Don Jose was granted 69,000 acres in the form of an estate he called Rancho de las Pulgas, which included present-day Redwood City, Belmont, San Carlos, Menlo Park, and Woodside. When Mexico was granted independence from Spain, the Mexican government reaffirmed these 69,000 acres to Don Jose’s son, Don Luis Arguello, in 1822.
After the Mexican–American War, Spanish-Mexican property owners were forced to defend their titles of land before the United States Land Commission. The Arguello family hired an attorney, Simon Montserrate Mezes, who succeeded in defending the family, and was thus compensated with some land belonging to the Arguello estate. Comprising present-day downtown Redwood City, the new town was christened Mezesville by Mezes, but was eventually renamed Redwood City as a salute to the area’s abundance of stately redwood trees.
Redwood City real estate market developed very rapidly, mainly due to the deep, ship-bearing waters of the city’s local port. In the mid-1800s, business boomed, the population increased, and Redwood City was selected to become the county seat for newly developed San Mateo County. The arrival of the railroad in 1863 continued to fuel businesses and, as a result, land values increased significantly. Many citizens petitioned for the city to incorporate and, on March 27, 1868, the State of California approved Redwood City as the first incorporated city in San Mateo