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Saratoga Stereopticon
Potential Heritage Lane built brick by brick
By Willys Peck
'Heritage Lane" has a nice ring to it, conjuring up images of a quiet thoroughfare lined by old and perhaps even stately homes. This city has one such area, Saratoga Avenue, and there is a certain irony in the designation.
As a resident of that street, I am aware of the peak traffic conditions that can delay departure from or entrance into my driveway by what seem like maddeningly long intervals. That's why I refer to such times as "born again" days, when the best way to cross Saratoga Avenue is to be born on the other side.
But I am grateful for the designation, which came about to thwart any ill-conceived plans to widen the street to four lanes. As a Heritage Lane, that couldn't happen; at least that was, and is, our hope. As I've commented in this space before, keeping to 35 miles an hour between the Village and Fruitvale Avenue shouldn't warp anyone's personality.
There's another Heritage Lane designation in the works, and again it concerns primarily the street itself rather than adjoining residences. This is the stretch of Austin Way that takes off from Highway 9 and Saratoga-Los Gatos Road. It is opposite El Camino Grande, makes a sharp curve where Bainter Avenue comes in, and proceeds on across Highway 9 to Austin Corners and the Quito Road juncture. From there it proceeds up the hill to rejoin Highway 9. This segment is in the city of Monte Sereno.
The concept of heritage pertains to that first segment of Austin Way, in the city of Saratoga, that is paved with brick. It's an interesting question as to just when this paving took place. My guess would be around 1914 or a bit later when, I understand, other roads around Saratoga were paved. Brick was not an uncommon paving material back then. There was another such segment on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road on the hill north of the bridge over Saratoga Creek, and I seem to remember brick paving in other areas.
I'd like to think there could be some more picturesque designation than "brick hill" for this section of Austin Way. Examine that surface. Over the years, age and wear from the passage of vehicles have given the bricks a kind of patina, an appearance of mellowness that--hey, that's it! The Mellow Brick Road! Follow the Mellow Brick Road! (Apologies to Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz crowd.) We're off to see the Wizard, or maybe only the mayor, but it's Follow the Mellow Brick Road.
There's more than just a little history in this corner of Saratoga. Austin Way became a side street in 1940, when that segment of Saratoga-Los Gatos Road was straightened, thus eliminating--for through traffic--the hazard of Austin Corners. For many years, an auto repair garage on the site could count on the patronage of motorists who failed to negotiate the sharp corner and piled into a telephone pole.
The Peninsular Railway interurban tracks adjoined the highway, and three years ago, the last visible segment of the rails at Austin Corners was paved over by the city of Monte Sereno. The tracks were laid in 1903-04 and were removed, except in that one segment, when the line shut down in March 1933. In a Stereopticon column Sept. 30, 1998, I decried what I called "this act of desecration"--paving over the rails--but the more sound engineering arguments prevailed.
The Austin whose name is commemorated was Daniel B. Austin, a Pennsylvanian who first came to California in 1853 when he was 18. He pursued various occupations until 1882, when he purchased 60 acres between Saratoga and Los Gatos. He was a founder of the Los Gatos and Saratoga Wine and Fruit Co., which operated a winery at Austin Corners from 1885 to 1919. In the last year, with the advent of Prohibition, the building was razed.
The building housing the Next Generation Child Development Center, at 19010 Austin Way, originally was the Austin School, serving the district which Daniel Austin helped to establish. The Austin district, along with the Booker district, near the present Saratoga Springs resort, was joined with Saratoga's school to form the Saratoga Union School District in the 1920s.
After the Austin School closed, the building became a grocery store and later an art gallery. It was considerably enlarged for its present use.
Another historical sidelight I'd like to explore has to do with Bainter Avenue. I've been told the street was named for the family of movie actress Fay Bainter, who died in 1968 at the age of 76. In her various roles, she was described as a "stalwart but sympathetic matron," and I remember her well in such parts as Mickey Rooney's mother in Young Tom Edison. But I don't know if or when she might have lived here.
Perhaps if I "Follow the Mellow Brick Road" I can get a clue.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
