History
The City of Redwood City was originally incorporated in 1868 and served as the seat of the government of San Mateo County. The city became a shipping port for various heavy industries utilizing Redwood Creek as a shipping lane out to the bay. Just west of the wharves was historic main street, home to the Fitzpatrick Building and our even older neighbor the Diller-Chaimberlain general store (The brick building just north of Broadway and Main). In 1906, the Great Earthquake of San Francisco shook the peninsula, but the Fitzpatrick Building survived with minimal damage (although structural engineers decided to temporarily remove our dome for the integrity of the building—check out the historic photo gallery in our lobby for visuals!). The Bank of San Mateo, then housed in the Fitzpatrick Building, was integral to financing the reconstruction of San Francisco in the wake of the quake, and would remain the building’s sole tenant until being acquired by Wells Fargo in 1977. That year, the Main Street and Broadway area of the city became a National Historic Registered District, although the Fitzpatrick Building is the only building in the city to be listed on the National Registry of Historic Structures.