By Don McDonald

Pages of the Past

What area did “Los Altos” cover?

Los Altos was an unincorporated part of Santa Clara County in those days and included what is now Los Altos Hills. Its “boundaries as such” were the area defined by the small, third class Los Altos Post Office, and the Los Altos School District with a K-8 enrollment of under 300 students. The area’s entire population was probably less than 1,500.

What was in the town of Los Altos?

The downtown section was not very built up, although it had most essential services, such as grocery stores, garages, and banks. There was also a drugstore, tailors and cleaners shop, beauty shop, radio store, hardware store, appliance store, realtor and three churches. As civic gathering space, citizens used the San Antonio Club and Scout Hall. The Los Altos Golf and Country Club drew most of its membership from nearby communities. There being no full-time movie theater locally, Los Altos citizens mostly went to Palo Alto to see films.

What did the town’s vital center look like?

In a room at the Los Altos History Museum, behind a glass screen, is a model display showing what the area around the depot looked like in 1931-32. The town’s elegant California-style depot served commuters to San Francisco until steam train service stopped in 1964. From 1910 until 1933, the Peninsular Railway also ran. It was an electric interurban line using tracks parallel to the Southern Pacific steam line. The display shows the dual-track arrangement.

Also accurately displayed are various buildings, including the Los Altos Garage on First Street. On Main Street you can see the Copeland Building, which was also the site of the Post Office. The First National Bank of Los Altos Building also housed the Altos Land Company and town library. An ivy-covered sub-station for the electric railway is also shown. After that railway stopped operation in 1933, local efforts plus WPA work, transformed this building into a proper library, which was used until 1957.

What was the newspaper coverage?

The Los Altos News was then published twice weekly. Aside from Los Altos, its coverage and ads related chiefly to Palo Alto and to Mayfield - sometimes alluded to as part of “Greater Palo Alto.” Even though it was officially absorbed by Palo Alto in 1925, the name “Mayfield” remained in popular usage for years.

McDonald is a member of the Los Altos History Museum Association.