By Aiko Hill

Looking Back, Moving Forward

Recently, I visited a home owned by Wendel Roscoe of Los Altos Hills.

At the time, I didn’t know of his local fame as a longtime architect, builder and local historian, but soon I was deep in a lesson about the area known as the Pink Horse Ranch.

In 1914 the Toyon Dairy was established along Adobe Creek. In the early 1950s the dairy was sold and the new owners established the Pink Horse Ranch. For about five years it was the place to go and be seen. Unfortunately, there came a need to sell off the land and piece by piece it went, with the last 42 acres going to Roscoe.

You can still see remnants of the old dairy. At Roscoe’s personal residence, the pool area sports his-and-hers dressing rooms in what were once the two silos. There is also a beautiful oak tree, which arborists estimate to be over 250 years old, based on a similar tree that recently died.

Running through the property is Adobe Creek. The history of our village is closely tied to this stream. But did you know that the path to the creek was deliberately altered in the 1950s? Soon after Roscoe purchased the property along the creek, he was witness to a “100-year flood” that put him two-and-a-half feet underwater. Upstream went Roscoe, to a point he thought proper for a floodgate. Once this gate was installed, and because he wanted the creek to run through his property rather than around it, he constructed a series of dams and redirected the flow.

In 1972 the county commissioners began studying various options for the creek to address other flood control issues. With 12 options and $1 million, they had plenty to consider, including making the area near the Pink Horse Ranch a flood plain. Roscoe took issue with those plans.

There was only one factor that the commission failed to consider: they didn’t hold the deed to the property! Enter Roscoe with plan No. 13 - one that would take the water from near his gate and redirect it toward what is now Foothill College.

The commissioners agreed, the work was completed, and the area never flooded again. Today, that area serves as the location for more than 30 beautiful homes in Los Altos Hills.

Send comments and suggestions to aikohill@aol.com.