History

Prior to development, the land south of Millbrae Avenue, from the eastern marshes to Skyline Drive was the property of one man – Millbrae’s namesake, Darius Ogden Mills. Mills, founder of the Bank of California, purchased a large portion of the Buri Buri Rancho in the 1860s. Some of it he leased to his grandson to be used as Mills Field (now the San Francisco International Airport). Some of it became a dairy, operated by Mills and Alfred Green, which continued operations into the 1930s.

Some of it Mills set aside for her personal use. Mills built himself a 42-room mansion and gave his estate a name. Combining his name and the Scottish word for “rolling hills,” he called it “Millbrae.” Though Mills eventually moved to New York, Millbrae became his family’s gathering place, remaining so long after Darius Mills’ death, in 1910.

Subdivision came in the 1950s, two decades after Burlingame’s attempt to annex Mills Estate helped kick-start the process that led to Millbrae’s 1948 incorporation. The Mills family sold 1,100 acres plus the family mansion to a pair of developers, Paul Trousdale and Clint Murchison (later the founder of the Dallas Cowboys), for $3 million. Trousdale and Murchison, whose names now grace Mills Estate’ two major east-west thoroughfares, completed their first homes, on Sequoia Avenue, in December, 1954. By then the Mills mansion was gone, having burned to the ground the previous June.