History

Let’s welcome the newest addition to our vibrant downtown dining scene, Heritage Pub & Chop House, with a brief look at the history of their iconic home. With its second-story circular bay window topped by what’s known in architectural circles as a “witch’s hat” roof,...

—This is the second in a two part series. Last month, I explored what traveling “over the hill” was like in the second half of the 19th century, when stagecoach passengers faced long, bone-rattling, and often dangerous trips along dusty or muddy dirt roads. Change came...

After five years of meetings, proposals, compromises, and design revisions, the Town Council has unanimously approved the new Los Gatos Meadows development. It’ll be situated on an 11 acre property that was the home of one of our earliest and most prominent citizens, John Weldon...

The historic Forbes Mill Annex is the oldest remaining commercial structure in Los Gatos. Before the town got its current name, it was actually called Forbes Mill, then Forbestown. The initial mill was erected in 1854 and lasted until 1916. Its storage unit has...

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...

Like many small towns in the west, Los Gatos prospered in the late 19th century after the arrival of the railroad. Eager to shed their town’s rustic image, civic-minded citizens and businesspeople sought every opportunity to establish a more cosmopolitan reputation. A performing arts center...

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...

When I was a child in the 70s, Los Gatos was filled with Italians. I remember seeing the older women walking in town, dragging behind them their wire utility carts filled with groceries down Santa Cruz Avenue. My grandparents, Adam and Albina Contardo, were...

Earlier this year while tweaking the history section of the Draft General Plan, Los Gatos planning commissioners suggested zooming-out from the previous version, which only told the story of settler expansion, to also share the history of the original inhabitants. What may have seemed, to...

The old fire station on the corner of Tait Avenue and West Main Street is a familiar sight to those of us who live on the West side of town. The Spanish Revival style building, with its stucco walls, low hip roof clad in...