Los Gatos Weekly-Times file illustration

During the early 1900s, Los Gatans depended almost completely on locally owned taxi services.

Picture from the Past

Los Gatos taxis once brought residents from here to there

By John S. Baggerly

The time of the taxi cab in Los Gatos was sandwiched between "horses for hire" and the two-car family.

At the turn of the past century, residents or visitors would rent a saddle horse or a "horse and wheels" for trips as far as Santa Cruz or the Almaden Quicksilver Mines.

The Star Taxi advertisement above is from the 1924 Los Gatos phone book. On the same page is an ad for Auto Transit Co.'s "Direct Stage" service to San Francisco, Palo Alto, Santa Cruz, Salinas, Watsonville and Monterey.

The taxi business centered on the area where W. Main Street intersects Santa Cruz Avenue, as it does today, between the north tip of Hotel Lyndon (now Lyndon Plaza) and the La Cañada Building, longtime home of a drug store with medical and dental offices upstairs. Taxi owners had shelter and a phone in their office, tucked into the south side of the Corner Drug Store that faced Santa Cruz Avenue.

Taxi drivers, such as Bert Ferini and Marvin Lasley, had special assignments. A woman living in the upper reaches of Pennsylvania Avenue had a standing order that if her dog wandered down into town, it was to be brought home by Ferini and the woman would pay the fare.

Another woman on Kennedy Road kept a pet raccoon. When she was to be out of town for a few days, she purchased a loaf of raisin bread and gave it to Lasley with orders to bring a slice or two to her home each day for Mr. Raccoon.

One day, the dog lady was walking home with an armful of groceries when Ferini drove past her going uphill. The passenger sitting in the front seat turned out to be her pet pooch! When she got home she phoned "Los Gatos 106" and canceled her standing order to bring home roving Rover. Ferini was the brother of Walt, who once drove Peerless Busses between Los Gatos and San Jose.

Star Taxi was owned by Denny Rauch and L. L. Feathers. Later, Feathers sold out to Rauch and joined the Los Gatos police force. In the 1930s, he replaced Henry Noble as Chief of Police. Rauch was one of the best golfers at the newly formed La Rinconada County Club, but gave up the sport to concentrate on his cab business.

The earliest of all Los Gatos in-town transportation was supplied by El Monte Hotel (1881-1909) with its own carriages transporting guests from and to the railroad depot, located where the present-day Town Plaza stands. This service disappeared when the hotel, located at E. Main and Pleasant streets, burned to the ground in l909.

The last taxi owners on the local scene were Leonora Ghetti and her brother Leon. She also founded a popular restaurant called El Campo Bello on Roberts Road, cooking as her mother had cooked in New York City. The fare was good enough to attract actor Charles Laughton when he traveled here from Del Monte in Monterey.

When the Laughton limo stopped at a local service station for directions, locals noted that he rode in the front seat with his chauffeur. Localites often rode in the front seats with taxi owners as well.

The two-car family spelled the end of the local taxi business.

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