By Don McDonald

Herman Peters, in a studio photograph taken in 1950.

Few did more to turn the tiny, fledgling town of Los Altos into a livable community than Herman Peters. His Los Altos Realty Company on Main Street was the first realty and insurance business in the area, and his pioneering spirit involved him in many civic activities. Peters was born into a farming family of German immigrants from Alsace-Lorraine in 1881, and he didn’t learn English until entering school. His chores as a boy on the family’s Iowa farm persuaded him that farm life wasn’t for him. At 17 he joined the Army to get into the Spanish-American War as a cavalryman. He said he was with Roosevelt’s Rough Riders during the Battle of San Juan.

After his discharge, he came to Palo Alto in 1898, hoping to attend Stanford University. He worked for a while and found in 1904 that his lack of a high school diploma was not a deterrent. He enrolled at Stanford and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1907, getting straight As along the way.

Although not conventionally religious, Peters became fascinated with philosophy at Stanford and decided to go on to divinity school at Harvard University, which gave him part-time work as an instructor. At Harvard Divinity School he met and formed a close friendship with Louis Brandeis, later a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. As a team, they traveled around the Eastern coalfields, speaking on behalf of organized labor. Predictably, their efforts were often met with serious management hostility, and they sometimes had to flee the scene to avoid injury by hired strikebreakers.

Peters’ wanderlust turned again to the West. In 1912, at age 31, he arrived in Los Altos with his new wife, Margaret. He had met and married her in Boston when she was a widow with a baby son, Grant. They built a home and planted a small orchard at what is now 718 Orange Avenue. There, the Peters family was increased to five when Nan was born in 1918 and Colin in 1919.

When they moved to Los Altos, the town’s population was less than 250, and most of the town was vacant lots. When Herman established his Los Altos Realty Company, its early singularity in the community was reflected by its phone number: 1. He ran this business successfully for 54 years.

Involvement with youth and civic affairs

Herman soon made his mark on behalf of the youth in early Los Altos. Learning of the new Boy Scout movement in New York City, he petitioned and was granted a local charter in 1918 for Troop 1. The 12 local boys met on the upper floor of McDuffies’ Grocery at Second and Main streets, with Herman as scoutmaster. Son Grant joined the troop in 1921 and became the troop’s first Eagle Scout.

The dynamic young scoutmaster soon led a local drive to build a Scout hall on First Street. With the help of other community leaders, such as Alan Cranston and Paul Shoup, $7,000 was raised to build the finest such hall in the county. The grand opening took place April 20, 1922, and featured the “Stanford Glee Club in songs and special stunts … old time Minstrel jokes and many other high class features.” As Boy Scout troops proliferated, the district council in 1926 designated Troop 1 to be Troop 37, a troop still active today.

Another facet of Herman’s interest in educating youth led him to open the Los Altos School for Boys and Young Men in 1931. He used the former Wright Estate building, next door to his home on Orange Avenue. Unfortunately, the timing of his venture could not have been worse, and the Great Depression soon doomed his enterprise.

Now entrenched in the community, Herman became even more involved in civic affairs. Drawing on his interest in labor relations, he became a member of the California State Railroad Commission, a position he held for a number of years. This appointment allowed him to oversee Los Altos’ vital interest in the passenger and freight service provided to the developing town by the Southern Pacific Railroad.

In the early 1960s, Herman’s health began to decline, and he sold his realty business in 1963. He died in 1966. Margaret died a few years later. Grant died in 1950, and Nan Peters Seitz lived until 1997. Colin Peters is an attorney in Palo Alto, heading the law firm he founded there in 1968.

This article will be added to the Los Altos History Museum’s “Family Tree.” This structure has touch-activated computer displays of articles and photos describing persons and institutions important in the history of Los Altos.

The Family Tree is designed to allow additions like this, and visitors are encouraged to make suggestions to the museum staff.

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