Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Postcard photograph courtesy of Marnya Phelps Campbell

Many lodges and fraternal organizations were located on or near N. Santa Cruz Avenue in the early part of the century, when streetcars and carriages were the dominant form of transportation.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Fraternal groups were part of everyday Los Gatos life

Fraternity row? Not exactly, but partly. This was N. Santa Cruz Avenue at the W. Main Street intersection some 90 years ago.

Old-timers will be quick to notice the pediments atop two facing buildings that indicate the Odd Fellows Hall, upstairs, left, and Masonic Hall, upstairs, right.

These were pre-radio and pre-television days, when social life centered in lodges and churches.

Further north on the right side of the avenue, opposite Bean Avenue, stood the Kyle Building, home of the Kyle Bakery on the ground floor and another lodge hall upstairs. Mr. Kyle was a relative of Elayne Shore Shuman, a longtime Los Gatan who resides on Wilder Avenue.

Before being demolished in the 1940s, the lodge accommodations upstairs afforded a look at the phone booth-size closets that housed members' lodge garments.

It is safe to reckon that in those days, more than half of local residents belonged to a lodge or fraternal organization. In addition to the Masons and Odd Fellows and their respective auxiliaries--Eastern Star and Rebekahs--there were also Knights of Columbus, Redmen, Knights Templars and Woodmen of the World and its auxiliary, Neighbors of Woodcraft.

There was a time after World War II when the newly formed American Legion Post met in the Odd Fellows Hall. Directly across the street, members of Veterans of Foreign Wars were guests of the Masons.

Town politics were often along lodge lines, and a majority of funerals were conducted by or in part by lodge officers.

A note on the back of today's postcard photograph reads, "We visited this city Aug. 30, 1918. It is observed on one side (north) is the [San Francisco] Bay, and on the other side (west) is the [Pacific] Ocean."

Notice that horse-drawn vehicles observed parallel parking, while the lone automobile with white-sidewall tires--pretty snazzy in those days--is nosed directly into the sidewalk. The awnings were a standard on many buildings before air conditioning.

Cars from the Interurban Railroad Line, like the one rambling along N. Santa Cruz Avenue, were a common form of transit. The Interurban Line originated in San Jose and linked Campbell, Los Gatos and Saratoga. Before the line opened in 1904, Los Gatos had contemplated a streetcar line to service just the local area.

The Interurban Line connected in San Jose with a downtown streetcar line that took passengers into Alum Rock Park in the foothills east of San Jose.

The Interurban Line continued to serve West Valley until it was abandoned in 1934. Rails along N. Santa Cruz Avenue and Main Street were blacktopped and later extracted for their steel, which was needed to help the World War II war effort in the 1940s.

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