History of Buri Buri

Buri Buri Elementary School was opened on May 24, 1950. During the 1970's it had 1,100 students. Our enrollment now is 720 K-5 students. The school is named for the tract, Buri Buri Estates, in which it is found.

The name Buri Buri comes from Rancho Buri Buri. Possibly named for a word used by an Indian tribe which had lived in the territory between present San Mateo and San Francisco, Rancho Buri Buri was granted to Jose Antonio Sanchez on September 23, 1835. In 1838 it boasted 8,000 cattle, 1,000 horses, and many sheep. As later confirmed to the heirs of Sanchez, the rancho contained 14,369 acres. Jose Antonio Sanchez was the son of Jose Antonio Sanchez, who came with the Anza Expedition of 1776-1776, which was to found a presidio and mission in what is now San Francisco.

Jose Antonio the younger himself became a distinguished soldier taking part in twenty campaigns against the Indians. As a reward, he was provisionally granted Rancho Buri Buri by the Mexican government in 1827. Sanchez developed the land to a high degree for the day, with a five room adobe house, outbuildings, cultivated fields, and a mule drawn grist mill. He died in 1843 and thus did not live to see the death of his two grandsons, the De Haro twins, who were murdered by Kit Carson on the orders of John C. Fremont at the time of the Bear Flag trouble in Sonoma County in 1846.

Rancho Buri Buri today includes South San Francisco, San Bruno, Millbrae, and parts of Burlingame.