Millbrae's old depot keeps the railroad story near today's transit

Millbrae is easy to think of as an airport-and-transit city, but the rail story is older than the modern station. The first station here was tied to the old 17 Mile House name and then took the Millbrae name in 1865.

The story starts with Darius O. Mills, the banker whose estate helped give the city its name. Caltrain’s station history connects the early depot to milk shipments, a post office, and the kind of train access that let people move between Peninsula towns and San Francisco long before today’s BART-and-Caltrain setup.

The current historic depot is the third one. It was built in 1907 after earlier depot buildings burned. It has the kind of details that make an old station feel like a small civic building: a bay window, cast iron columns, waiting room, baggage room, and upstairs living space for the station agent’s family.

The preservation part is worth knowing too. Southern Pacific wanted to remove the depot in the 1970s for parking, but local preservation work saved it. Later, the building was moved a short distance to make room for the Millbrae Avenue overpass. So when you pass through Millbrae today, you are seeing a place where rail has been shaping local life for generations.