Saratoga News

Saratoga Stereopticon

Willys Peck

Sentiment versus engineering: paving over history

So now, 65 years later, the forces of progress have obliterated the last physical trace of the rail transportation system that laced central Santa Clara County communities together for almost 30 years, starting in 1904.

I'm referring to the section of curved track that showed through the pavement where Quito Road enters Austin Way at the old Austin Corners. The rails there had remained visible since March 12, 1933, when the last trolley car traveled over them, 29 years almost to the day after service started on the San Jose-Los Gatos Interurban, later Peninsular, Railway.

Two years ago, in an early Stereopticon column, I recounted the story of that system, and it's the kind of narrative that bears repeating. This time, though, as I waxed wroth at the spectacle of that fresh layer of blacktop obscuring the rails, I resolved to fire off a blistering, columnar denunciation, likening this act of desecration to the breaking of arms off the Venus de Milo, or the disfigurement of the Great Sphinx by--according to legend--Napoleonic cannon balls.

But, as an old newspaper reporter, I figured I'd better look for a who and a why, since the where, when and how already had been established. This inquiry led to none other than Bob Shook, Saratoga's director of public works for many years who is now serving in that capacity for the city of Monte Sereno. It seems that portion of Austin Way is a Monte Sereno city street, and Bob allowed as how he was a key figure in the repaving. I couldn't argue with his sound and plausible reasons for the project; all I had was sentiment, which doesn't count for much in an engineering argument.

To recapitulate briefly the Peninsular Railway story: The line was planned, just after the turn of the century, in an era when public transportation was a moneymaking business rather than a burden on taxpayers. The original line was from San Jose, running out Stevens Creek Road, now Boulevard, and turning onto Saratoga Avenue, where it continued through the village and on to Los Gatos.

There was a spur line up to Congress Springs, where the luxurious hotel had burned in 1903, but the mineral springs property continued in use as a popular picnic area.

In 1905, the "Campbell short line" was completed, achieving the loop connecting the three West Valley towns with San Jose. Later there was a line continuing along Stevens Creek Road through Cupertino and Los Altos, on up to Mayfield, or south Palo Alto.

One basic flaw in the planning, which wasn't all that obvious at the time, was the decision to run the tracks along, and sometimes in the middle of, county roads, which were then unpaved and carrying almost no automobile traffic.

With the paving of the roads and the proliferation of motor traffic, the interurban cars--we always called them streetcars--were increasingly in the way, and there were many accidents and close calls. As people depended increasingly on their cars, patronage on the Peninsular fell off, and the decision in the Depression year of 1933 to end the service met little or no opposition. The steel rails were almost immediately removed--except as embedded in the pavement at Austin Corners--but in many places, the wooden ties were left in place to rot, causing problems with the pavement, as happened on North Santa Cruz Avenue in Los Gatos in the 1950s.

Reference to Austin Corners and Austin Way brings up a historical sidelight involving a man named--what else?--Daniel B. Austin, a Pennsylvanian born in 1834 who first came to California in 1853. After pursuing a variety of occupations--butcher, farmer, mining engineer, both in California and Nevada--he bought 60 acres between Saratoga and Los Gatos in 1882 and became a founder of the Los Gatos and Saratoga Wine and Fruit Co. The company had a large winery at Austin Corners, from 1885 to 1919, when it was razed with the advent of Prohibition.

Austin was instrumental in establishing the school district bearing his name, the school being in a building since remodeled and now occupied by the Next Generation Child Development Center. In the 1920s, the Austin and Booker districts, the latter school being near the present Saratoga Springs resort, were joined with Saratoga to form the present Saratoga Union School District.

Austin Way, which was the main road between Saratoga and Los Gatos until late 1940, still has some nice original touches, such as the Brick Hill. But progress is just too good at covering its tracks.

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