Saratoga Stereopticon
The history of the Saratoga Historical Museum
By Willys Peck
'Professional" is one of those words that can be delivered with a pejorative twist. "Professional liberal" comes to mind. Or "professional veteran," a term bandied about after World War II. Neither reference could be called flattering. In that sense, I suppose I could be branded as a "professional Saratogan," since writing and talking about this town seems to be my shtick. Never having lived anyplace else, I'll have to say I can't help it. In similar circumstances, I'd probably be doing the same for Manteca or Salida.
This, I think, is a pretty good excuse for putting in a plug for what may be one of our least-appreciated cultural resources, the Saratoga Historical Museum, which will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on the Fourth of July. That was the day in 1976 when the building at 20450 Saratoga-Los Gatos Road was formally dedicated as a highlight of Saratoga's Bicentennial observance.
The museum story was told in this space several years ago, but a silver anniversary seems an appropriate time to recall the event. The museum did not come easily; it represented the third attempt at creating such a facility. The first was in 1966, when the Thomas E. Marsh house, dating back to the 1860s, was going to be razed to make way for the Plaza del Roble shopping center on Big Basin Way.
The 5-year-old Saratoga Historical Foundation, with a $2,000 nucleus from the estate of Saratoga historian Florence Cunningham, raised enough money to have the house moved down the hill to the city of Saratoga's Wildwood Park, where, it was proposed, it would be permanently located and refurbished as a museum. That never happened. The city never could decide on a permanent location, the house was increasingly vandalized, and in the spring of 1969, the city paid as much for demolition of the structure as the Historical Foundation had paid to have it moved.
In 1970, the 1860s William Haun house, at Fourth Street and Big Basin Way, was another hot prospect. The developer of what was to become a commercial site was going to let the house be moved to a nearby location, where it would be refurbished as a museum. The developer saw it as an enhancement to the surrounding businesses. As if to demonstrate just how hot a prospect it was, the house burned to the ground in 1971.
With this record it was understandable that, when the James McWilliams house, of similar vintage as the other two, was due for the bulldozer treatment in 1973, the Historical Foundation didn't rush to the rescue. Those who did rush in were with the hastily organized Saratoga Heritage Fund, including many from the Historical Foundation, which raised money to have the house moved to city-owned property in what was to become the Historical Park. The McWilliams House, occupied by the Chamber of Commerce, was dedicated on the Fourth of July in 1975.
Encouraged by the city's designation of a Historical Park, the Historical Foundation paid to have the former Swanee's Dress Shop building--also slated for demolition--moved to the new site. In addition to its later use as a dress shop, the building had also been a dry-goods store, a grocery and candy store, and, originally, a drug store when it was built around 1905.
The museum is staffed entirely by volunteers. It is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday, from 1 to 4 p.m. There is a nucleus exhibit depicting Saratoga's background in lumbering and agriculture and its fame as a resort, derived from the mineral springs a mile and a half up the canyon. Visitors can leave with the assurance that, despite evidence to the contrary, Saratoga was not the brain child of real estate developers.
In addition to the permanent displays there are rotating exhibits, the next one being on Saratoga's involvement with the dramatic arts. Over the years, this has been considerable. One of the most conspicuous figures in this realm was the late Dorothea Johnston, whose Theater of the Glade flourished from 1934 through 1941. Dorothea, or "D," as she was known to her associates, was the daughter of Mrs. Elizabeth Johnston, who ran the Saratoga Inn, a gracious hostelry dating back to 1912, located on the site of the present Saratoga Inn Place condominiums.
The Inn property extended back to and along the creek, where there was sufficient space for several hundred spectators, who sat facing a terraced stage area against the embankment. Her first production, in 1934, was Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream," in which the role of Puck was played by a Saratoga girl who had just graduated from high school. Her name: Olivia de Havilland.
The next year, the play was "As You Like It," which was repeated four years later, in 1939. By that time, Olivia was starring in "Gone With the Wind." I claim the Theater of the Glade as the forerunner of my own dramatic venue, the Theater on the Ground, a couple of hundred yards downstream and overlooking the same creek.
Sixty-six years after the initial Glade production of "As You Like It," a group of talented seventh-graders gave the same play on my backyard stage. It will be the subject of a future column.
Willys Peck is a frequent contributor to the Saratoga News.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
