Los Gatos

By Peggy Conaway Bergtold

A magical place to grow up and an exceptionally lovely place to live, Los Gatos has transformed from its agrarian roots to an upscale community at the southern tip of Silicon Valley. With its sublime Mediterranean climate and stunning natural setting, the town has progressed while still valiantly protecting its small town character and customs. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake hit Los Gatos hard, creating a devastating litany of 481 damaged homes and businesses, many of them historic. Los Gatos made the decision to rebuild and restore what had been lost, with picture-perfect results.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Dec 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781439654125

Peggy Conaway Bergtold

Peggy Conaway Bergtold, MA, MLS, served as an operational design project manager for the joint public and university Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library in San Jose, California, and was instrumental in the design and fundraising for the new Los Gatos Public Library, which opened in 2012. She is the founder of Hooked on Los Gatos: the Library and Museum History Project, which makes available thousands of historic photographs at historylosgatos.org, and she authored a weekly history column for the Los Gatos Weekly Times. Photographer Brian Bergtold provided many images for this book, while others were gathered from local library, museum and newspaper sources, and from private collections.

Book preview

Bergtold.

INTRODUCTION

Los Gatos was a great place to grow up. Anyone who had the opportunity to do so will tell you that without hesitation. What made it such a special small town, and how has it changed from the 1950s to now?

The simple physical beauty of the place has always been a factor. The town, never called a city, snuggles into a sweet spot at the base of the majestic Santa Cruz Mountains, which sometimes appear nearly close enough to touch. Los Gatos is where the urbanism of Silicon Valley meets rugged mountain terrain, under an open sky. The town does not have the closed-in feeling of some communities to the north, on the crowded San Francisco Peninsula.

Back in the 19th century, Los Gatos weather was often described as salubrious, an old-fashioned term that means making good health possible. The town’s magnificent Mediterranean climate still provides a pleasant, sunny, and invigorating milieu most days of the year.

Whether it was fishing and wading in Los Gatos Creek, riding on the Billy Jones steam railroad, cutting ’cots, traveling on the newly-opened Highway 17, enjoying Thanksgiving dinner at the Hotel Lyndon, watching one of more than fifty annual Christmas parades, or standing in awe as a Southern Pacific train barreled into the downtown station, each generation and each person has a unique set of precious memories.

Some people remember the Sunshine Market, the numerous car dealerships with shiny new automobiles, a Shakespearean play at Old Town Theater, dancing to a live rock ’n’ roll band in the amphitheater at Old Town, or eating too many strawberries at the annual summer festival. Some rode the Peerless Stage to San Jose or Santa Cruz, had drinks at Mt. Charley’s or a hot dog at the Happy Hound. Some lunched at Mimi’s Rooftop Café or the Red Lantern Restaurant. Many succumbed to the temptation of a butter-baked pastry at Polly Prim’s. Nearly everyone marveled at the success of a Los Gatos invention, the Pet Rock, all the while eagerly purchasing one for the sock drawer, where it still resides. People shopped for antiques, worried about the Mediterranean fruit fly, and turned out to football games to cheer for the Los Gatos High School Wildcats.

Perhaps you rode your bicycle around the Almond Grove to deliver the Los Gatos Times-Observer newspaper, celebrated St. Patrick’s Day at C.B. Hannegan’s, or ventured across the street from the high school for a cheeseburger and malt at Foster’s Freeze. Maybe you watched or played in the Turkey Day football game against rival Campbell High School and wondered how someone was able to kidnap—apparently on more than one occasion—the huge and weighty steel statue of El Gato from Los Gatos High School’s inner quad. You may have wished you could scramble up the steep road to the Cats Estate and have a look around or explore the old railroad tunnels south of town. Conceivably, you took a walk on the flume—despite being told not to—and met a bobcat on your way. You might have stopped by the Town Plaza to watch talented artists paint en plein air. Or perhaps you are one of a dedicated band of people who worked for decades to bring about the dream of a new public library for Los Gatos, one which illustrates and illuminates the pride that Los Gatans have in their community.

The dramatic transformation of Los Gatos from a small agricultural village to an upscale Silicon Valley community took place during the years documented in this book. The orchards disappeared and landmark buildings were demolished in the 1960s. The raucous 1970s arrived with cultural unrest and growing pains. Homeowners’ groups wanted to preserve the town as it had always been, while the owners of new bars, restaurants, and boutiques encouraged growth. Both the citizenry and the council were divided. Also during this era, older homes in town began to be restored, and real estate prices soared.

Throughout its history, Los Gatos has had its share of sorrow, tragedy, and natural disaster. Fires in 1985 and 1997 threatened the town. Landslides have occurred during wild and wet winter storms. Crime has increased, and Los Gatans have been shocked by several murders in recent decades. The Loma Prieta earthquake, which struck with a magnitude of 6.9 on October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m., shook all of Northern California but hit Los Gatos especially hard. Buildings were broken and shaken from their foundations, people fled their homes, and one-third of the