Los Gatos Weekly-Times file photograph
One year after the end of what was then known as The Great War, soldiers marched in an Armistice Day parade in Los Gatos.
Veterans Day slipped by Nov. 11 without due recognition from this corner.
Following The Great War in which France and her Allies defeated Germany, we Yanks celebrated the Armistice signing in France on the 11th hour of the 11th month of 1918. Later, Armistice Day was changed to Veterans Day to honor American dead from all wars.
Marching back from "over there" in France were servicemen who swelled the ranks of American Legion posts.
Los Gatos Post 158 was granted a charter on Nov. 26, 1919, with 69 members who had served overseas in a conflict that became known as World War I after Allies subdued Nazi Germany and Japan in World War II.
Banker Paul Curtis was the first Los Gatos post commander, and founding officers were D.F. Williams, first vice president; Eldon Hatch, second vice president; E.H. Melvin, secretary; and Herbert Roberts, sergeant-at-arms. Directors were H.O. Smith, Oliver Nino, Neal McGrady, Edward Yacco and Happer K. Phelps. Dues were 20 cents a month, and no initiation fee was charged.
The post established adult evening classes in Americanization for the foreign-born.
The Norton-Phelps Lumber Co. built an armory at 16 Lyndon Ave., which Jack Phelps of Honolulu and his sister, Marnya Phelps Campbell of Los Gatos, believe was constructed as an armory for the National Guard. She and Paul F. Curtis Jr., a subsequent owner of the building, recall dressing in costume for a downtown children's parade that culminated at the armory for costume judging. Curtis later owned the building and used it as his dance studio.
The building withstood our 1989 earthquake, testifying for steel-enforced concrete. Current owner-occupant is a commercial photography studio.
For meetings, Legion members constructed a dwelling on Park Avenue just off Main Street. Curtis recalls a handsome fireplace made of rocks fetched from Los Gatos Creek. Curtis purchased the building, and later he and then Betty McClendon taught dancing there.
The next Legion "home" was at 123 E. Main St., which became a temporary town library before housing the Los Gatos-Saratoga Department of Community Education and Recreation.
In 1950, the Los Gatos and Campbell posts formed West Valley Post 158 at the Los Gatos Skeet Club property on Dell Avenue in Campbell.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, November 20, 1996.
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