Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Lita Langlois' three-story Queen Anne Victorian dates back to the turn of the century.

Bellringers

Tour features honored restorations

By Shari Kaplan

Visitors will tour five Los Gatos homes the weekend of Nov. 16 and 17, wandering through gardens and landscaped grounds, filing through fully furnished rooms and admiring distinctive architecture. Refreshments will be served and stories swapped.

It sounds like a block party or a group open house held by local real estate agents, but in actuality this weekend is the Los Gatos Museum Association's annual Historic House Tour. These Victorian, Greek Revival and Craftsman homes are registered Project Bellringer restorations, which refers to the U.S. Bicentennial bellringing celebration that took place at 11 a.m. on July 4, 1976. A Bellringer II program, local to Los Gatos, took place a few years later, in which more residences earned the distinction.

According to LGMA publicity chairman Chatham Forbes Sr., the emphasis of the Bellringer project is on safety upgrades (if needed) and authenticity in restoration.

Most of the homes on the tour are on the east side of town in a 131-acre area called the Johnson Addition, named after Danish immigrant Peter Johnson, who left many marks on Los Gatos history during the latter half of the 19th century.

49 Los Gatos Blvd.

Part of this legacy is the Greek Revival-style home Johnson built around 1874 at 49 Los Gatos Blvd., which according to Forbes is the oldest wooden-frame house remaining in Los Gatos. That same year, Johnson bought his 131 acres for farming and cultivation purposes. He also served as a town trustee between 1888 and 1892 and as mayor from 1892 to 1894.

Johnson's widow, Annie, sold the home in 1925 to William and Hannah Rogers, whose extensive modifications included converting and extending a large pantry to form a dining room, walling off the central chimney and adding a service porch off the kitchen. The Rogers' daughter Ruth sold the house to Paul and Avis Harkness in 1954.

The family modernized the bathroom and kitchen, wallpapered rooms, refurbished antiques, laid exotic carpets and planted more than two dozen fruit trees on the grounds. These trees cannot eclipse one of Johnson's original apricot trees that still grows in the yard, or the towering Coast Live oak tree that predates the house itself.

The right side of the house is 1 1/2 stories tall; the left and rear are a single story. According to Forbes, features such as the window shutters and divided porch are rare in the Greek Revival style and may be more reminiscent of Danish homes of the mid-1800s. The house also bares such feature as the front and side gables and the six-paned windows.

179 Loma Alta Ave.

From 1894 to 1917, part of this Queen Anne Victorian was used as a school room. It was called the Market Street School because that was Loma Alta Avenue's original name. Johnson and his family owned this property until 1899, and his daughter, Elvira, was one of the teachers.

Six or seven other individuals or families owned the house over the next 80 years, the current residents being John and Linda Stauss, who purchased it in 1986. The Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989 damaged the house's stability and spurred the Stausses to do extensive restoration work.

With help from contractor Hector Chaidez, they jacked up the house, added four feet to the underground crawl space, added three bedrooms and a game room downstairs, gutted the inside to strengthen the walls and replaced the siding and window frames. The house today is approximately 3,000 square feet.

"We reproduced every wooden aspect of the house to reproduce the original look. We tried to keep the exterior as original as possible while keeping it functional and using modern techniques. Even though it's totally authentic, every aspect is new or better than new," John says.

Among John's favorite parts of the house is the 12-foot ceiling in the entryway; most modern homes, he said, do not have such high ceilings. As for what visitors like most about homes such as his, John thinks it has to do with nostalgia.

"There's so much new stuff everywhere that some people are very intrigued by the old--what's been around for a while. Anything that's different is noteworthy, just like when an old car drives down the street, everyone turns their heads to look at it," he explains.

206 Loma Alta Ave.

This Queen Anne was originally a one-story house back in 1893. Its original owner was a Mrs. A.J. Starr, who may have been a summer resident, as her name is not listed in the 1895 Los Gatos directory. Other early owners extended the rear in1904 and enclosed the front porch after 1944.

In 1965, Richard and Marcellite Wall bought the house. He was an interior decorator; she once worked for Disney Studios and provided the voice of Minnie Mouse. While living in Los Gatos, Marcellite created the Señor Gato cartoon character, who appeared in the Los Gatos Times-Observer during the 1960s.

Denise Benson and Chris Benson, who purchased the house in 1973, added a second story to the back, along with a spiral staircase to reach it, revamped the kitchen, added rich brown shingles to the outside and painted the house a distinctive brick red with royal blue trim.

The "adorable little Victorian," as Denise calls her house, is now about 2,200 square feet.

"After having it 23 years and doing constant remodeling, it's like nurturing a child. I'm attached to it," she says. "The house is really warm and homey inside, and the staircase is everybody's favorite attraction."

142 Johnson Ave.

On nearby Johnson Avenue, named for the Peter Johnson family, stands the 1 1/2-story Victorian-turned-Craftsman built in 1888 and known as the Charles H. Wheeler House. Wheeler was a Los Gatos carpenter and builder who had a hand in many of the town's finest homes. His final contract was the Baptist Church at the corner of E. Main Street and College Avenue, which was torn down in 1958.

Prior to 1928, the house was actually considered a duplex; a small apartment on the right side had its own entrance, which Helen Kimbal--one of the many former owners--rented to widows following her own husband's death. Over the decades, it has been expanded and modified several times.

Among the house's traditional Craftsman features are its side-gabled architecture, a wide roof overhang and triple-windowed dormers jutting out from the front and rear of the sloping roof. The Craftsman style, inspired by the arts and crafts movement of the early 20th century, emphasized simplified construction, space, clean lines and natural-looking structures and materials.

Owners Nigel and Maria Dunn-Coleman used period materials in their many renovations to the 1800-square-foot house, which they bought in the mid-1980s. They replaced the second door with a window, added wainscoting to the living and dining rooms, repainted and installed central heating and air-conditioning. While replacing a wall in the downstairs bedroom, the Dunn-Colemans noticed old plumbing fixtures and other clues that showed them the room was originally a kitchen.

"I spent six months looking for a house in Los Gatos. What I liked about this one was that the outside appearance from the street looked like [the house] was untouched. It's a quiet street, but it's walking distance from downtown," says Nigel, who also enjoys the privacy of the large, wooded garden. "You can be outside and not even know there are other homes around."

130 Hernandez Ave.

The history of this three-story Queen Anne, which possesses some Colonial-Revival features, goes back to the turn of the century, when Glen Ridge tract developer A.C. Short built the house. According to Forbes, Short is said to have used redwood from the Santa Cruz Mountains. The house may also be the town's first residence to have indoor plumbing.

Among its distinctive Victorian touches are a gray-shingled "witch hat" turret on the right side, bay windows, a wraparound front porch and a second-story porch. Colonial-Revival features include Tuscan-style porch columns, a vertically divided upper sash and an oval window in the door.

Following a handful of owners, the house became the home of Gordon and Lita Langlois in 1975. Lita says she and her husband were looking for "something with a grand shell we could fix up" and fell in love with the 4,000-square-foot, rundown Victorian. "This was the epitome of what we wanted," Lita adds.

Some of Lita's favorite spots in the house are the large entry hall with its cozy fireplace, the expansive third-story room (including the turret) and the nearly one acre of verdant grounds, which include a large front lawn, spacious back yard and deck and peaceful fish pond.

As for the warm spot people have for old Victorians, Lita has some definite ideas.

"I think you feel good when you walk in them or just look at them. It's permanence; something that's been around a long time," she says. Of her own house, she adds: "It's homey, like the 'good old days' gone by. Our daughter says it's like arms [that] come around and hug her."

The Historic House Tour takes place Nov. 16 and 17 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 in advance or $15 on the days of the tour and may be purchased at the Forbes Mill Museum on Church Street or the Los Gatos Museum. Tea will be served on both days at the Los Gatos Museum on Tait Avenue. All proceeds benefit the Los Gatos Museum Association. For more information, call 395-7375 or 354-2646.