Wallscape and incredible car deals.

Lost Dairy Mural

Burlingame, California

History buffs usually aren't happy when a vintage building is knocked down in favor of new development, but the destruction of Burlingame's Regan Building in 2000 had a silver lining. The adjacent building featured a hidden advertising mural, an ad for dairy milk delivery painted around 1917.

The "Severn Lodge Dairy Wallscape" is 53 ft. wide and 14 ft. tall. The illustration depicts a red milk delivery truck driven by a uniformed, waving toddler (the era's child labor practices may have still been tightening up, but the dairy didn't employ tot drivers).

Milk toddler.

The wallscape was the hand-painted work of Foster and Kleiser Outdoor Advertising. The Dairy Delivery Company provided distribution for a number of area dairies to customers in San Francisco and San Mateo counties, and according to the historical marker, "was formed in San Francisco in 1906, when several dairies agreed to distribute free milk to earthquake refugees. In 1917, the creamery and distribution plant were located at 220 California Drive."

After the discovery in 2001, the ad wall began to degrade, exposed to the elements. It was restored in 2003 by the Burlingame Historical Society and funded by Clear Channel Outdoor (clearly in appreciation of historical outdoor advertising). It usually has a row of cars parked in front of it, since the cleared lot went on to become an outdoor car dealership.