Strolling on such a grand estate, we felt a little like interlopers. We were completely unaware, however, of the real splendor Montalvo once was or of the celebrities who'd ambled through the very same gardens.

Sen. James Duval Phelan, three-time San Francisco mayor and generous patron of the arts, built the Mediterranean-style villa in Saratoga in 1912 as a summer retreat. He eventually lived out the rest of his life there. Phelan's guests at the villa included President Franklin D. Roosevelt, actresses Mary Pickford and Ethel Barrymore, renowned tennis star Helen Wills, New York Governor Al Smith and royalty from around the world. With Phelan's invitation, famous poets, writers and artists of the time often stayed at the villa to renew their inspiration.

When Phelan died in 1930, he bequeathed his villa to the San Francisco Art Association, "to be maintained as a public park open to the public under reasonable restrictions, the buildings and grounds immediately surrounding the same to be used as far as possible for the development of art, literature, music and architecture by promising students."

With Phelan's wishes in mind, a woman named Anne Dodge Bailhache and the Montalvo Association and Service Group have literally nurtured the dying estate back to life over the last 40-plus years, and because of their efforts, Montalvo is poised to become a world-class center for the arts.

In 1996, some 30-plus years after my husband and I sat in the oak trees, the Montalvo Carriage House Theater was renovated, and the seeds of the Montalvo vision began taking hold in earnest.

"We used to sit on folding chairs in the carriage house," says piano teacher and longtime Saratoga resident Kirsten Stone. "It wasn't comfortable—no heating and no air conditioning—but it was a wonderful carriage house."

The old redwood carriage house, octagonal in shape, even sported a 16-foot turntable that allowed Phelan to line up his many cars around the walls. For what it was—a garage—the carriage house was state of the art at that time.

Today, the carriage house is a plush 300-seat theater with excellent acoustical and stage equipment. The redwood walls are still there, hidden behind modern trappings. Somewhere below the red seats and the new flooring is the old turntable. The outside is the same as always.

All of which captures the nature of the changes going on at Montalvo today.

Montalvo is seeking to attract internationally acclaimed performers, visual artists and writers. In these economic times, when arts organizations nationwide are just struggling to stay alive, some question whether Montalvo can support these grand dreams.

But this vision for the villa is not so farfetched, says Elisbeth Challener, executive director of Montalvo. "The famous violinist Yehudi Menuhen, who grew up in Los Gatos, taught here, and so did one of the best muralists in San Francisco," Challener says. "This place started at a high level."

Not only is Montalvo broadening its scope and depth of entertainment but also its range in the Bay Area. "We want to grow our patronage on the Peninsula," Challener says. In that vein, in addition to using its Carriage House Theater, the front lawn and the outside theater as venues, Montalvo rents larger venues outside the villa for performers who draw big audiences, like comedian Bill Cosby, poet Seamus Heaney and violinist Izhak Perlman. The historic, refurbished 1,200-seat Fox Theater in Redwood City and the 800-seat Mission Santa Clara have become regular venues for Montalvo programs.

But the biggest and most expensive venture to date is the "Orchard of Artists" currently under construction. For $9.5 million, the Montalvo Association, the governing body at Montalvo, is building 10 state-of-the-art cottages and a commons bungalow for their artist in residence program.

Photograph by George Sakkestad This composers cottage is one of many buildings under construction to support the artists in residence program at Montalvo.

Cottages for musicians, for instance, have no parallel walls so that sound won't bounce. Musicians will even be able to fine-tune the cottage's acoustics. They will have electrical setups for sound equipment, as well as a grand piano. And 18-inch walls, partially built into the hillside, will prevent the music from disturbing other artists in residence.

The cottages cascade down the side of a hill in a more rural section of the property, away from the activity of the villa.

Some of those who've been with Montalvo a long time are wondering if the association can afford such an expensive venture.

So far the capital campaign has raised $7.5 million for the Orchard of Artists. Jennifer DiNapoli, board member in charge of fundraising for the new cottages, says the Orchard of Artists has excited much interest and generated a significant amount of money.

According to Rich Braugh, a senior vice president of UBS Paine Webber and a member of Montalvo's board, Montalvo is on solid ground. He says the program has good community and corporate support. Right now, Braugh explains, corporations are having difficulty donating because they are still laying off employees but are "very excited" about what's happening at Montalvo and committed to giving when they can.

Braugh says there is nothing else like Montalvo in the valley, and that a world-class art center will have a significant impact on the Bay Area. Braugh notes that the artist in residence program at the premier McDowell Association's artists' colony in New Hampshire has played host to several Pulitzer-prize-winning writers. "They get the cream of the writing community there," he says. "Once you get that presence, you attract world-class talent."

Braugh says the resources at Montalvo and in this community are incredible. Even with the economic slump, people are still supporting the mission—and 99 percent of the board members are behind it. "There are no guarantees," Braugh says. "But this program is very doable in this tough environment. We've been confronting all of the issues, and doing it consistently."

"I'm enthralled with the project," Braugh says. "The economy might go down, but we won't be changing our vision."

When you have a vision, money will follow, says Dakin Hart, until recently Montalvo's artistic director.

"It's amazing that we survive in this environment," says Bruce Labadie, performance arts director at Montalvo. According to Labadie, the changes are bringing in some very big artists and performers.

Montalvo also has an outreach program that works with schools in the area. In the summer Montalvo sponsors a camp for the San Jose Youth Symphony, and every summer Montalvo hosts a Montana theater group that offers a children's theater camp and produces a play with a cast of local children.

Braugh makes another comparison. He was on the board of the San José Repertory Theatre when they took the leap to build a new theater. "The board had to raise the money. But look," he says, "we've been able to draw some outstanding talent. Last year Holly Hunter and Lynn Redgrave performed for the Rep."

And, Braugh says, "Montalvo has far more resources than the Rep did."

For one thing, Challener says, the villa has facilities to rent out. It's a perfect place for weddings, albeit expensive. Sixty percent of Montalvo's operating money comes from weddings, corporate rentals, small luncheons and event ticket sales. Forty percent comes from fundraising and gifts.

"Montalvo is a nonprofit organization owned by the people of California," Challener says.

DiNapoli says the Montalvo artists in residence program is the oldest in the country this side of the Mississippi. The vision of cottages on a hillside at Montalvo dates back 60 years.

Anne Bailhache, a San Francisco artist enchanted by the possibilities of the villa as an artists' colony, tried valiantly to carry out the senator's wishes in the 1930s and '40s. She set out with the model of the McDowell artist colony in mind. For 15 years Bailhache struggled, organized, restored buildings and even created small apartments for an artist in residence program.

But the San Francisco Art Association's lack of the facilities, inclination and money necessary to make Montalvo viable as an ongoing artists' colony left Bailhache frustrated. She eventually gave up.

But while at Montalvo Bailhache had recognized the importance of local support, as well as the need for cultural programs in the agricultural South Bay. She got the local communities involved in Montalvo. This step probably saved Montalvo from falling into the hands of developers.

Bailhache was long gone by the time the San Francisco Art Association—after long neglect of the villa, legal battles and the final realization that the art association didn't have the wherewithal to carry out the senator's dream—finally turned the villa's trusteeship over to the local, newly formed Montalvo Association in 1953.

By then the grounds and the buildings had fallen into disrepair. A group of women formed the Montalvo Service Group to get the villa functioning again. This group grew to over 200. They were a hands-on group that, over the next 40 years, sewed curtains, washed windows and floors, dug up weeds, planted flowers and lawns and took out dead trees. Anything that needed doing, they did.

The group offered community to each other as well.

"Montalvo saved my life," says Roz Work, who, along with her husband, a San Jose native, had retired and moved from Washington, D.C., to Saratoga in 1971. "We didn't know a soul when we arrived." After taking an organic gardening class at Montalvo, Work joined the garden group at the villa and started helping out.

Photograph by George Sakkestad Turning pages on a Montalvo scrapbook are (left) Becky Trigerio, president, and Gloria Moor, historian, of the Montalvo Service Group.

"We needed to raise money for the gardens," says Work, now 83. "So we held a wine tasting on Sundays. A professor came down from Berkeley every week to lecture about wine. They served afternoon tea once a week to the public, and the teas evolved into the Wednesday luncheons still going on today."

The women of the service group nursed the artists in residence program along. They fixed up the little kitchenette apartments that Bailhache had built decades before. They created living quarters for more artists inside the villa, adding enough space for 10.

"When artists flew in from New York with their typewriters and their easels," Work says, "we went down and got them at the airport." The women took the artists grocery shopping and helped them with their laundry. "They didn't usually come with cars," Work says.

Then came the Yuletide, a holiday bazaar. The service group decorated the villa and sold crafts. "Some of our ladies are very talented and made beautiful things—table runners, baby clothes, jams and jellies, wreaths, lots of things," Work says.

Contributed photograph The Yuletide holiday bazaar, an annual fundraiser, has become a casualty of the changing scene at Montalvo. Roma Reiker (left) and Steve Deshon are pictured working at a 1996 Yuletide event.

Bringing in as much as $30,000 or $40,000 a year, Yuletide became Montalvo's big fundraiser.

But the down-home, hands-on era of the service group and its fundraising is given over now to the Montalvo Association's grander plans, and Yuletide has become a casualty of the new global vision.

"The powers that be took our Yuletide away," Work says. "They say they can make more money renting the facilities to corporations during the holidays."

"Yuletide isn't the most practical way for us to raise the funds we need," Challener says. "But we need volunteers in order to keep the place running."

Braugh says of the board, "About 2¹/2 or three years ago, we asked ourselves what we wanted Montalvo to be—either continue as a performance venue or become a national art community like McDowell."

"Out of that discussion came tremendous energy," Braugh says. The board has a clear vision now of Montalvo as a center for the arts.

The board created a five-year plan with specific steps. "We are halfway through the plan," Challener says.

The Orchard of Artists concept took hold, and the construction began. The gallery in the pavilion was renovated in January. It is now climate-controlled and secured. The walls are backed with plywood to hold the heavier works of art. "It's a jewel of a small gallery," says Challener. Visitors can come for a walk on the grounds and wander into the gallery to see art for free. The gallery is open during concerts as well. Just now the gallery is showing the work of Japanese artist Jun Kaneko, who Montalvo bills as one of the foremost ceramic sculptors of our time.

"We couldn't have invited him to come before," Dakin Hart says. "We didn't have the facilities."

Hart says Montalvo wants to show the latest trends in art. "We want artists to see the villa as a canvas. We want the art to be ephemeral and in sync with nature, which means site-specific art installations."

But this new focus has stirred some controversy. As part of the new sculpture-on-the-grounds program, Montalvo commissioned Japanese sculptor Shigeo Kawashima to create a split-and-tied bamboo sculpture on the front lawn. Some of the brides who'd paid dearly for a traditional Montalvo wedding were angry about the unusual arch.

"Many brides liked it, too," Challener says. "One bride actually used the arch for her ceremony." But the bamboo arch was removed. "We realize we need to educate the community so they understand what Montalvo is now," Challener says.

Kirsten Stone, one of those who has been around for awhile as a volunteer, struggles with the changes at Montalvo. Unsure of whether Montalvo will survive such grand plans, and missing the old, rustic Carriage House Theater, Stone says she doesn't know what to think. "Montalvo is in transition," she says, "and I don't know if it will make it."

Yet she was delighted to work on the bamboo sculpture installation. Under the direction of Kawashima, Stone actually helped split and tie hundreds of pieces of bamboo for the arch on the front lawn. "It was a wonderful experience," she says. "That's the kind of experience I want at Montalvo." The Japanese artist couldn't speak English, so a translator had to speak for him. Someone was also there to teach the volunteers all about bamboo. "I loved that piece, and it's so sad it's gone," Stone says.

Montalvo, with all its changes, remains beautiful, and visitors can still hike along any one of the trails on the 175-acre estate or sit in the oak trees and talk philosophy. These days the place looks pretty spiffy, something like it used to when Sen. Phelan was hosting world-famous celebrities, and it's abuzz with artists—just as the senator wanted it to be.

Some of the historical facts about Senator Phelan and Montalvo were taken from the book 'Legacy of a Native Son: James Duval Phelan & Villa Montalvo' by James P. Walsh and Timothy J. O'Keefe.