San Carlos, CA

The Caltrain right-of-way helps organize San Carlos into distinct districts. Laurel Street, El Camino Real, and nearby cross streets form the downtown commercial area. East of the tracks, the Laureola residential neighborhood shares a district with San Carlos Airport, building-supply businesses, light industry, retail, and a growing concentration of life-science and biotechnology work. That East Side supports most of the jobs in a city covering only 5.41 square miles. The railway is a practical reference line: Laurel Street storefronts lie to its west, while Laureola homes share the east with laboratories, workshops, hangars, and regional retailers. A 2025–2028 economic-development plan likewise treats Downtown, South Laurel, the East Side, and the Industrial Arts District as separate business areas. Several developers attempted to establish a town here before the Mercantile Trust Company placed Frederick Drake in charge of foreclosed property in 1917.

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Drake completed a reservoir, paved streets, installed gas and electricity, promoted homebuilding, and helped form local civic institutions. He also laid out Devonshire Hills in 1924 with offset cul-de-sacs and pedestrian cut-throughs associated with Garden City design. Residents voted to incorporate in 1925, when San Carlos had about 600 residents; San Mateo County records July 1 as the incorporation date. Growth accelerated after Dalmo Victor and Eitel-McCullough opened electronics plants in 1944. The population rose from 3,520 in 1940 to 14,371 in 1950, establishing the industrial east side as a lasting part of the city's form. The industries have changed, but the east-side concentration of work has endured.

ATTRGeo. Thomas / Public domain

Life-science and biotechnology development has expanded since 2015 alongside manufacturing and commercial services. The Industrial Arts District, bounded by Old County, American, Industrial, and Varian streets, supports artisans and small manufacturers producing furniture, clothing, food, beverages, and other goods. Building-material suppliers and regional retail remain part of the mix. The 160-acre San Carlos Airport adds flight schools, aircraft services, hangars, and general aviation along Highway 101. Laboratories, construction suppliers, makers, shops, airport operations, and the Laureola neighborhood occupy the same side of the railway. Small fabrication and food production give the district a finer-grained working layer beside larger life-science projects, preserving a production economy in the part of San Carlos shaped by its 1940s electronics plants.

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Daily activity follows that east-west sequence. A year-round farmers market occupies Laurel Street on Sundays, putting produce, baked goods, flowers, and prepared foods into the downtown shopping district. As of July 2026, San Carlos Station at 599 El Camino Real provided Caltrain service and connections to SamTrans routes ECR, 260, 295, and 397. The station gives downtown and the East Side one shared point of access to Peninsula rail and bus service. Across the tracks, the Hiller Aviation Museum gives the airport district a public-facing institution. Helicopter designer Stanley Hiller Jr. opened it in 1998; the Smithsonian Affiliate displays more than 50 aircraft, including early designs, prototypes, and test vehicles, beside the working airport and the city's modern industrial district.