The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph courtesy of John De Vincenzi

The More Things Change . . .: Cars packed busy Lincoln Avenue in 1940 much as they do today.

Group aims to celebrate area's history every day

Beautification club plans historical gazebo on Lincoln

By Michelle Ku

As Glenites take to the streets this weekend to celebrate the founding of Willow Glen, quietly and in the background the Willow Glen Beautification Project is creating a memorial to serve as a daily testament to the area's historical roots.

The group is in the process of developing a gazebo that will feature historical photos with captions documenting life in Willow Glen. John De Vincenzi, a founding member of the Beautification Project, anticipates that the gazebo will be completed in one to two years.

De Vincenzi said that documenting the history of the area is important in that it shows community pride and allows community members to understand their roots. "Young people will hopefully see some achievement through the photographs," he said. "Seeing the growth and development of a community and the people who made it ultimately has to inspire young people."

The project came about because of De Vincenzi's interest in history. Since 1961, he has been collecting pictures of the Italian community in San Jose. To date, he has collected some 950 such photographs from businesses, families and other members of the community. In 1985, he donated his collection of photographs to the Italian American Heritage Foundation Cultural Center.

In the process of gathering photographs of the Italian community, De Vincenzi put together a private collection of photographs relating to the history of Willow Glen. De Vincenzi will be donating the photographs to the gazebo project.

"At one time, the Italian community in Willow Glen was quite large," De Vincenzi said. "They owned all of the land and orchards in Willow Glen. It became easy to collect photos of Italians in Willow Glen and photos of anybody."

The idea of creating a gazebo to document the history of Willow Glen was a natural extension of De Vincenzi's interests. As an artist, De Vincenzi enjoys art and sculptures. "It's very easy to go from a sculpture to a type of sculpture, a gazebo, and have something to look at inside it," he said.

The Beautification Project is currently considering two locations for the gazebo: Its first choice is near the corner of Brace and Lincoln avenues, in the La Villa Deli parking lot; the second is next to Bank of America on Lincoln Avenue. A decision will be made pending the approval of the sites' owners.

Dave Bertucelli, owner of La Villa, said he likes the gazebo concept but expressed concern over the size of the structure.

"It sounds like a great idea," Bertucelli said. "We [he and the landowner] love the idea, but we want to see a picture of it. We don't know how big it will be. And nobody's come through with a picture yet."

The size, look and feel of the gazebo have not been finalized yet. Some rough sketches have been drawn, but the actual design is still in the works.

The Willow Glen Kiwanis Club is helping to raise funds to cover the estimated $20,000 cost of the gazebo by creating and selling woven wall hangings depicting the history of Willow Glen.

As current plans for the gazebo stand, only photographs will be displayed, but the Beautification Project is open to displaying other memorabilia from early Willow Glen.

"Right now we're just looking at photographs," Beautification Project chairwoman Dorothy Cohen said. "That's because that's what John has been able to collect. We'd like to have copies of photographs or anything from early Willow Glen that people might have. The kiosk will just have flat things displayed, but that's not written in stone. We can go in any number of directions."

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