Half Moon Bay began in the 1840s as San Mateo County’s first real town, and was first called San Benito. It was then called Spanishtown, a thriving fishing and farming settlement that became remarkably diverse. Its people included Californios and Mexicans, Canadians, Chinese, English, Germans, Irish, Italians, Scots, Portuguese and Pacific Islanders.
Americans who arrived in the 1850s called the place Halfmoon, after the shape of the bay. A county history from 1883 said the town had the air of age and ante-American times about it. Stagecoaches linked it to San Mateo and ran south to Purissima, Lobitos and San Gregorio. In 1874 it was officially renamed Half Moon Bay.
Some buildings on Main Street date from this era, including the Methodist church of 1872 and Boitano’s store of 1873.
More on this site: history