old Navy stores.

[edit] Location

1150 El Camino Real San Bruno, California 94066 (650) 873-2000

[edit] References

  • Joan Levy, "Tanforan’s long and colorful history", San Mateo Daily Journal, February 3, 2003.
  • Uchida, Yoshiko (1982). Desert Exile. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 0-295-96190-2. 

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/events/ev-1910s/ev-1911/ely-pa.htm Accessed February 8, 2007.
  2. ^ http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-e/eb-ely.htm Accessed February 8, 2007.

[edit] External links