By Aiko Hill

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Do you hate your commute? Do you get tired of having to catch the train or rush to beat the traffic? Relax. If you were living in Los Altos in the early part of the 1900s, you may still have been a commuter. Of course, back then you wouldn’t have sat alone, in traffic, along 101. Instead you would have sat with many others on a commuter train or maybe on a two-lane road headed toward San Francisco.

Los Altos has always been viewed as having an ideal location, comfortably between San Jose and San Francisco. With its proximity to Stanford University just six miles to the north, it has long been the perfect home for many professionals. In fact, the earliest promotional brochures touted its convenience to these centers of education and business.

As noted in the 1997 Los Altos Historical Inventory, “The ugliness of the industrial world does not intrude on the serenity of Los Altos. Although the greatest business centers of Northern California are within easy commuting distance, many residents gladly make the daily trip, finding adequate recompense in returning to the refreshing quiet, the clear air, and the fruitful greenery of the foothill country.” That sums it up.

What the rail brought to Los Altos was accessible transportation for all. The white collar worker could commute to San Francisco, and many migrant workers used the train to get to their agricultural jobs in the Valley.

While it is true that early Los Altos, around 1910, was a primarily agricultural town, the census figures from that period show that local residents held a wide range of professions. There were business owners and their employees, clerical workers, and others. Many of these headed to San Francisco each morning. There are other signs of commuting in 1910, as well.

One Los Altos resident listed himself as a tughead navigator. There were also river steamer mates and a marine supervisor - all indicative of jobs away from Los Altos. Even though the majority of our earliest residents were local merchants, it appears that Los Altans may have been among the first in the nation to endure 40-mile commutes.

So, the next time you are stuck in traffic chatting on your cell phone, or reading the paper as you cruise the rail on Caltrain, you can take pleasure in knowing that you are just one more in a long line of Los Altos commuters.

Send comments and suggestions to aikohill@aol.com.