Preservation efforts follow mainly two themes. There is the frozen-in-time approach, exemplified by Williamsburg, Va., where everything is preserved in original form and keyed to the period of origin. California's Mother Lode Country has some of this. A somewhat more practical approach is to preserve buildings and sites in their essential form but, by revamping and modernizing, adapt them to current uses. The aura is maintained and, as a rule, enhances the atmosphere.

So here is Sam Cloud's barn, at the stub end of Third Street, facing a decidedly uncertain future. It's big—5,000 square feet with three floors—and it has seen many uses in its more than 100 years. It was built by Samuel H. Cloud (1838­1907) as a hay and feed warehouse and storeroom for his general store. The store, now the location of the Harmonie European Day Spa at 14503 Big Basin Way, was built in 1884. The adjoining residence, now the Bella Saratoga Restaurant, was built in 1896. Incidentally, I have to hand it to Bill Cooper for preserving the architectural integrity of that house in maintaining it as a restaurant.

Sam Cloud had bought the store in 1893 from John Hutchinson. The second story consisted of a large room that became known as Cloud's Hall. It was used for social gatherings and later became the Odd Fellows lodge hall. Much later it was converted to apartments.

One especially interesting feature involving the store and barn was the fact that the Peninsular Railway, the interurban trolley line connecting towns in the central Santa Clara Valley, had a spur track running up that section of Third Street. This was so hay, feed and other items Cloud needed for his store could be transported directly to the barn. The Peninsular was primarily a passenger carrier, but it did handle freight.

This spur was from the line that ran up Big Basin Way—then called Lumber Street—on to the Congress Springs picnic grounds. When the construction of the line was started, the line was intended to serve the hotel at Congress Springs, but the hotel burned in 1903. The Congress Springs extension was built anyway. If the system were in use today, cars using that Third Street spur could deliver people directly to the second-floor entrance of the Inn at Saratoga.

The Sam Cloud era ended in February 1907 when he got off a Congress Springs car in front of his house. When the car started up again, it jumped the Third Street switch, knocking Cloud to the ground, mortally injured. He was taken into his house, where he died.

Sam Cloud's daughter, Laura, married Thomas E. Smith, who took over operation of the store. I have many memories of Smith's store of the 1930s and '40s. It was one of four grocery stores in the Village, all of which offered free delivery. I used to drive the delivery truck for Metzger's store, located where the Golden Mirror is today.

All this about Sam Cloud has to do with the barn in question, but it doesn't suggest any solutions as to use. As mentioned, it has had many uses, among them Ralph Van Arsdale's Saratoga Fixit Shop. Then there was the basement printing plant for the original Saratoga News, founded in 1955 by former San Francisco Examiner reporter Sherman Miller. The office was in the house that is now the restaurant.

Among the proposals for use was one from several years ago when there was a serious effort to raise money for construction of a theater in the barn. Nothing ever came of it, but it's an intriguing idea. One negative aspect of a theater, or any use that would draw large numbers of people, involves the dreaded "P" word—parking.

Say, how would it be to beef up that barn and turn it into a multilevel parking garage? OK, so I'm kidding. But I and a lot of other people hope that some practical use can be found for it. I'm sure that Sam Cloud would rest easier up there at Madronia Cemetery, even though that barn figured prominently in his passing.