My concern is that this would simply be the thin edge of the wedge. Once the orchard becomes known as a source of available land for this or that public project, be it a playground or whatever, I think it would just be a matter of time before what had been a full-scale working orchard would be reduced to a token grove of a few fruit trees.

My prejudice in this matter is a matter of record in this column. Having lived here all of my 82 years, I have seen Saratoga progress from an agricultural center, with its orchards in a singularly attractive scenic setting, to one of Silicon Valley's more desirable bedroom communities.

And, still in a repeating stage, I maintain that Saratoga is as desirable as it is because of its agricultural antecedents. I think of an analogy I've used before, that of regarding the orchard as some kind of monument, a species of Acropolis or Old North Church, significant for what it represents. End of sermon.

So it's back to the historical walking tour, which in my last column had gotten us as far as the Erwin T. King house at 14605 Big Basin Way. Next is the Grover house, at 14521, a gabled cottage dating back to 1895. Nearby is the Kocher building, known as the Kocher-Green building because of its original color. It was built in 1890 by Daniel McCarty, son of Martin McCarty who is credited with getting the whole settlement started.

Now we come to the Samuel Cloud house and the adjacent Cloud-Smith general store, at 14501 and 14503 Big Basin Way. The store, now the Harmonie European Day Spa, was built in 1884 by John Hutchinson. It was bought in 1893 by Samuel Cloud, who used the second floor as a social gathering place. Cloud's Hall was later known as the I.O.O.F. or Odd Fellows Hall. Cloud added the adjoining residence, now the Bella Saratoga Restaurant, in 1896.

Cloud's daughter, Laura, married Thomas Smith, who operated the store after Cloud was killed in February 1907. His death by trolley car was a unique occurrence in Saratoga history. This was back when the Peninsular Railway, which connected central Santa Clara County communities, was running its line up to the Congress Springs picnic grounds about a mile and a half up the present Highway 9. There was a spur line up the stub end of Third Street to service Cloud's hay and feed warehouse, now known as Cloud's Barn and currently being restored. Just after Cloud stepped off the trolley car, it started up, jumping the switch and knocking him to the ground. He was carried into his house, where he died of his injuries.

Also near this Third Street location is a historical marker indicating the approximate location of the tollgate that was on the road going up to the lumber mills in the mountains. "Tollgate," in fact, was one of the earliest designations of the village that grew up at the mouth of the canyon.

Another structure of the same vintage as Sam Cloud's store is the Hutchinson Building, at 14495 Big Basin Way, built by John Hutchinson, who owned a limestone quarry and was an early postmaster. The building included a butcher shop on the ground floor and a meeting hall on the second. Today the main vestige of its original form are the stone walls on the ground floor.

Though not on the regular historical walking tour list, I can't pass up the site that had been occupied by the Disciples of Christ, or Christian Church, which stood on the present location of the Echo Shop at 14477 Big Basin Way, and the church parsonage, where the Chamber of Commerce is located at 14485.

The church was one of Saratoga's five, and it combined with the Congregational to form the present Federated Church in a movement that started in 1919. Five years later, the recently-formed Saratoga Men's Club bought the church building and its parsonage, utilizing the first as a Boy Scout hall and the other as the club's own headquarters and meeting place.