Saratoga News

Columns

Stereopticon

Saratoga makes history, and it should be preserved

By Willys Peck

"Give it up, sonny boy. You can't even get your facts straight." The words were those of my acronymic inner self, Sam, for Subliminal Argumentative Mouthing, who intrudes on my consciousness when I'm confronted with what at the time seems like an awkward problem.

"You pull these bloopers intentionally so that you can use up space in the following column to correct them," said Sam. "That may be an ingenious way to fill space but it's rotten journalism. Go stand in the corner."

Sam was right about the mistake, but wrong about it being intentional. The sentence at issue in my June 19 Stereopticon column about the Waldorf School's curriculum should have read, "Putting academic principles into an artistic concept sounds pretty far out, and it is." What it did say was, "Putting artistic principles into an artistic concept sounds pretty far out, and it is." The nearest I can come to an excuse is to say that the words in question are both eight letters and start with an "a." That wouldn't satisfy Sam.

At this point, I don't know how much of an issue it is, but somehow I have gotten the impression that Saratoga needs to do something to preserve its historical status. The most conspicuous evidence of that status consists of the signs on the city's entrance highways designating Saratoga as State Historical Landmark No. 435. Another historical marker, not state-sponsored, is at Third Street and Big Basin Way. It marks the approximate site of Martin McCarty's tollgate. That location, incidentally, has been disputed.

There is a plaque on the Memorial Arch in the Village Plaza that lists the factors that qualify Saratoga as Historical Landmark No. 435. They include the passing through of the de Anza exploring party in 1776, early mills, establishment of the Congress Springs resort, the developing fruit industry and the annual Blossom Festival.

The landmark project was sponsored by the state Department of Parks and Recreation as part of California's Centennial observance in March, 1950. I'd say that Saratoga largely owes its inclusion on the historical landmark roster to the efforts of a Catholic priest, now deceased, the Rev. William Abeloe, who grew up in Saratoga and appreciated its qualities.

Saratoga, of course, was not incorporated until 1956, so what area was encompassed in Saratoga as a landmark was not specified. One of my favorite descriptions is to say that before city boundaries were established, Saratoga was, to many people, a state of mind. It is true there were postal service and phone service areas, but there were a lot of people who liked to say they lived in Saratoga regardless of the foregoing criteria.

As previously stated, I'm not sure of the actual source, or the validity, of the report that Saratoga needs to specify a particular area to retain its status as Historical Landmark No. 435. Regardless of any necessity to do so, I think it would be an excellent idea for the city to designate a Historic District, encompassing the Village and the Highway 9 area up to the entrance of Hakone Gardens, where one of the town's early industries, Bank Mills, was located.

Saratoga already has moved in that direction by designating two Heritage Lanes, one on Saratoga Avenue, the other on Austin Way. In somewhat the same category, there is the Heritage Orchard, which I will always think of as one of the most praiseworthy municipal acquisitions to be seen anywhere.

Further activity along that line includes establishment of the Heritage Preservation Commission in 1982. As an advisory body to the city council, planning commission and other agencies, its duties include all the things one would hope to see a city doing to encourage the preservation of historic resources.

Finally, I would like to encourage my readers, both of them, to attend the Independence Day Observance Wednesday--hey, that's tomorrow!--at Saratoga's Azule City Park. Jack Mallory and neighbors in the Azule Park area put these things together every year, and each one is a real bell-ringer. In fact, bells will play a significant part: hand bells in Yankee Doodle Dandy and ringing of a Liberty Bell 13 times for the colonies and freedom.