Photograph courtesy of Bill Wulf.
Cupertino ladies arrive in 1906 at Congress Springs. Eva Belle Taggert, grandmother of historian Bill Wulf, is seated at the window, third from left.
The snug area that became Saratoga was a hamlet that had trouble deciding on what it wanted to be called.
Trial names were Tollgate, McCarthysville and Bank Mills. Residents of the embryonic area at the foot of Santa Cruz Mountains knew they had the right name when a bubbling mineral water springs proved to contain the same chemical ingredients as those found at one of the larger fountains at the fashionable spa in Saratoga, N.Y.
According to New York State records, Saratoga is an Iroquois name meaning "the place where alkaline substances float."
"Taking the waters" was fashionable and supposedly healthful in Saratoga, N. Y. So it's understandable that there became a Saratoga, California.
The vote to change the name to Saratoga was unanimous. The name of the post office was changed in 1865.
Big money, always alert, saw possibilities of duplicating the world-famous New York spa. Darius Ogden Mills, the West's outstanding banker, and Alvina Hayward (oh, what's become of all those interesting first names?), a San Francisco mining tycoon, formed a corporation and purchased 720 acres of Congress Springs from George Cross, a Saratoga pioneer, for $2,000 in 1865.
Mills and Hayward bottled the water and marketed it for its "medicinal qualities and invigorating flavor."
To finance building a hotel with a long veranda and cottages, the owners sold stock. Mills and Hayward built themselves palatial summer cottages with the intention of using the property as a private resort, but settled on the idea of a public resort.
Take your choice: Riding, walking, hunting, fishing and, of course, the waters were yours. The spot appealed especially to nature lovers. And--who asked?--unmarried couples registered under the same name.
In 1872, Lewis P. Sage and his son, Louis A. Sage, bought the entire resort for $15,000. Under their management, the resort obtained its greatest popularity. Their dairy, orchard and vineyard furnished milk, butter, fruit and wine for the hotel's table.
In 1881, the 14-room Congress Hotel was expanded.
The resort was advertised as easily accessible for railroad travelers and only six miles from Los Gatos and about 12 miles from San Jose. Stages connected railroad travelers with the Springs.
Sage advertised the baths, now called Pacific Congress Springs, as "efficacious in cutaneous diseases and rheumatic afflictions. The waters, similar to Congress Springs, N. Y., are tonic, purgative, diuretic alternatives." In short, a cure-all for man's diseases and afflictions.
Old Timers recalled picnics at the Springs and bringing along sugar and lemons to mix with the spring water, which "fizzed up."
Now came another change. Sage, who had spent $40,000 improving the grounds, leased the facility to an eastern promoter, J. F. Pfetch, who planed to build an electric railroad that would give the resort an easy connection with San Jose and main railroad connections, including to Sunnyvale and Los Gatos.
Congress Springs had its ups and downs under the new ownership as other resorts blossomed. But business was improving in 1903 when misfortune struck. A defective flue in the main building caught fire while guests were at dinner. Personal property was saved, as were some fixtures and furniture and the wine supply. But the building was history. Guests were put up for the night at Hotel Lyndon in Los Gatos.
Instead of rebuilding, Pfetch erected a combined restaurant and clubhouse for social festivities. Even before completion of the electric railway to Saratoga, the Peninsular Company purchased the Congress Springs property. A spur line up the canyon was built with a terminus just below the ascent to the site of the destroyed hotel. When the Interurban Railroad discontinued service (from San Jose to Los Gatos and eastward to Alum Rock Park in the east foothills) in 1933, Congress Springs' days were numbered.
Weekend crowds continued, but soon the San Jose Water Company purchased the property and promptly closed it to the public.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, May 29, 1996.
©1996 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved