History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 54

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928

USA > California > Santa Clara County > History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present > Part 54

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Palo Alto has many clubs and organizations. Among them might be mentioned The Wom- an's Club of Palo Alto, the oldest of them all, organized in 1894. Another strong organ- ization, whose membership consists of wom- en, is the Civic League. It has been very ac-

tive in all plans and projects that have had for their object the preparation of women for their new duties as voters and electors. The Peninsula Club is an organization for busi- ness and professional men; it owns its own club house and athletic courts. The Faculty Club is a similar institution on the Stanford campus.

Palo Alto maintains a live Chamber of Com- merce made up chiefly of business men. There is also a Merchants' Credit Association. Of the fraternal orders the following list will speak for itself: Knights Templar, Royal Arch Masons, Free and Accepted Masons, Order of Eastern Star, Knights of Pythias, Indepen- dent Order of Odd Fellows, Degree of Re- bekah, Foresters of America, Improved Or- der of Red Men. Degree of Pocahontas, Inde- pendent Order of Good Templars, Indepen- dent Order of Foresters, Modern Woodmen of America, Fraternal Aid Union, Woodmen of the World, Native Sons of the Golden West. Grand Army of the Republic. Relief Corps, Fraternal Brotherhood, P. E. O., Daughters of the American Revolution, Ladies of the Mac- cabes. Most of these fraternal orders are housed in the Masonic Temple, a massive structure of artistic design, representing an outlay of $50,000.

Palo Alto is the center of a group of colleges and schools other than the Stanford Univer- sity. The chief of this group is St. Patrick's Seminary, an institution of collegiate rank, whose object is to prepare for the Catholic ministry. This institution represents an out- lay of $1,000,000 or more. It is situated on a 100-acre site almost continguous to Palo Alto's northern boundary, the tree-lined San Fran- cisquito Creek. Its noble old oaks, great palms, rose gardens, green lawns and winding ways, furnish a never-ending source of in- spiration to its students. This seminary is the leading Catholic institution of its kind on the Pacific Coast. There are five buildings of the Renaissance style of architecture.

A short distance from Palo Alto to the northwest, is the Sacred Heart Academy, a Catholic preparatory school for young ladies. This is one of the best known in California. There are more than twenty teaching sisters on its faculty list. Like the other educational institution of the region, it has a most pleasing site among the great green oaks.

Palo Alto has three large private schools, each representing investments from $40,000 to $100,000. Two are girls' schools and one is for boys. All the girls' schools are accredited by universities and colleges. All these schools are provided with fine playground facilities.

Long ago Palo Alto outgrew its original city boundary lines, so that now there is a

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North Palo Alto, South Palo Alto, a Stanford Acres, a Stanford Park, and from the eastern line to San Francisco Bay lies the territory of Runnymede. These suburbs are each grow- ing surely and steadily under the foster care of the mother town.

South Palo Alto is a beautiful home spot. The echo of the woodman's axe has never re- sounded among the live-oaks of this green domain. Here they are in groups, or stand- ing alone with gnarled and weathered trunk and huge, wide protecting branches. In com- mon with all of the territory in and around Palo Alto the character of the soil is such that gardening or fruit-raising is a delight. One can get results that make worth while the time and effort spent. There are at present over eighty residences in this tract. A region of small farms adjoins South Palo Alto. Water distributed under pressure for irrigation and domestic use, is piped to each tract. The roads and streets are macadamized, shade trees are set ont on either side of the roads and there is electricity for lighting purposes. The soil is rich and capable of great produc- tion, drainage is good and there are building restrictions requiring substantial residences to be built. There are several fine homes built and being built on these tracts. Acreage here ranges from $500 to $1,000 an acre.

One of the most interesting economic ex- periments in intensive agriculture in the coun- try is now being carried out successfully on the northern boundary of Palo Alto. This is the Charles Weeks poultry colony called Run- nymede. A large tract of fertile, alluvial bay shore land has been subdivided into acre tracts and on these colonists have settled chiefly for the raising of poultry under a system worked out as the result of fourteen years' experience by Mr. Weeks. With fertile land, artesian water, fine climate, good markets and near- ness to all the advantages of high civilization these colonists are working out the problem of making comfortable and enjoyable living as "little landers." With an unlimited market for food products the extension of this colony idea is only limited by the amount of suitable land available for the purpose.

North Palo Alto is a newer suburb than South Palo Alto. It lies northeast on a tract that is gently sloping, sunny and attractive. It has all the advantages that are necessary to

In April. 1922, the contract was awarded for the erection of a U. S. Veterans Hospital for $861,868. There will be eighteen buildings. The cost of the equipment will be $292,400.

Leland Stanford Jr., University

The highly favorable climatic and soil con- ditions found in a beautiful landscape of green mountains, rolling foothills, oak-bedecked val-

ley and blue and green waters of a world- famed bay, were leading considerations in the minds of Senator Leland Stanford and Mrs Jane Stanford, his wife, when in the '70s they selected, from all of California's magnificent domain, 8000 acres to serve as their home es- tate. This great farm they named Palo Alto (Spanish for "tall tree") from a huge red- wood tree standing on one corner of the es- tate. The 8,000 tree-dotted acres of this Stan- ford farm include land partly level, the rest rising into foothills of the Santa Cruz Range. Immediately on its northeastern border is Palo Alto and just to the east of Palo Alto lies San Francisco Bay with its miles of undeveloped water front. Across the Bay towers the Mt. Diablo Range and Mt. Hamilton, the latter rising to a height of 4400 feet and crowned by the Liek Observatory. Here was opened in 1891 the university founded in the memory of Leland Stanford, Jr. "The children of Cali- fornia shall be my children," said Senator Stanford.

As preliminary to the definite planning of buildings and grounds the Stanfords traveled the world over to obtain ideas and inspirations. As a result, there has been produced at Palo Alto in California, a group of university build- ings and a campus equal to the loveliest and best the world can show. Mr. McMillan, of McMillan's Magazine, London, uses this ex- pression: "Stanford University, the finest group of buildings in the world."

Located on a campus that is co-extensive with the original 8,000-acre farm, the buildings are compactly grouped in a quadrangle form. From the group wind macadam avenues, streets and drives. Palo Alto, the arboretum. and the farm lands, while paths ramble into the ever-beckoning, rolling hills. In general effect the immediate setting is semi-tropical ; red-tiled roofs, buff-colored sandstone walls, long arcades and colonnades, Romanesque pil- lar-supported arches, waving palms, mam- moth evergreen oaks, tall eucalyptus, bamboos, palms, green-swarded courts, and lawns and flowers everywhere.

'The central group of buildings, consisting of two quadrangles, the one completely sur- rounding the other, is an adaptation of mis- sion architecture and reproduces on an impos- ing scale the open arches, long colonnades and red-tiled roofing of the old Spanish Missions of California.

The inner quadrangle consists of twelve one- story buildings and the Memorial Church, con- nected by a continuous open arcade and sur- rounding a court 586 feet long and 246 feet wide, or 314 acres.

The fourteen two-story buildings of the outer quadrangle are of the same general style

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as the inner quadrangle, with arcades on the outside. The extreme length of the outer quadrangle is 894 feet. The main entrance through the outer quadrangle is through the Memorial Court. Leading to Palo Alto, in the opposite direction is University Avenue. This broad, palm-lined thoroughfare passes through one of the world's most famous ar- boretums, comprising about 600 acres and con- taining many thousand varieties of trees and shrubs, among them many rare specimens.

The Leland Stanford Jr. Museum contains the archaeological and art collections of the university. The chemistry building, located north of the quadrangle, consists of two sepa- rate structures, the main building and the as- saying laboratory. South of the quadrangles are the workshops of the engineering depart- ments, experimental laboratories and power houses.

The boys' dormitory, Encina Hall, is locat- ed east of the quadrangles and accommodates 300. The girls' dormitory, Roble Hall, is west of the quadrangles and has accommodations for 100. This is to be used in the future as a boys' dormitory also, a larger dormitory for women having been built near the lake. Be- tween Encina Hall and the main quadrangle. an art gallery and the magnificent new li- brary building have just been completed.

The men's gymnasium is a new structure of brick, with an open-air swimming pool, just opposite the football bleachers and athletic fields. The athletic fields are as complete and certainly as beautiful as those of any college in the world. They include three foot- ball fields, three baseball diamonds, a quarter- mile einder path, and a great number of ten- nis courts. Lagunita affords opportunity for boating and swimming.

Along the edge of the near foothills, just beyond the outer quadrangle to the south- east, are the homes of the college community. It is a little city by itself, with attractive streets and comfortable houses, encompassed by luxuriant wees, shrubs, flowers, and lawns. Alvarado Row, facing Encina Hall, Salvatierra Street, with its leafy protection of over-spread- ing elms, and Lasuen Street, known as Fra- ternity Row, are the principal streets. In ad- dition to these main thoroughfares, there are several short streets that lead up into the foothills, where attractive homes have been built on sightly knolls.

The Leland Stanford Jr. University is un- like oher great universities of the world in many other ways than its architectural and campus features. With an endowment esti- mated at about $30,000,000, not forced to de- pend upon any political system nor upon tu- ition fees of students for its supporting funds,

the trustees and faculty are peculiarly free to establish and maintain high standards of schol- arship and conduct among its students.

The university is thoroughly non-sectarian in its religious influence. Yet the spiritual and moral welfare of its students is made the object of a regularly organized department. The world-famed Memorial Church is the cen- tral and most beautiful building of the group. It is equipped with one of the best pipe organs in America. The Hopkins Marine Station is located at Pacific Grove. A new site of nearly five acres, at Almeja Point, was secured in 1916. A concrete building specially planned for the uses of the Marine Station was erected in 1917.

The Stanford Union is a club house for men, first projected by Herbert C. Hoover of the class of 1895, and built by contributions from students, alumni, faculty, trustees, and friends of the university. The Union was opened in February, 1915, and is in charge of a board of trustees made up of two faculty mem- bers, three alumni, and two undergraduates. The Women's Club House provides a social center for the women of the university, and is similar in plan and construction to that of the Union. The club house was opened in February, 1915. The University Inn is a frame building, operated as a cafeteria primarily for students living on the campus.

The Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery, the first building of the second quadrangle group, was completed in 1917. This build- ing, which sets the architectural style for the new quadrangle, has the same arched arcades as the original quadrangle, but the arched entrances, of which there are three, are high- er and more elaborate in detail.

The Library Building, the central unit in the second quadrangle group, was completed in 1919. The ground floor provides a read- ing room for books set apart for collateral reading, a department of public documents, and administrative work rooms. On the main floor are the delivery hall, the large reference and reading rooms, a browsing room, a peri- odical room, the card catalogue, and the ad- ministrative rooms ; on the mezzanine and top floors, a large study room, and smaller rooms of varying sizes for seminary and special re- search work.

The main buildings of the Medical Depart- ment in San Francisco occupy four fifty-vara lots bounded by Clay, Sacramento, and Web- ster streets. The Clinical and Laboratory Building, including Lane Hall and Lane Hos- pital, is a modern building in brick and stone, with a capacity of one hundred and eighty beds. The Lane Medical Library is situated on the corner of Sacramento and Webster

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streets, opposite the Clinical and Laboratory Building. The library is a fireproof struc- ture of Colusa sandstone, three and a half stories high, with steel stacks accommodat- ings 60,000 volumes. The Stanford Univer- sity Hospital, completed in 1917, is a con- crete structure with a capacity of one hundred and thirty beds.

The use of alcoholic liquors is absolutely prohibited in all student lodging-houses whether on the campus or elsewhere. The health department enforces stringent regula-

tions as regards the sanitary arrangements in all places where students live. Hospital service for a nominal fee is available for those who may need such service.

There were 2135 students and 310 members of the faculty at Stanford, according to the 1920 registration. Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur is the president and there are over 300 mem- bers of the faculty and instructors.

In 1921 a stadium capable of seating 65,000 people was built.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Los Gatos, the Gem City of the Foothills and Its Lovely Environs-The Gateway of the Valley-Gilroy, the Thriving Little City at the Southern End of the County-Attractions and Advantages

Los Gatos, the "Gem City of the Foot- er. There are usually more than 250 sunny hills," is in the most delightful part of the days in a year. most delightful California County-Santa Clara. The position of the town is rich in commanding views, is sheltered from winds and fog and is surrounded by fertile lands. It is a peerless city for homes, just the place for those who want to withdraw from the heat and glamour of city life, either permanently or at the end of the week, to enjoy the witch- ery of entrancing surroundings.

Los Gatos has a rare asset in its comfort- able and exhilarating climate, which is in ev- ery way, conducive to health and longevity. The thermometer rarely goes below the freez- ing point, or above eighty-five degrees Fahren- heit, although there have been a few days of record-breaking heat. By record-breaking heat some such figure as ninety-eight is meant, but the dryness of the atmosphere and the ever-present coolness of the shade and the night prevent sunstroke or other discomforts such as characterize Eastern summers. The absence of extreme temperature and exces- sive moisture, the prevalence of cool nights and the absence of malaria, render the air healthful and exhilarating the year round. While mean temperatures are often misleading it may be said that the mean of Los Gatos, made up from a long series of equable days, is fifty-eight the year through.

The rainy season usually begins in Octo- ber and ends in May, but during this sea- son the bright and cheerful days outnumber those of cloudiness and rain. There is an absence of lightning and violent winds. From June to October there is seldom even a show- 19

The Federal Weather Bureau reports the following facts: The altitude of Los Gatos is 600 feet. The average temperature dur- ing twenty-four years was fifty-eight and one- tenth. The lowest temperature during that period was twenty-eight. The total number of rainy days in 1910 was forty-five. The average temperature for January was forty-five and one-tenth; July, sixty-six and six-tenths. The coldest day of the year showed twenty- nine degrees, and the last serious frost was on February 2. The date shows that a long growing season, free from frost, is the heritage of the valley. The rainfall at Los Gatos from 1886 to 1915 averaged thirty inches a year, being ample for all purposes of health and agriculture. The average annual velocity of the wind is only seven miles an hour.

Besides the superb advantage of being in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Los Gatos is situated at the mouth of a beau- tiful canyon, part of the town lying on one side, part on the other, of Los Gatos Creek. The knolls are favorite building places and most of the lots lie at an elevation of from 400 to 800 feet above sea level, while some of the elevations in the background run as high as 2,000 feet, these being near the sum- mits, past which modern highways have been and are being constructed to afford motor parties some of the grandest views in Cali- fornia. The foothills and the mountains form a delightful ampitheater about the town, open- ing out to the floor of the valley on the north. These foothills shelter the town from winds and fogs, prevent the frosts of the lowlands

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and make the nights of summer a delight. Los Gatos is ten miles from San Jose and the distance to the ocean at Santa Cruz is only twenty-five miles.

Los Gatos is peculiarly favored in the mat- ter of good roads. A branch of the $18,000,- 000 State Highway, entering Santa Clara County at the Alameda County line and pass- ing through Milpitas and San Jose, proceeds from the latter city to Los Gatos, thence up the Los Gatos. Canyon and across the coun- ty line to Santa Cruz. This roadway offers a highway between San Francisco and Oak- land of almost 140 miles. The branch of the State Highway is of the greatest importance to Los Gatos. It is a fine road of easy grade, well maintained 'by state funds. It gives access to the Santa Cruz Mountains in gen- eral, and carries the great bulk of the travel to Santa Cruz. It is also the favorite route for visitors to the Big Basin and California Redwood Park.

Los Gatos is within easy reach of a num- ber of points of interest to tourists and resi- dents as well. San Jose, as has been stated, is only ten miles away and is reached by the Southern Pacific system of steam cars and also by the excellent electric service of the Pen- insular Railway Company. Stanford Univer- sity is only sixteen miles away and is reached over the electric system and by the South- ern Pacific. The New Almaden Quicksilver Mines are twelve miles distant, while the Guadalupe Quicksilver Mine is half that far. Congress Springs is reached by the electric line and is six miles from Los Gatos.

The following points are also of interest: Alma Soda Spring-four miles, drive; Big Trees, Redwoods-nineteen miles. steam rail- way or drive; Big Basin Park-about thirty miles, steam railway and stage ; Lick Observa- tory, Mount Hamilton-thirty-six miles, stage from San Jose: Alum Rock Park-eighteen miles, electric railways ; Santa Cruz, or Monte- rey Bay-twenty-five miles by steam railway ; seaside resorts all around the bay, including Monterey and Pacific Grove. Los Gatos is the starting point and finish of the famous Twenty-seven Mile Drive, one of the grand- est scenic mountain drives in the world.

Excellent lands, fit for a wide variety of uses, are adjacent and within easy reach of Los Gatos, for good roads make every part of the territory accessible to the husband- man. More than three hundred miles of the county's roads are either sprinkled or oiled every summer. Almost every kind of fruit will grow in the fertile areas adjacent to the town, the wide range including apples, pears, apri- cots, cherries, peaches, olives, plums, prunes, almonds, walnuts, limes, oranges, lemons,

pomelos and nectarines. The grape product is large. Both table and wine grapes thrive ev- erywhere in the vicinity. Bee-keeping, the poultry business, and dairying are important industries.

Fruit-raising is the prime industry of this part of the state. To care for the crops there are many large drying plants and the Hunt Brothers' np-to-date cannery. This establish- ment turns out almost 3,000,000 quarts of canned fruit each year. When running un- der normal conditions, in the summer, it em- ploys from 350 to 400 persons. It turns out about 40,000 cases of apricots and the same number of peaches each year. There are also a number of well-equipped drying-plants. Those of Hume Company, H. D. Curtis, the Los Gatos Cured Fruit Company, and Gem City Packing Company, all heavy operators.

The famous Glen Una prune ranch is an ex- ample of what can be done on a large scale. This superb property is close to Los Gatos, lying seven hundred feet above sea-level, far above the frost belt. It consists of 700 acres, about half of which is orchard, principally prunes. J. D. Farwell, manager of the ranch, says it has yielded as high as 1.100 tons of prunes in one season. Since it was planted, some years ago, it has produced prunes to the value of $750,000.

Within the last decade miles of cement side- walks have been put in, also an efficient sewer system and an up-to-date gas and electric plant. Educational interests are well repre- sented in Los Gatos. There is a fine high school and a well-equipped grammar school. Stu- dents can pass from the senior year at the high school to any of the universities close at hand.

The Montezuma Home Ranch school in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Los Gatos is unique. It is a school for boys and the man- agement takes special pains in ministering to the physiological needs of the growing child. It provides shops, gardens, outdoor advantages, an agricultural course and one in engineering. The Novitiate of the Sacred Heart is far- famed for its beauty and equipment. It is a training and boarding school where young men are trained for the priesthood.

Religious denominations are well represent- ed. The churches are numerous, well ap- pointed, and well attended. Visiting ministers of note are often heard in the local pulpits. Most of the secret and fraternal orders that thrive throughout the United States have lodges in Los Gatos. The women of the town maintain a number of useful clubs, both social and educative. The Los Gatos History Club owns its building. Another interesting organization is the Foothill Club. The Trail

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Club travels over the mountains. It already boasts of six trails to Loma Prieta.

The financial interests of Los Gatos are looked after and represented by the Bank of Los Gatos, which has a commercial and a sav- ings department, and by the First National Bank of Los Gatos. One weekly newspaper- The Mail-News-ministers to the local news field, and its owner takes pride in fostering every interest and enterprise that makes for the upbuilding of the community.

It was a wonderful tribute to Los Gatos when the Odd Fellows of the state selected a site on a sightly eminence for their great Odd Fellows' Home. More than eighty eligible sites were carefully examined before this se- lection was made. Los Gatos won by reason of general desirability from a scenic and cli- matic point of view, also because of transpor- tation facilities, proximity to markets, and healthfulness.

The same reason has led a number of weal- thy men and women from many parts of the world to select Los Gatos for their home; ei- ther permanently or for certain seasons. The names of many wealthy persons might be cit- ed, persons able to go anywhere their fan- cies might direct, but they wisely chose Los Gatos.

In 1918 a pageant given out of doors was the means of attracting thousands of people the the Gem City. In 1920 there was an- other pageant produced on a larger scale than the first one. It was in the form of a play, "The Californian," and was written by Wilbur Hall. a noted short-story writer, who has made his home in Los Gatos. There was a prologue and an epilogue and eight episodes and the play was given before an immense crowd of spectators on each of the two evenings, June 18 and 19. Among the notables present were Gov. William D. Stephens, Gertrude Atherton, Mrs. Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young, Helen Hoyt, John D. Barry and Mrs. Fremont Older. After witnessing the first performance Gov. Stephens said: "As an illustration of history the pageant was the finest thing I have ever witnessed. The entertainment as a whole was well worth going any distance to see. The story is well told, well staged and is a tribute to Mr. Hall."

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History of Santa Clara County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Part 54

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846- Publication date: 1922 Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co. Number of Pages: 1928

Author: Sawyer, Eugene Taylor, 1846-
Publication date: 1922
Publisher: Los Angeles : Historic Record Co.
Number of Pages: 1928