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Winchester Boulevard nothing like it used to be

By Carl Heintze

The other day, turning left off Stevens Creek Boulevard onto Winchester near Santana Row, I had a sudden memory of when there was not much at that corner except prune orchards and a winking red stoplight.

Well, Winchester Boulevard and I have come a long way since then, and for both of us it has been a process of evolution.

In those days back in another century, Winchester (then called a road) was about that--a two-lane paved section of highway that ran from the far western reaches of San Jose (except a lot of it was still in county territory) through more orchards, the crossroads of Campbell and not much else until it finally came to Los Gatos.

You have to bear with me, because I am old, but this was in the late '40s and I was new in San Jose and I commuted to a little shack in Los Gatos (actually a converted garage) that I called home.

It took a while to travel that part of Winchester, but that winking red light was about the only traffic signal to interrupt the journey (other than a truck full of prunes now and then).

Later I moved closer to San Jose and Winchester began to change--and I suppose I did, too.

The winking red light gave way to a full traffic signal, Valley Fair was gouged out of another orchard and gas stations began to pop up at all convenient corners on Winchester. For a while it seemed there was one at every intersection. I won't mention the prices of gasoline displayed on the service station signs. It would only make you and me cry.

Then fast food outfits began appearing between the gas stations. These ranged over a wide variety of gastronomy, everything from tacos to Big Macs. I used to think as I drove south along Winchester starting at the Winchester Mystery House and proceeding onward toward Campbell that one could hold a progressive Winchester Boulevard dinner.

You could start at Stevens Creek Boulevard. And head south, stopping at almost every block along the way for something fast and hot. It could have been tacos, hamburgers, Chinese food, almost anything.

By the time one got to Hamilton Avenue, one would be full. While it would hardly be a gourmet meal, it had one redeeming part of the journey. In those days there was a pharmacy at Hamilton and Winchester where one could presumably get a roll of Tums to settle one's stomach, sort of as a dessert.

For a while Winchester stayed like this, but then "progress," if one can call it that, interceded and the service stations began to disappear, even as the number of gasoline refining companies declined and the price of gasoline increased.

Subdivisions arrived, orchards departed and with them the prune. What once had been an orchard at Winchester and Stevens Creek became Town and Country Shopping Center. San Jose and Santa Clara fought their now all-but-forgotten annexation wars, dividing up all four sides of the Winchester-Stevens Creek intersection.

Town and Country gave way to Santana Row and the fast food joints began to disappear as three- and four-story condominiums sprang into being. The San Jose Redevelopment Agency took note of this and decided Winchester needed improvement.

The city built a dividing strip down the center of Winchester from Stevens Creek, planted trees and shrubs in it and extended it southward toward Campbell. As further beautification, the city hung banners on the lamp posts and timed the traffic lights so at appropriate commute times it was possible to make it most of the way north to the end of Winchester without stopping.

The combination of these factors has turned Winchester into a kind of speedway, at least at commute times. At other times, it's another story.

But speed probably doesn't matter much to the new inhabitants of the boulevard. They live in the new condos that are being built on either east or west sides of the roadway. For reasons unclear, these start at the sidewalk and most don't make even a gesture at greenery. They just rise from the cement to the sky, four and five stories high, big blocks of buildings, ready to house the desperate newcomers looking for a place to live in Silicon Valley.

Alas, Winchester has reached its probable limits in width, so although all these new folks put more and more cars on the street, it doesn't seem to get any wider. Timed lights or not, there are now traffic jams.

But there are no winking red lights, no orchards and you still can get to Los Gatos a lot faster on Winchester than you once could.

As for nostalgia, that's a not very valuable commodity these days on Winchester.

But I suppose some day in the distant future there may come a time when old folks will look back fondly on the days when Santana Row was first opened to the public, when condos were only four stories high and when the trees in the divider where still saplings.

Sometime, but not soon.