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Our Cupola

Let's lighten things up with a couple of normal, pre-COVID style posts.  You may have gotten the freebie magazine Punch – Spirit of the Peninsula in your driveway over the last couple of days.  If so, be sure to read the very last one-page article by our very own author-historian Joanne Garrison.  The mag asked her to explain what can seem like an odd little feature of our downtown parking lot next to Pet Express on Park Rd.  It's the cupola from the original city hall that stood on that site.

Joanne notes the original city hall was designed by Charles Peter Weeks and describes how the late-'60s plan to tear it down in favor of the architecturally-challenged city hall we still have raised preservationists' ire, spawned the Burlingame Historical Society and gave the cupola a home amid the asphalt and parking meters.  Fun story about a fun monument.

Cupola1

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9 responses to “Our Cupola”

  1. Sally Meakin

    Joanne’s writings are never dull. Witness the magnificent Burlingame Centennial book and Burlingame Founding Families website.

  2. Jennifer Pfaff

    Ditto to that:)

  3. Adrian

    What is the latest with the Rec Center demolition and new construction.
    With the current situation will it be postphoned?

  4. Joe

    I would guess that construction has been put on hold. Only residential construction has been deemed essential by the state and county.
    Let’s move any further discussion of this to the last Rec Center post about the cost here:
    https://www.burlingamevoice.com/2018/11/rec-center-583-million#comments

  5. Joanne P Bennett

    Remember the old city hall as a child.
    Pet Food Express was Roarke’s, a fine china and glassware shop up until it became
    a Blockbuster store.

  6. Peter Garrison

    And, on the corner, the ornate Bank of America with the fireplace and coffee table- Bon Appétit grocery checkers running past carrying bags to limousines from Hillsborough.

  7. Joe

    You mean the ornate Bank of Italy building with the Spanish galleons (of Christopher Columbus) on the front pillars. Founded in 1904 by AP Giannini and later to become the Bank of America and ending its bank life as Bayview Federal Savings (now US Bank).
    Of course, if we had tougher preservation in town, we would still have that exterior like Old Pasadena has:
    https://www.burlingamevoice.com/2016/10/polishing-apple
    And I bet that design would be a lot more secure than the fishbowl we have now.

  8. hollyroller@gmail.com

    The History of Burlingame is amazing.
    I wonder what History will say about us?

  9. Russ

    Let us not forget that the Burlingame historical society restored the cupola some years ago and they can not continue to do those types of projects without the public’s generous donations. Please continue to support them. http://Www.burlingamehistory.org

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The Burlingame Voice is dedicated to informing and empowering the Burlingame community.  Our blog is a public forum for the discussion of issues that relate to Burlingame, California.  Opinions posted on the Burlingame Voice are those of the poster and commenter and not necessarily the opinion of the Editorial Board.  Comments are subject to the Terms of Use.

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