Photograph courtesy of Scott Rose
Ford's Opera House on W. Main Street was once a popular venue for many public events and ceremonies.
Ford's Opera House hosted graduations, concerts, plays
By John S. Baggerly
'How does a guy working for the railroad build an Opera House?" George Kane, former publisher of this newspaper, asked some years ago about Los Gatan E.L. Ford, a railway station agent who was married to a woman of property and cash. Los Gatos historian Bill Wulf recently answered the query.
The Fords lived in a home that still stands on the east side of University Avenue at Mullen Avenue, across a street from what is now Old Town. Today, Kane, a collector of rare books, and his wife, Mary, live in Santa Cruz, but he has been known to attend book fairs as far away as New York and London.
The original Ford's Opera House building at 140 W. Main St. later became Crider's Department Store. Today it houses the Opera House Shops and Banquet Facilities.
Wulf describes the old Opera House's front entrance as flanked by two stores--Crall's Stationery and Palace of Sweets (which was run by three generations of the Sweet family) and Baumgartner's 20th Century Tea Shop. Ford apparently had the foresight to place business space on either side of the entrance.
The Cralls moved to N. Santa Cruz Avenue and the founding Baumgartner went into the law, while son Edgar "Bud" Baumgartner went into the U.S. Navy at an early age. By the time the United States entered World War II, the younger Baumgartner had already retired. For many years he worked for Countryman Oldsmobile. He died a few years ago at his home on upper Broadway.
Early on, the Opera House was the stage for local plays and school graduations. There was also a brief period when Chautauqua performances came to the Opera House. Chautauqua referred to educational and recreational lectures, concerts, plays and other such programs, named for the summer school programs begun at Chautauqua, New York in the 1870s.
Los Gatos looked into the possibility of a Chautauqua series in 1915. On March 16, 1916, a Chautauqua company assured Los Gatos that it would have Chautauqua that year. By May, the Comus Players presented selections from Shakespeare and a Canadian classic on frontier life, Carson of the North Woods. Singers presented a comic opera, and concert violinist Alexander Skibinsky performed, all at Ford's Opera House.
By 1924, Chautauqua had lost its appeal throughout the nation, and Los Gatos was no exception. The Chamber of Commerce expressed its regrets that 100 people who had bought season tickets would be forced to fork over another $7.50 to make up the deficit. Even before the demise of Chautauqua programs in 1924, Los Gatos was turning its interest to a series of outdoor pageants.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
