The hook
At the bottom of Kings Mountain Road sits an 1854 general store that was also the post office, the saloon, the dentist, and the library, kept just about as it was.
01Why it's worth it
The Woodside Store went up in 1854, when Woodside was a logging camp cutting the redwoods off these hills to rebuild San Francisco. Robert Tripp ran it as a general store, post office, saloon, dental office, and, after 1859, a library, and he kept at it until he died in 1909 at ninety-three. It's one of the oldest commercial buildings in San Mateo County, on the National Register, and the county keeps it as a small museum with the old counters and cases in place. It's a quiet stop, the kind of local history that survives only because a town decided to hold onto it. Up the hill, the Kings Mountain community has thrown an art fair every Labor Day weekend since 1963 to fund its volunteer fire brigade.
02How to experience it
The store is at the corner of Kings Mountain Road and Tripp Road in Woodside, right where the Kings Mountain descent lets out. It's run as a county museum on limited days, so check the schedule before you count on getting inside; the building and grounds are worth a look regardless. It pairs naturally with a Skyline loop or a Woodside ride, and Buck's and Roberts Market are minutes away for food.