Town of Searsville

San Francisco's Spring Valley Water Works bought the ground under Searsville in 1887, and when its dam closed in the fall of 1891 the townspeople pulled their own houses and barns apart ahead of the water. The city never drank what they made way for. Corte Madera Creek ran too thick with silt, the line to the company's Belmont pumping station was never built, and Stanford bought the reservoir in 1919 to irrigate its campus. The creek has kept delivering. Stanford's own preserve now reckons the lake nearly nine-tenths full of sediment.

What the plaque says

Town of Searsville Here stood the lumberman's village of Searsville whose first settler, John Sears, came in 1854. Across the road westerly from this monument stood a hotel. The school, store, blacksmith shop, and dwellings were to the southeast, some on the site of the present lake and others overlooking it. Buildings were removed in 1891, as water rose behind the new dam. State Registered Landmark No. 474 Marker placed by the Board of Supervisors of San Mateo County in cooperation with the San Mateo County Historical Association. Dedicated June 8, 1952

Where it stands

More markers nearby

• First Saw Mill — 0.6 mi
• Our Lady of the Wayside — 1.4 mi
• Woodside Store — 2.6 mi
• Casa de Tableta — 3.2 mi