Growth, development and redevelopment have become familiar terms in Willow Glen, as residents over the years have watched the downtown change with each passing decade. And as Willow Glen enters the 21th century, its pace may continue to quicken, but the community's center—its downtown and its soul—remains strong.

"San Jose grew so fast that no one had the time to write the history," says April Hope Halberstadt, author of The Willow Glen Neighborhood: Then and Now. "And that affected Willow Glen, too."

She adds, "Lincoln Avenue is a marvelous example of urban self-renewal. That businesses and residents have been able to renovate the buildings and maintain themselves to continue their function through the years is incredible."

As an example she mentions the Alta clothing store. The building where the store is located was Willow Glen's city hall during its brief period as an independent city, before being incorporated into San Jose in 1936. She says she wishes she had more time to explore the various incarnations that Lincoln Avenue has experienced over the years.

Others, like Don Emerson, former owner of the Lawrence's Drugs near the corner of Lincoln and Minnesota avenues, have witnessed the changes firsthand.

"There were lots of changes in Willow Glen in the mid-1950s," recalls Emerson. "At that time there were lots of Victorian homes along Lincoln Avenue and only one bank—the Bank of America. The Wells Fargo came later."

Photograph courtesy of Leonard McKay Collection Reinvented: The Garden Theatre originally opened in 1949 and was a popular spot for Saturday children matinee movies. It closed as a movie theater with the advent of multiplexes.

Ann's father, Vivian James "VJ" Lawrence, opened the pharmacy and store in 1928. It operated out of 1383 Lincoln Ave. for two years before moving a couple doors down to 1395 Lincoln Ave. Lawrence died in 1982.

Emerson began working for his father-in-law in 1955, after enlisting and serving two years in the Army Medical Corps during the Korean War.

For Emerson, 40 years on Lincoln Avenue allowed him plenty of time to not only see the changes but also come to an understanding about why this street and its surrounding side streets have remained an integral part of the Willow Glen community. From its days as a central artery into downtown San Jose via trolley to the present day, the avenue has been a hub for shopping and community events.

"It was a popular gathering place. You had the movie theater, restaurants, lots of grocery stores. There was a Lucky's [supermarket] across the street from the Garden Theater," Emerson says.

"There was the Pronto Pup, which was this ice cream and diner place. A lot of high school kids would go there and read the comic books and not buy them," he chuckles.

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer Garden Variety: Since the mid-1990s, the Garden Theater plaza has been occupied by more than a dozen businesses.

"I think it was a bank robbery, and I don't know exactly what happened, but one of the guys ran into the apartments above the Willow Glen Coffee Roasting Company, and the cops didn't realize where he was," Emerson says. "But he got out the back and ran away."

Another time—probably in the 1970s—a pair of armed robbers came into Emerson's drugstore and demanded cash and drugs at gunpoint, he says. "That was pretty exciting."

During the robbery, one of Emerson's regular customers walked in and when one of the robbers ordered her to stay in the store she ran out the front door to the nearby jewelry store and told the clerks the drugstore was being robbed.

"One of the guys working in the jewelry store came over with a pistol and waited by the front door for the bad guys to come out," Emerson says. "In the meantime the police arrived, and it was the same scenario: The bad guys got out the back door and got away."

Looking back, Emerson says, "In the '50s and '60s, business was simpler and easier to deal with. As the years progressed and we got older, new technology actually created more stress. We always maintained enough foot traffic, but it seemed that the paperwork would always catch up with you."

Photograph courtesy of the Leonard McKay collection Ring the Bell: Willow Glen firefighters were all volunteers in 1932, when the city was still incorporated. The Adobe Hall on Lincoln Avenue was the city's fire station.

"The first thing we wanted to do when we retired was to relax," Emerson says. "You may not realize this, but going out of business is very stressful. We held a going-out-of-business sale, and physically and mentally it's pretty hard to do. Especially saying goodbye to all your old customers."

Since retiring, the Emersons don't spend that much time walking around Willow Glen, but when they do Lincoln Avenue serves as a reminder of the past and the way things used to be.

"When I walk down Lincoln Avenue from where I live, I still see [former] customers that are still living in the area."

He adds, "We're observing Lincoln Avenue as older people. But if I go down to the avenue on a Saturday, it looks very vibrant, lots of young people, which is what we strove for when we were in business."

Running a Lincoln Avenue business automatically qualified the Emersons to become members of the Willow Glen Business and Professional Association, but they didn't hold any executive offices, because they owned a mom and pop store and were focused on the day-to-day management of the business, he says.

Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer Hallowed Halls: The Adobe Hall building, where Vin Santo Ristorante is now located, was the Willow Glen Firehouse in 1932.

But as Willow Glen's population grew and cars replaced railroads and trolleys, residents watched their quiet streets change into bustling thoroughfares, and new concerns about traffic and congestion arose.

"I will mention one thing, and we should have spoken up a long time ago," says Ann Emerson. "There should have been a parking garage built somewhere on Lincoln Avenue."

The parking problems and high volume of traffic were the result of the area's popularity.

The avenue has seen many other changes besides an increase in traffic—merchant turnover as businesses have changed hands and rent increases among them. There was one change on the avenue in particular that many locals agree had a dramatic effect on the community—the closing of Bergmann's Department Store.

"The one thing that really changed Willow Glen was when Bergmann's Department Store closed," Emerson says. "So many times our customers would come in and they'd complain, 'Oh, there's no place to buy a nightgown or a pair of shoes.' "

Photograph courtesy of Don Emerson Closing Down: Lawrence's Drugs was a mainstay on the avenue from 1928 until 1993, when owners Don and Ann Emerson retired after years of neighborhood service.

"Bergmann's was sort of the anchor store," Emerson says. "And the slack hasn't been taken up very much."

One of the first businesses to move into what is affectionately referred to as the Bergmann Building was Casa Casa, whose owner, Nancy Biagini, requested the property owners keep the Bergmann's store sign in place.

"We asked that the sign be left up," says Biagini, "because it retained the identity of the building. We had lots of reservations about moving into this large, dark building. Bergmann's was a great old store but, faced with the competition from the Mervyns and K-Mart, it had a hard time staying in business."

The Bergmann Building's other tenant is Le Boulanger bakery, which Gerald Zimmerman has managed for the past two years. Occasionally old-timers remind Zimmerman just how significant the history of building is to his customers.

Zimmerman says he often hears that Lincoln Avenue isn't the same since Bergmann's closed. He adds that almost daily a handful of customers regularly meets at the restaurant, two of whom are former Bergmann's employees. They can talk for hours about what the store was like when it was still around.

"They miss it, but it wasn't supported enough," Zimmerman says.

But Bergmann's legacy as a meeting place lives on, with clubs, church groups, Bible study classes and various other groups gathering regularly at the bakery.

"I even have a couple of authors who are writing books here," he adds.

Photograph courtesy of the Nancy Newline Collection Point of View: In this photo from the 1930s, cars crowd Lincoln Avenue. The intersection of Lincoln and Minnesota avenues has long been known as ïthe corners.Í

"Actually, I was in the store at the time I heard the news that President Kennedy had been shot," she says.

When she was looking for a place to open her shop and there were no retail spaces available at the time that had a frontage facing Lincoln Avenue, Larry Thiboutot of The French Quarter told her about this "real sleeper of a location in the old Bergmann's store," she says. She has spent the last 10 years hidden behind Le Boulanger.

But Painchaud is about to become an active player in the ever-changing look of downtown Willow Glen as her store moves into the old Victorian house on Minnesota Avenue, the former home of the Daisy Patch, and originally a grocery store run by one Alex T. Gordon.

"I've always loved that location," says Painchaud.

Reflecting on what would benefit the downtown, Painchaud says, "What Lincoln Avenue needs is a good place to go after work. I mean, there's The Glen and Vin Santo and Siena, but people normally go there for dinner, which is fine, but I think there should be a nice place to just unwind with friends after work."

Zimmerman adds, "I also keep hearing that what people really want is a hardware store to come here."

Photograph courtesy of History San Jose Early Wisdom: Willow Glen Elementary School, first built in 1897, has been rebuilt several times but it has remained at the southeast corner of Minnesota and Lincoln avenues.

Halberstadt says that in the late 1970s, "the politics were different. The San Jose Redevelopment Department wanted to have more of a say in Willow Glen, but Willow Glen didn't want to be a redeveloped area."

This, according to Halberstadt, is why buildings along Lincoln Avenue have a mix of architectural styles.

Then in 1982, an organization called the Downtown Willow Glen Advisory Team campaigned to acquire $50,000 from the city of San Jose to hire consultants and address making improvements. The consulting agencies of Astone Associates, Architectural Resources Group and John M. Sanger Associates, according to Halberstadt's book, spent the next seven years compiling a list, which detailed the necessary improvements needed on the avenue.

Consulting agencies of Astone Associates, Architectural Resources Group and John M. Sanger Associates, according to Halberstadt's book, spent the next seven years compiling detailed improvements.

Between 1989 and 1990, the city spent $3 million to give Lincoln Avenue a new look, including new sidewalks, gateways and sycamore trees. But the poor economy was too much for some merchants to survive.

In 2001, San Jose District 6 City Council member Ken Yeager arranged for the city to allot $200,000 for another study of Lincoln Avenue. The Berkeley-based Design, Community and Environment consulting firm and staff from the city's redevelopment agency, planning department and environmental services department took another look at Willow Glen's business district. The study's early phases focused on beautification, such as tree trimming, more frequent trash pickup and street cleaning.

The next phase, Yeager says, is to get more retail businesses back into the unoccupied areas.

That may be all well and good for Lincoln Avenue financially, but there's one distinct element that keeps Lincoln Avenue special and maintains its sense of community.

"The stores are run by locals," Ann Emerson says. "They're local people."

Her husband adds, "I think part of it is that people don't leave Willow Glen. Almost every time I walk down there I'll meet someone I know."