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August 14, 2002
Los Gatos, California Since 1881 |
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Photograph courtesy of Bob and Joan Cowan
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In this 1916 photo, the Chase family,
(from left) Elizabeth, Malcolm, Jeremy,
Phyllis and Ed, pose in front of their Tait
Avenue house, which Phyllis' son Bob Cowan
now owns.
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Almond Grove: A taste of Americana
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Gloria I. Wang
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Residents sitting in rocking chairs on front
porches of historic homes on sun-dappled
evenings. Children at lemonade stands and
playing in the streets. Neighbors talking to
and holding barbecues with one another in the
summer. Horse-drawn carriages touring the
area in the winter.
No, this isn't some kind of far-fetched
utopia. Nor is it early 20th-century
small-town America.
Welcome to the present-day Almond Grove
District.
Characterized by century-old houses,
neighborhood friendliness and community
events, this area just west of downtown Los
Gatos has become a must-see for tourists.
"People associate traditional houses with
less stress," says Bob Cowan, a Los Gatos
native and longtime Tait Avenue resident.
"They like the idea of going back to where
it's simpler."
The Almond Grove District creates an illusion
of a simple life and is close to downtown,
making it one of the most desirable places in
town to live. It wasn't always this way,
however; Cowan remembers moving to the
neighborhood in 1971—into the house that his
grandfather occupied in 1904—when it was
considered almost a slum.
Back then, Cowan says, modern homes were more
in vogue; traditional designs were out. As a
result, Almond Grove became a neighborhood
for the less wealthy and the elderly. Cowan
recalls being one of two families on the
street with small children. "It was difficult
for my daughters to find kids to play with,"
Cowan says.
Howard Labe's Tait Avenue house, which was
built in 1893, was remodeled in the 1920s to
eliminate some of the Victorian design
elements. Labe was told that it was because
there was a backlash against traditional
architecture—and a leaning toward modern
homes—several decades ago.
"The transition in this neighborhood was kind
of interesting," Cowan reflects. "It still
has the same working-class charm. Los Gatos
is no longer an industrial town. It's more of
a tourist town." Almond Grove has become a
sought-after place to live, with more and
more young families moving in. "A lot of the
dinosaurs like me are moving out of here,"
says Cowan, a 1960 graduate of Los Gatos High
School and retired planning director of
Cupertino.
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Photograph by George Sakkestad
Ed Chase bought this Tait Avenue house in
1904, and his grandson Bob Cowan raised his
own family there. (From left) Bob Cowan,
daughter Nina Lamour, grandson Andrew Lamour,
son Bob Jr., daughter Allyson, grandson Tim
Lamour and wife Joan.
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Kelly Dale says she and her husband, Scott,
one of those younger families in the
neighborhood, spent a year looking for a home
specifically in Almond Grove before buying a
112-year-old house on Tait in 2001. "This is
the house we purchased believing we won't
move again," Dale says.
"I was really hung up on the neighborhood,"
says Labe of the house search that he and his
wife, Jill, undertook. "I like the feel of
it, the family feel, and the downtown area.
It was less about the house than the
neighborhood." The Labes, like many of their
neighbors, wanted a place with a large yard
and community support to raise their
children.
An added benefit for residents of Almond
Grove is that it's the venue for several
official and unofficial community events.
"Christmas and Halloween around here are
absolutely wonderful," says Tait Avenue
homeowner MarLyn Rasmussen. During the
holidays, Almond Grove serves as the starting
point for the annual Los Gatos Children's
Christmas and Holiday Parade and is included
in the tour of the town for the holiday
horse-drawn carriage rides. "Where else would
you be that you could open the door and see
carriages?" Rasmussen asks.
The popular Tait Avenue Halloween experience,
with an estimated 1,500 young
trick-or-treaters last year, was voted Best
Neighborhood Block Party in this newspaper in
2001. And in the summer, cyclists from all
over the world race in the Cat's Hill
Criterium, which has Almond Grove streets on
the route.
For each of those events, residents act as
community cheerleaders and often offer their
homes as restrooms for participants.
Neighbors also regularly get together for
barbecues and parties, sometimes at the
nearby Bachman Park. Jill and Howard Labe's
children play hockey with other children in
the area, and the couple attends an annual
New Year's party in which they move from home
to home in the neighborhood.
The community events "seem to be another
reason for people to get together," says
Julia Miller, who lives on Massol Avenue with
her husband, Charles White, and their son.
"There's definitely a feeling of ownership,
even as a renter," says Los Gatos High School
teacher Tracy Langley, who lives in a
fourplex on Massol Avenue. "It feels really
safe"—no doubt because the neighbors take
the initiative to get to know one another.
And the neighborhood is a common walk for
both locals and out-of-towners. "When sitting
on my front porch, people would stop by and
say hi," says Mayor Randy Attaway, who lived
in a house on Glen Ridge and Bachman for 15
years. "It's a real nice change, where people
care."
"When anything was going on in town, you
could hear it," Attaway says. Hearing the
sounds of Music in the Plaza and the holiday
parade contributed to the "fun of being part
of a vibrant, active neighborhood," Attaway
says.
Many of the residents walk to the library,
walk to the Farmer's Market, walk to the
movie theater—passing by their neighbors'
homes to chat on the way.
"I've gone 10 days without getting in my car,
which I love," Dale says.
Almond Grove was just as popular when it was
subdivided as Los Gatos' first major
residential area in 1887, one month after the
town's incorporation.
According to John Baggerly, the late Los
Gatos weekly-Times columnist, John Bean,
Magnus Tait, A.E. Wilder, Augustine Nicholson
and Benjamin Franklin Bachman owned adjacent
parcels of orchards, most of them of almond
trees—hence the name "Almond Grove." The
men—all "pioneers" of Los Gatos, Baggerly
wrote—put their land together, and it is now
the area flanked by Los Gatos-Saratoga
Road, Glen Ridge Avenue, Main
Street/Pennsylvania Avenue and N. Santa Cruz
Avenue.
The land was subdivided into 170 small lots,
121 of which were sold at a local land
auction.
In 1980, the town proposed to turn much of
Almond Grove into a commercial zone. In
response, residents formed the Almond Grove
Neighborhood Association and successfully
fought to protect the district by getting the
town to officially designate it as
historical.
Rasmussen had not yet moved into her
home—named "Naeplass Hoose"—at the time.
Rasmussen was serving on the Los Gatos Town
Council when the association was active. "I
was very impressed with them, even though I
didn't fully agree with them," Rasmussen
says. Rasmussen thought Los Gatos needed a
viable downtown and didn't have one in 1980.
"The association is pretty inactive right
now. Everybody's happy," Cowan says.
The historical designation preserves and
protects the neighborhood by specifying
exterior home designs and neighborhood
features. According to a 1992 town ordinance,
that includes the size and shape of windows,
permissible building materials and restricted
accessory structures.
"I like the fact that they're tough on
planning so it certainly looks like a
neighborhood," Miller says.
Cowan says many former planning directors
from other municipalities have chosen to live
in town, which is a "nice endorsement" of the
preservation and design of Los Gatos.
Almond Grove has also added restrictions that
apply to public areas. Los Gatos Director of
Community Development Bud Lortz says those
include the types of newsracks allowed and
the requirement of concrete roads instead of
asphalt.
The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 hit the
neighborhood hard. Rasmussen remembers the
devastation that occurred in her own home.
"I've got pictures of this house that looked
like the house from the Wizard of Oz that
fell on the Wicked Witch of the East,"
Rasmussen says. "It went down flat."
Today Almond Grove is known for its
single-family homes—80 percent of which are
Victorian, says local architect Gary Schloh,
and 82 percent of which are pre-1895, states
the historical ordinance.
The houses, for the most part, are reasonably
sized. Rasmussen says a "monster home" in
that neighborhood is around 3,000 or 4,000
square feet. There are also a few
multiple-family units, including an apartment
complex on Massol.
Most of the area has no driveways; residences
either have garages coming off of shared
alleys or the residents must park on the
street. The alleys, Cowan says, "are where
all the social interaction takes place."
Cowan's neighbors have alley parties several
times a year. And they named theirs "Muhammad
Alley" several years ago as a joke—but it's
stuck. "Everybody thinks it's funny. They
love it," Cowan says.
Residents say the alleys are good for the
children. Kids often play hopscotch and
sports in the privacy and safety of their
alleys. Children on the sidewalks don't have
to worry about being hit by cars backing out
of driveways, because there are none, Jill
Labe says.
The neighborhood isn't entirely without
problems, however. The residents do have
complaints, which are almost entirely
vehicle- and traffic-related.
"Massol has become a thoroughway," says
Langley. Drivers use the street to avoid N.
Santa Cruz to get downtown, and often speed
while doing so, sometimes running stop signs.
Langley says she has considered asking the
town to install speed bumps on Massol.
Charles White has a 7-year-old who has
trouble walking to school. "A lot of the kids
who live in this area go to Daves Avenue and
they cross Los Gatos-Saratoga Road,"
White says.
Drivers usually don't stop to let the
children cross, however; White says he has
communicated his concerns with town staff.
One of his ideas is to place posts on either
side of the street with orange warning flags.
The pedestrian picks up the flag and waves it
as they are crossing, returning it to the
post on the other side. This practice is
common in Berkeley and Seattle.
Parking is also an issue. Those who live
closer to the downtown often find their
streets inundated with cars of employees and
shoppers. This is a problem especially for
those who don't have garages or driveways and
must buy permits to park in the street. With
the exception of parts of Tait and Massol,
all of Almond Grove is in the town's permit
parking program.
Even the residents with their own parking
structures have to obtain permits for their
guests. On occasion, the guests are ticketed
when they don't precisely follow the parking
restrictions. "It rankles me," Cowan says,
since "the town created the need" with the
planning of the central business district.
On the other hand, Bart Giordano, a Los Gatos
native who rents the upper floor of his
parents' duplex on Wilder and Bean, says he
has found the parking patrol officers to be
"understanding" when guests don't have a
permit.
Because St. Mary's Church is in the
neighborhood, sometimes residents have a hard
time getting in and out on the weekends, with
parishioners parking in the residential
areas. "Ninety percent of the time it's not
an issue for us, really," Jill Labe says. The
problem worsens, however, when St. Mary's
holds its annual country fair, and fair
attendees go as far as to park on the Labes'
private property.
Despite those concerns, residents are
basically happy with the Almond Grove
neighborhood and don't desire much change.
"The town did an incredible job of
preserving," Cowan says. "I think a lot of
people in town still don't like me because
I'm not for growth."
Rasmussen finds that many of the new people
in the area are aware of the historic
designation when they move in and are willing
to comply with the town's strict regulations,
not wanting to change the face of the
neighborhood.
Howard Labe says living in Almond Grove has
an "Americana/Mayberry feel." He walks to his
office downtown, and the merchants know him
by name. "It's great to have that kind of
lifestyle," Labe says.
"We kind of feel we have everything, living
in this neighborhood," Dale says. "It's just
a really special place to live."
The future of Almond Grove, however, does
have one change in store. Town officials are
planning to switch Almendra Avenue—the only
street in the district with businesses—back
to residential-only use someday.
Lortz says the town had, prior to the 1960s,
allowed existing offices to be "grandfathered
in," but did not permit new businesses. The
policy restricted the central business
district from Almond Grove except on
Almendra.
Now the town council is "getting ready to get
rid of that influx of commercial many many
years ago," Lortz says, by asking themselves,
"As people come forward with an application,
is there a way for us to direct them toward
residential use?"
The council wants to do all it can to protect
Almond Grove, since "protection of the
neighborhood is a key policy in the General
Plan," Lortz says.
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