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Photograph by Linda Ozaki
History Buff: Willow Glen historian Fred Gardner, a member of the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association, gave walking tours of Willow Glen during the small Founder's Day celebration Sept. 8 at the Live Oak Adult Day Services center in Willow Glen. Gardner is pointing to one of the many stops on his tour, the Maynard Mansion, built in 1897.
'Humble' Founder's Day celebration shows big heart of small community
By Adam Taggart
While dramatically reduced in scale from past years, last week's Founders Day celebration displayed enough small-town pride and spunk to make a metropolis green with envy.
And speaking of metropolises, did you know that Willow Glen was originally founded as a city? It was, and it enjoyed such status until 1936 when it was reclassified as a township. That's just one of the many eyebrow-raising nuggets of historical lore celebrants learned about their town as they partook in the Sept. 8 festivities.
Saving the event
This year's Founders Day party, marking the 74th anniversary of the founding of Willow Glen on September 8, 1927, almost didn't happen. But thanks to the swift and concerned action of several town representatives and local businesses, commemoration of this important milestone was preserved for the community.
As recently reported by the Willow Glen Resident, the organization responsible for sponsoring the event in years past, the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association, issued an 11th-hour announcement that it was unable to produce a Founder's Day celebration for the town this year.
With little more than a week to go until the date, it was impossible to marshal the resources to put on a party as large as seen in past years, with the traditional parade, street fair and dancing into the evening. Nevertheless, San Jose District 6 Councilman Ken Yeager's office, determined to provide the town with some sort of recognition of its birthday, quickly coordinated with the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association to brainstorm a solution.
Serendipitously, the Live Oak Adult Day Services center, which already had an open house scheduled on its premises at 1147 Minnesota Ave. for Sept. 8, offered itself as a venue to the ad hoc Founder's Day committee. The Willow Glen Town Library, two doors down the street, followed suit and planned activities for the children attending the celebration.
Between these two locations is the beautifully restored Maynard Mansion, reputed to be the second oldest house in Willow Glen. The committee knew it had enough ingredients to put on a party when its owner, Steve Nyblom, agreed to open the house to the public on Founder's Day, for those wishing to take a glimpse back to an earlier time in the town's history.
Photograph by Adam Taggart
Community Spirit: Willow Glen Neighborhood Association President John Gibbs (right), and Vice President Helen Solinski (left), welcome volunteers for next year's Founder's Day celebration.
Getting back to roots
"This year brings a welcome humbleness back to Founder's Day," remarked Denelle Fedor, aide to Councilman Yeager, as she manned a booth on Saturday.
"While it's too bad the larger festivities most residents have come to expect with this event aren't happening this year, all of us here today are much more aware of the reasons of why this day should be celebrated. This is a wonderful town, with a spirit, charm and sense of community that has remained intact for almost three-quarters of a century," she said.
Her words were evident in the Norman Rockwell-reminiscent festivities surrounding her.
At the Live Oak Center open house, Executive Director Colleen Hudgen greeted visitors with cake as laughing seniors watched their children and grandchildren dance to live music played by local accordion troupe, William and Friends.
Next door, local Willow Glen history authority Frank Gardner led tours through the Maynard Mansion. Gardner, WWII veteran and former docent of the San Jose Historical Museum, is a walking encyclopedia of local facts and historical anecdotes. He enthralled listeners with tales of Edward Maynard, who built the eclectic "multi-type" Victorian structure in 1898 as a wedding gift to a fiancée who eventually spurned him, leaving Maynard to move into the new house with only his dog for companionship.
And at the adjacent town library, children listened to an explanation of the significance of Founder's Day and why the town celebrates it each year. Squeals and applause followed as Majinga The Magician performed to amaze and delight the audience with his sleight of hand.
Great expectations for 2002
A booth soliciting volunteers for next year's Founder's Day figured prominently in Saturday's activities.
"Councilman Yeager is committed to leading the efforts to reinstate Founder's Day as a major event next year," Fedor stated clearly. "This day deserves to be recognized on the scale it has been in years past."
That said, Fedor claimed the that success of such an initiative will depend upon much wider involvement from the entire Willow Glen community than seen in the past. She stressed the need to create a forum to involve local government, businesses and residents--a sentiment echoed by Willow Glen Neighborhood Association President John Gibbs.
"An event of this magnitude only happens if people step up and demonstrate that the community wants it," said Gibbs, manning an adjacent booth for the beautification of Willow Glen.
"Placing all the responsibility for planning Founder's Day on a single organization is a bad formula," he continued. "There's a lot of heavy lifting required, and it's unfair and impractical to expect one organization to do it all. Besides, there are many stakeholders in this event, and all should be able to have input and involvement in its planning and implementation."
Reached after the event via telephone, Councilman Yeager underscored the importance of Gibbs' comments. "Such an important community event of this scale can't rely on just one entity to organize, fund and implement everything."
He also reaffirmed his commitment to playing a leading coordinating role in ensuring next year's celebration will have the pomp and circumstance it has historically enjoyed.
"We definitely feel that traditions such as the parade and the street fair, where Willow Glen businesses and the community mingle together on the streets, need to be preserved as treasured hallmarks of Founder's Day," Yeager said.
Yeager aide Fedor declared Saturday that solicitation for community involvement in planning the 2002 Founder's Day festivities has officially commenced. She spent most of Saturday signing up volunteers interested in participating in next year's event. The neighborhood association is contributing an additional database of 60 local residents who have already indicated an interest in helping out.
With all the advance planning, input and involvement that will go into next year's Founder's Day, Councilman Yeager is upbeat and optimistic about its outcome: "Who knows? In addition to preserving the Founder's Day traditions we treasure, we may come up with a few new ones that have never been done before," he said.
Willow Glen Neighborhood Association Vice President Helen Solinski captured the spirit of the day when she said, "I'm very impressed with the number of folks who turned out this year [despite the smaller scale of the event], and I sincerely hope many of them and their neighbors will volunteer for next year's Founder's Day. If the entire community pulls together as I know it can, it's going to be one heck of a party."
For more information on next year's Founder's Day celebration or to volunteer, call Councilman Yeager's office at 408.277.5166.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
