Right now, though, that jewel is a bit tarnished. Since the closure of the Chart House restaurant in February, the beautiful grounds surrounding the Queen Ann style home have been ignored. The plants and lawn are growing out of control; the weeds are popping up throughout the flower beds, and the grass is turning brown for lack of water.

The building and grounds are owned by Landry's Restaurant company, and the out-of-state corporation employs a Bay Area firm to oversee the property. The Los Gatos compliance officer has informed the property managers of the poor state of the condition of the site and indicated that it needed to be cleaned up and maintained. As of May 14, no effort had been made to comply.

"Our compliance officer told them to do something about the weeds," said Los Gatos City Councilwoman Sandy Decker. "That was [May 10]."

Not only should that order have been carried out immediately, given the importance of the property and its significance to the appearance of the downtown area, it was an order that shouldn't have had to be issued in the first place. Anyone owning such an historical site in an area like the downtown has an obligation to maintain that property.

The members of the Los Gatos Beautification Committee have worked too hard and dedicated too much time in their efforts to maintain an attractive appearance downtown for this company to be allowed to let such an important property fall into disrepair.

It's a situation that's very disturbing for the committee and downtown merchants.

"The beautiful plants and lawn are dying," said Shirley Henderson, owner of the Antiquarium on Main Street and a member of the Los Gatos Beautification Committee. "It looks like they've turned off the water." Henderson added that members of the beautification committee would be willing to water and help maintain the grounds until a permanent solution.

The owners are trying to sell the property. However three potential offers haven't led to a change of ownership. In the meantime, they need to maintain the site.

The Coggshell Mansion was built in 1891 and its owner, Mary G. Coggshell, an Australian widow, lived there for 26 years. Elvert Ernest Place bought the building in 1917 and converted the home into a furniture store/mortuary. The Place Funeral Home occupied the site until 1976 when the Chart House restaurant moved in.

The owners of the Chart House did a wonderful job of renovation to bring the building and its grounds to its postcard appearance in the downtown. Their obligation to maintain that site, however, did not end with the restaurant's February closure.