Saratoga News

Columns

Stereopticon

Taking a nostalgic trip back in time, Saratoga style

By Willys Peck

Back about this time in 2002, I launched what I called my five-year plan--no connection with the Soviets--in which I looked back five years in my columns to compare the situation in Saratoga at the earlier time with what was then current. There was some material that seemed to merit a retrospective column, so I produced one. Now, searching for a current column topic, I thought I'd try it again, but the results weren't all that significant.

In the 2001 columns (five years ago), nothing really leapt out at me as worthy of that kind of treatment, so I thought I might expand the concept to a 10-year plan. What was I writing about in 1996? Well, with that year we're talking origin; I started this column in 1996--April 17 to be exact--and much as I have repeated columnar subject matter, I don't think I ever recycled that first one. Oops! Yes I did, on my 10th anniversary, just four months ago, but what the heck. You can just turn the page.

That initial column had to do with the Sunday afternoon walks into the hills I took as a very young child with my parents and older brother when we lived at the dead end of Marion Avenue (who said Road?). It was a long walk for a small kid, but walking was what we did then. Sunday mornings, we would walk to the Federated Church, where my brother and I went to Sunday school. Often, we'd get a ride back after the services.

Then, after lunch, we'd set out on what were then trails and dirt roads and climb up a wooded ravine to what is now Sullivan Way. From there, the view was far-reaching, across the valley to the distant Diablo Range, with the Saratoga Village, separated by an intervening orchard, virtually at our feet. The Village landmarks were distinctive: the tower of the Julia Morgan-designed Federated Church and the white structure of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church, with its belfry, at Sixth Street and Big Basin Way. Today there's a condominium there, and where isn't there one? We're deep in condo country.

That house, bordered by orchards on two sides, was an ideal place for young children, at plowing time, for instance. That involved a horse-drawn moldboard plow and a kindly plowman who let my brother and me tag along. He'd even make stops to empty the dirt from my brother's and my shoes. That's what you call patience.

Others of my favorite column topics in the early years were the steam trains and trolley cars that served Saratoga. The trolley cars of the Peninsular Railway--to us they were streetcars--linked central Santa Clara Valley communities until service was discontinued in 1933, to be replaced by Peerless buses. You could get on a streetcar at the Saratoga station, at the present location of the Village Post Office, and be in San Jose in 20 minutes. I have a memento of that line, the Nippon Mura (now La Hacienda Inn) waiting station, which I got from a man who had been using it as a tool shed. The back wall still has the initials carved by high school students of a bygone era.

Our Southern Pacific passenger railroad link lasted from 1908 to January 1964. Steam power was supplanted by diesels in January 1957. The tracks, or some of them, are still there, serving the Kaiser Cement Co. plant. This original line was known as the Mayfield or Vasona cutoff, which branched off the line between Los Gatos and San Jose and ran through Saratoga's Congress Junction and Azule station, through Los Altos then joined the S.P. main line at California Avenue in Palo Alto.

Well, so much for things that I never tire writing about. There are current happenings that are worth some ink, and I'm thinking about those in relation to Saratoga's half-century--all right, 50 years--as a city. One such observance is the Sept. 4 (Labor Day) city-sponsored "self-led bike tour" of some Saratoga historic homes, public buildings and districts. Listed in a press release from Adam Henig are the Julia Morgan-designed Foothill Club, Heritage Orchard, Novakovich Ranch, Peck Heritage Garden (hey, how did that get in there?) and Warner Hutton House. There will be 11 sites in the event, which is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., with docents leading tours at each location. A $10 fee will be charged for adults and $8 for children under 18. Henig said that anyone with questions can call the city recreation department at 408.868.1249.