Carolands, Hillsborough Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide

Carolands began with a land purchase. The Carolands Foundation's history says 554 acres in the western part of Hillsborough were bought in 1912, and the chateau was planned in 1913 by the architect Ernest Sanson, with Willis Polk managing construction from 1914 and the landscape architect Achille Duchene drawing the gardens. The town dates the house to around 1915; the foundation cites a 1949 account of construction in 1913 and 1914 and says the house was occupied in 1916. It became California Historical Landmark No. 886 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Then came the lots. According to the foundation, subdivision of the 554 acres began in 1930, with about 64 acres sold over the next 15 years; in 1945 the remaining estate, then about 490 acres, was sold, and in 1950 the chateau changed hands on just under six acres. The town's page sums it up plainly: much of the original property was subdivided. Since 2012 the chateau has belonged to the nonprofit Carolands Foundation; it is private property, not a public park.

The name still works as a map label. The town's emergency-network map calls the blocks around Pullman Road, Craig Road, Remillard Drive and Castle Court 'Carolands', and local listing records use Carolands and Carolands Park for the wider area from Chateau Drive to Marlborough Road. The estate's gate lodge survives too, rebuilt by the town in 2010 at Ralston and Eucalyptus avenues, about 0.3 to 1.7 miles to the northeast (straight-line).