Tanforan: The Racetrack That Became a Detention Camp, Then a Mall
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The shopping center on El Camino Real in San Bruno stands on ground that was a racetrack for most of 65 years and, for six months in 1942, a detention camp. Few places in the Bay Area hold as much history in one parcel.
A track outside the city's reach
Tanforan opened in 1899, about 12 miles south of San Francisco, in the same year the city banned wagering. Its early decades were stop and start. Racing ended in 1909 under the state's Walker-Otis Act, and the track was razed in 1918. It reopened in 1923, closed again after the 1924 meeting, reopened in 1930, and found its footing only in 1933, when betting became legal again.
Seabiscuit
In 1937 Seabiscuit won the Marchbank Handicap at Tanforan. A marker to the horse stands at the entrance to the shopping center today. It gives his birth year, 1933, and calls him the world's champion money winner to 1938.
1942: the stalls become housing
After Executive Order 9066, the Army turned Tanforan into what it called an assembly center. From late April to October 13, 1942, nearly 8,000 Japanese Americans, most of them from the Bay Area, were held there. The population peaked at 7,816 on July 25. Families lived in converted horse stalls, in the grandstand and in barracks built on the infield. Most were then sent to the Topaz camp in Utah.
The last races
Racing came back in 1945. In March 1964 the track was sold for redevelopment, and that July a fire destroyed it.
What you can see today
The Seabiscuit marker at the entrance to the shopping center, 1150 El Camino Real.
California Historical Landmark 934, which marks the Tanforan Assembly Center.
The Tanforan Memorial outside the San Bruno BART station. Its ribbon cutting was on August 27, 2022. More than 750 people came, including nearly 50 people who had been held at Tanforan, and their families.
Tanforan is one stop on the full Bay Area horse history timeline.