Best of Picture from the Past
The Sund name goes back in the history of Los Gatos
By John S. Baggerly
Mention the name Sund and many Los Gatans may say, "Ah, yes, I bought my first television set from Gene Sund." Mention the name to a Los Gatos Old Timer, Senior Grade--such as this writer--and he'll say, "Ah, yes, that old Swede Herman Sund built the first Hotel Lyndon and a lot of other buildings around town."
Today's photograph shows Gene Sund's former TV store location, located on E. Main Street opposite the Masonic Temple and bordered on the east by Fiesta Way. Today that corner is part of Los Gatos Civic Center. After his location was taken over by the town, Sund built an outlet on Los Gatos Boulevard and operated there until he sold to a video-recording equipment firm in 1972, following 23 years in business.
Herman Sund, a native of Sweden, jumped ship in New York, worked his way west with his carpentry skills and built the first Hotel Lyndon at S. Santa Cruz Avenue and W. Main Street. He became a member of the first Town Council in 1887.
His grandson, Herman Eugene "Gene" Sund, somewhat of a pioneer himself, built his first crystal radio set at age 8, became California's youngest ham radio operator at age 13 and served on a secret radar project in Hawaii during World War II. Gene, who founded Sund Television after the war was over, died in 1986 at Los Gatos Community Hospital of complications arising from a hip injury. He was 69.
The Gene Sund family home was on Foster Road. In early years, they also kept a summer place at Lake Canyon near Lexington, now on the basin of Lexington Reservoir. Gene's wife, Geri, and other family members compiled research on the life of their forebear Herman Sund, which included details of his life after jumping ship in New York. He worked his way through the South and out to Kansas, where he took a wife and applied for citizenship. "Jumping ship" referred to "hands" who signed on for a trip to and from someplace but deserted at a distant point and did not carry out their commitment.
A man named Livermore was such a man, an English seaman who jumped ship in San Francisco, preserved his shoes by carrying them and walked inland on railroad ties. He encountered a maiden whose father held a Mexican land grant to the area. Their wedding resulted in the naming of the town of Livermore.
Herman Sund, like Livermore, was a carpenter. He moved to Los Gatos from Oakland for its world-known salubrious climate, as his first wife, Josephine Peterson, was afflicted with tuberculosis. She was the mother of three of his six children: Ida Nickleson, Lillian Latimer and Charles Sund. His second wife, Anna Luisa Schrepler, a woman he had known in Oakland before moving to Los Gatos, was the mother of Charlotte Bagley, Russell Sund and Herman Sund, the latter the father of Gene. Besides building the first Lyndon Hotel, he also built a second Hotel Lyndon on the same site, which was torn down in 1964.
Herman did a lively business constructing wineries and passed his talents down to his son, Russell, who built the Montezuma School in the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Los Gatos Firehouse at W. Main Street and Tait Avenue, now the Los Gatos Museum of Art and Natural Science.
John Baggerly is now semi-retired. This column is from the Los Gatos Weekly-Times archives.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
