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8.B. - Page 16 HISTORIC AMERICAN LANDSCAPES SURVEY WELLESLEY PARK HALS NO. CA-44 Location: Vicinity of Wellesley Crescent Park, Arlington neighborhood, Redwood City, San Mateo County, California Lat: 37.49090 Long: -122.24323 Significance: The Wellesley Park subdivision is significant as a progressive subdivision planned as an early(1888) commuter rail suburb of San Francisco. It is an early Picturesque suburban development in the Bay Area, and the first suburban development in Redwood City west of El Camino Real. The development was sponsored by Daniel O'Connell, a founder of San Francisco's Bohemian Club, who envisioned and designed it as an exclusive suburban enclave. O'Connell was a journalist and writer who worked for the San Francisco Chronicle and published several books of poetry and other writings. He designed the subdivision in partnership with local landscape gardener William Brown. O'Connell died in 1899, but had abandoned the project some time before then. The development was brought to fruition by George C. Ross, a prominent local attorney called the `dean of San Mateo County,' about 1906. Nonetheless, O'Connell's vision for the development as it appeared in his 1889 promotional brochure prevailed. The significant aspects of the subdivision the layout of the roads, the park, the landscape concept, platting pattern, and streetscape design—is as apparent today as it was in O'Connell's brochure. The subdivision itself still embodies the most progressive ideas in suburban design from across the country from the period. It was a landmark design in Redwood City and perhaps in San Mateo County. History: The Wellesley Park subdivision is roughly rectangular in shape. It is bounded by Whipple Avenue on the south, El Camino Real on the east, Cordilleras Creek on the north, and Ashley Avenue the west. It was platted with a looping, internal roadway with very few connections to the grid system of streets to the north, south and west. Edgewood Road, the main street in the subdivision today, was designed to parallel the Creek, which accounts for its irregularity. Arlington Road completed the main loop that was the primary circulation system. Finger Avenue was a pre-existing road on the north side of the subdivision. The focal feature, which was on the east side of the subdivision,was a traffic circle called Wellesley Crescent and Wellesley Park within it. Five roads in the subdivision terminate at Wellesley Crescent. Three are connected to El Camino Real on the northeast edge of the development (El Camino Real in turn paralleled the rail line). The major roadway system as envisioned by O'Connell in 1888 still exists, although additional roadway