Clearfield Park

It’s also adjacent to San Carlos’ only industrial district, an area important to the city’s history. South of Hall Street, the neighborhood turns from residential to industrial. The Murphy tract’s location was once very convenient for workers at electronics companies like Ampex, Varian, Eimac and Litton Engineering Industries. San Carlos Airport is also near Clearfrield Park, just across Highway 101.

Though the Murphy tract dominates Clearfield Park, there are pockets of newer and older homes in the neighborhood. Bayport Court, a two-block street next to Laureola Park, is built atop the former site of Laureola Elementary School (which, itself, was built on the former site of Timothy Guy Phelps’ carriage house. Phelps’ mansion was at Holly Avenue and Old Country Road). The small subdivision was built in 1987 and is comprised of 1,500 square-foot, two-story homes.

The rest of Clearfield Park real estate is – uniquely – made of cinderblocks, though many homes’ exteriors have been stuccoed over. Legend is that Murphy used cinderblocks originally slated for wartime bunker-building.

Built shortly after World War II, Clearfield Park is San Carlos’ entry-level, an alternative for buyers looking to purchase single-family homes at near condominium prices. While Clearfield Park, like many entry-level Peninsula neighborhoods, has accelerated in desirability and value in recent years, homes for sale here can still be had for between $1.2 and $2.1 million and they are, in many ways, as charming as their pricier neighbors across El Camino Real – though much smaller; most originally had less than 1,000 square feet and two or three bedrooms, though some have been expanded.  Clearfield Park, also known as “the Murphy tract,” after the builder who developed much of the area in 1948, is within walking distance of CalTrain and downtown’s Laurel Street.

To view a detailed google map of the Clearfield Park neighborhood, click here. The MLS area is 354.

Favorable

• The most affordable homes in San Carlos

• Excellent schools

• Close to downtown's Laurel Street

Adverse

• May hear freeway noise or Caltrain at the eastern and western borders of the neighborhood