The Los Gatos Library - History Collection Volunteers are excited to share historical facts and information about the Town of Los Gatos that they have come across during their work in our Local History room at the library. Each issue will highlight interesting facts about the people and events that have helped make Los Gatos such a wonderful place to live, work, and play. We hope you enjoy reading.
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Contact the Los Gatos Library 408-354-6896 Hours: Monday 11AM - 8PM Tuesday 11AM - 8PM Wednesday 10AM - 6PM Thursday 10AM - 6PM Friday 10AM - 6PM Saturday 10AM - 5PM Sunday 12PM - 5pm eMail the History Collection Volunteers history@losgatosca.gov
Local History Room 408-399-5795
Volunteer Hours: Mondays 1PM - 5PM Wednesdays (1st, 4th, & 5th) 1PM - 3PM Thursdays 1PM - 5PM
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River Rock Bungalow built c. 1906 at 15 University Ave. The River Rock bungalow at 15 University Avenue was built c.1906. There is a crack in the fireplace from the 1906 earthquake to validate that the building pre-dates that event. Rocks from Los Gatos Creek were used to cover a wooden frame, resulting in its distinctive appearance. Rocks from the creek were used at other residences in town, for chimneys, porches, walls or garden beds but never to cover an entire exterior. The interior features dark woodwork and hardwood floors and a large attic on the second floor. The residence adjacent to the north side of the property in the early part of the 20th century was used as an office for Sterling Lumberyard which spanned the area up to Elm Street. The original owner of the Rock House, Charles Wagner, owned a barber shop on nearby Main Street but he and his wife Alice were both photographers and they used the Rock House as their studio. They used the distinctive rock exterior as backdrop for their group portraits of school children and fraternal organizations. Alice Wagner’s talent was to tint the black and white photographs with oil paint to simulate the natural colors. In 1931 or 1932 Jacques (1880-1960) and Therese (1905-1996) Libante arrived in Los Gatos from San Francisco, partly because they were seeking a more favorable climate for their son, Andre, who suffered from asthma. They had met in the City and found that they had come from neighboring towns in the Pyrenees/Atlantique, France although their paths had never crossed. Jacques was 24 years older than Therese. They had both been in the laundry business in San Francisco, so starting a laundry in Los Gatos was a natural consequence. They operated a laundry on Johnson Ave for a few months but wanted to expand so they bought the property at 15 University Avenue as their home. The building at 11 University was constructed by the Libantes on the space of the south garden of the Rock House in 1934 and became the Gem City French Laundry. Jacques prided himself on having custom starch formulas for each of his customers and Therese’s specialty was hand laundering and ironing fancy curtains, tablecloths and linens. Andre Libante married his high school sweetheart Jean Mckenzie and they lived on Broadway before ultimately settling on Glen Ridge Avenue. Their children, Alexander (Alec), Mark, Juliet and Janet, have fond memories of visiting their grandparents who spoiled them rotten. When they came to visit, their favorite sugar-laden breakfast cereal was ready for them and they could play all day in the huge attic, building forts with big cardboard appliance cartons from Wilkey’s Appliance store across the railroad tracks. They would play on the swings and slides across the street at the University Avenue school——it became their own private playground. A special windfall was finding loose change that had fallen out of the schoolchildren’s pockets during recess. On a hot summer day, Mrs. Libante would give her grandchildren cans of water and paint brushes and they would spend many happy hours “painting” the rocks on the front porch in order to see the rocks’ colors come alive when they got wet. The scrap pile from the lumber yard next door served as an endless supply of materials for small builders with indulgent grandparents. And trips to the butcher’s counter at Frank’s Los Gatos Market to pick up something for dinner were always adventures. To this day, certain cooking smells take the Libante children right back to the kitchen and family dinners at Mémé and Pépé’s house.
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Los Gatos Creek originates from springs in the Santa Cruz mountains and flows north for 24 miles through Los Gatos to the Guadalupe River which drains into the San Francisco Bay. Until the late 50’s the creek flowed freely through the town past many areas that were focal points of town life including the town park, a gymkhana grounds, a stable and a few swimming holes. In1954 construction began on Highway 17 and the creek and the town were changed forever. The end of WWII was the beginning of a steady increase in the population of the the Santa Clara Valley. Fruit ranches were cleared for housing to accommodate a growing population. One of the more popular activities on weekends for this growing population was driving to the beach in Santa Cruz. The main streets of Los Gatos came to a virtual stand still on weekends with cars trying to get on the road to Santa Cruz. Charles T Gamble, who was mayor at the time, referred to it as an “Iron Curtain of automobiles”. Local residents found it difficult go from one side of town to the other. The town asked the state for relief and the answer came in the form of a freeway through town following the route of the Los Gatos Creek. A concrete channel was built to contain the creek as it ran through most of downtown Los Gatos. Clearing and leveling of the creek bed was completed in late 1954 and the freeway was completed in 1956. A section of what the creek used to look like can still be seen under the Roberts Road bridge. Los Gatos Memorial Park (known as Bunker Hill Park before WWI) was located below Main Street Bridge where Highway 17 winds up the gap toward Santa Cruz. An idyllic site with huge oak trees along side the creek it was the pride of the town from 1897 to 1954 when it was razed to make way for the freeway. The park was a center for town celebrations and recreation. There were picnic grounds, a skating rink, the town swimming pool, and an access for kids who just wanted to play in the creek. To get to the park one turned right on Park Street off Main St. and wound down to the parking lot. South of the park was a swimming hole called Boo Gang. It was the place where generations of young boys gathered for swimming and horseplay. It has always had a magical reputation and has been featured in at least 2 books set in Los Gatos and written by authors who grew up in Los Gatos: Wildwood by Drusilla Campbell and Gallivanting in the Gem City by Steve Sporleader. As the creek flowed north from the park, it ran under the old Main Street Bridge and behind the Los Gatos Elementary school on University Avenue (now known as Old Town) It was a beautiful tree lined section where the teachers took their classes to look for pollywogs and other aquatic life. Gym classes for the older grades would take place on a field across the creek. The students used a pedestrian bridge to get there.
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The establishment of our town originated with the first constructed building, Forbes Flour Mill, in 1850. At that time the town was known as Forbes Mill or Forbestown. So how did we come to be known as Los Gatos? Interestingly enough, the mountain areas surrounding our town were populated first. Before becoming the 31st state in 1850, California was under Spanish then Mexican rule. Colonists received California land grants from Spain during 1784-1810 and from Mexico during 1819 -1846. Consequently, the areas surrounding Los Gatos carried names attributed to our Spanish roots. In the mid 1700s, the Spanish explorers named our mountain range Sierra Azul, or Blue Mountains, known today as the Santa Cruz Mountains.
When Father Fermin Francisco de Lasuen founded the new Mission Santa Cruz in 1791, the Ohlone Indians showed him a more direct yet primitive trail through the Sierra Azul, between the missions of Santa Cruz and Santa Clara. It was far shorter than the existing route that traveled north all the way up the coast to San Francisco and then south, back down the El Camino Real to the Santa Clara valley. The new path along the old Ohlone trail, the official El Camino link, was cleared through the mountains. In the beginning supplies were carried on the backs of Indians and donkeys. Later in 1795 when the road was marginally improved, a day's ride of approximately 30 miles by horseback from point to point was sufficient for daily mail and supply delivery.
The El Camino Real link crossed over the summit near where highway 17 crosses today. Nearby in the area of today's Mountain Charlie Road, wildcats and prowling herds of grizzly bears would congregate at a small lake called Laguna del Sargento. The Spanish padres who camped there were witness to the many wildcats yowling and playing around. We can probably assume these were bobcats and not mountain lions as the latter are not known to make a lot of noise, more of a bird chirping sound. In any case, by the late 1700s the area became known as Cuesta de Los Gatos or Wild Cat Ridge, the forbearer of our town name.
If you are interested in hearing a bobcat, go to this site and click on the sound links:
http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Bobcat_sounds_audio Tune in next time for Part II...............
Resources and Further Reading: "History of Los Gatos" by George Bruntz "Santa Clara County: Harvest of Change" by Stephen Payne "Memoirs of My Life" by John Charles Fremont. Vol . 1, 1887 Sixty Years in California, Davis, 1889 Please send comments to sungold27@gmail.com
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Maud Younger was born into an affluent family on January 24, 1870 in San Francisco. She attended the finest private schools in New York and California and traveled to Europe regularly. The expectation for a woman at the time, especially one of her status, was to marry a successful man, have children, and continue living a privileged and traditional life. Younger chose a different path for herself when she turned a five day trip to New York into a five year stay after witnessing the plight of working women. She not only acted as an advocate on behalf of women who did not receive the same rights as male employees, she immersed herself in work as a waitress to experience this discrimination first hand. Her time in New York had transformed her into a pioneer for women’s trade unions and the suffragist movement. Upon Younger’s return to San Francisco, she organized and led the first waitress union in California and advocated for numerous labor laws, including the eight-hour workday for women and women’s right to vote. She became nationally known for the historic and significant work she performed in California, leading to invitations to join national organizations, such as, Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage and the National Woman’s Party. She began traveling the country speaking on women’s suffrage, organizing demonstrations, and lobbying congress. Younger and her staff developed a lobbying strategy that included woman suffrage supporters writing letters to elected officials in Congress. Senators were flooded with mail. One congressman agreed to vote for the 19th Amendment, which would give women the right to vote, if she stopped the flow of mail to his office. The other part of her strategy was the creation of index cards for each member of the house and senate. In an article titled, “Landmark Legislation: The Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution”, from the website Senate.gov, Younger spoke of these cards, “If the card index indicated that a senator always arrived at his office at 7:30am, they (supporters) would arrange to have a lobbyist waiting outside his door at 7:29”. They also found it helpful to know as much as possible about senators’ mothers. “Mothers continue to have strong influences over their son. Some married men listen to their mothers more than to their wives.” On June 4, 1919, The 19th Amendment passed fifty-six to twenty-five. In 1920, for the first time ever, women voted in national elections. Thousands of women were part of the suffrage movement, but few dedicated their lives to social justice, activism, and advocacy like Younger did. She took part in dismantling one of the most overtly discriminatory policies against women of the twentieth century and she never stopped fighting for women’s rights. Younger moved to Los Gatos where she resided in a picturesque mountain ranch. She passed away on June 25, 1936.
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Melissa Maglio Librarian History Collection Volunteer Supervisor
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Lyn Dougherty History Collection Volunteer
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Betty Chase History Collection Volunteer
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Trish Smalling Goldfarb History Collection Volunteer
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Jennifer Saxe History Collection Volunteer
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