History

Did you celebrate Groundhog Day last week? Me neither. But it’s a major media event back East, especially in Punxsutawney, Penn. where the tradition (based on an early European legend and immortalized in the classic comedy film by the same name) originated in 1887. At...

Heavy rains are a rarity in Los Gatos, but last week saw the community get quite the natural wash. And it put a serious damper on holiday shopping. But by Friday evening, no more droplets were falling—though it was still wet and cool—and hundreds turned...

As a new school year begins, let’s take a look at what a typical school day was like in our community years ago. You’ll be astonished by how much has changed!  In 1863, a one-room schoolhouse was built to accommodate 25 or more students from...

Summer has arrived, and there’s no shortage of live music for us to enjoy here in Los Gatos, from regularly scheduled Jazz on the Plazz and Music in the Park concerts to special events like the multi-cultural Drums in the Park celebration. Our tradition of...

The Santa Clara County Department of Planning and Development has been preventing a homeowner in the Lexington Hills area of Los Gatos from accessing public documents needed to fix damage caused by the storm that sparked the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire. A Department of...

While many of us recognize the name Holy City, the fascinating story of the former mountain community and the eccentric character who founded it has largely been forgotten.  Holy City was built over a period of several years beginning in 1919 by a  charismatic cult...

Of all the events in Los Gatos’ history, none had a more lasting impact than the arrival of the railroad. In this two part series, we’ll explore how the “iron horse” became the driving force behind the transformation of our town from an obscure...

Part 1 of this series told the story of aspiring railroad barons James “Slippery Jim” Fair and Alfred “Hog” Davis, who founded the South Pacific Coast Railroad (SPCRR) in 1876 to create an extensive rail network throughout the Bay Area and beyond. After the...

The office of Harry Ryan was the place Jack London penned his seminal novel “the Call of the Wild,” about a dog that’s taken from the Santa Clara Valley to the Klondike, where he befriends wolves and leads a sled team. Ryan, who met London...

St. Patrick’s Day offers the perfect opportunity to pay homage to one of Los Gatos’ most fascinating and colorful characters, Charles Henry McKiernan, better known as “Mountain Charlie.”  McKiernan was born in Ireland in 1825. He joined the British navy to escape the potato famine...