Early Los Altos
By Don McDonald,
Silent films were first shown in Los Altos to the public in September 1925. The venue was the Los Altos Grammar School Assembly Hall. Films were shown on one Saturday night a month, and the admission charged was 25 cents for adults and 15 cents for children. Their six-month schedule began with “Charlie’s Aunt” and ended with “A Girl of the Limberlost.” A short comedy accompanied feature films.
• Several of our oral histories tell of seeing the flaming red northern night sky caused by the San Francisco fire in 1906. Except for in Los Altos Hills, comparable glimpses of our night skies now would be rare because of the subsequent growth of large residential trees.
• In 1952 the Mozart Motor Co. of Los Altos advertised that, “depending on the value of your trade-in … you could switch to a big, powerful Hudson for as little as $47.32 a month.”
• Los Altos Grammar School once held a “Playday” on a Saturday in May. Our history museum has in its files home movies taken around 1928 by William Marvin of one such festivity. The Marvin children and most of the others were dressed in fun costumes, a feature of Playdays.
• Our history museum’s tank house was painted white when it stood in its original place in the Spagnoli Orchard on Pine Lane. It was given to the museum by Pilgrim Haven in 1993.
• The widespread growth of large ornamental trees here since 1947 has severely reduced the wide vistas enjoyed by residents when Los Altos was an orchard community. These views were publicized by such early street names as Bay View (now Los Altos Avenue) and Mt. Hamilton Avenue.
• In April 1927 the G&S Theatre in Los Altos showed “The Keeper of the Bees” with Clara Bow one week, and “The Gay Deceiver” with Lew Cody the next. The theater’s Mountain View Register-Leader advertisement described the Cody film as “sure a peppy picture and you will vote these screen cuties more stars than there are in heaven.”
• The streets of Los Altos in February have long been graced with clouds of golden acacia blossoms. In the 1930s, branches of these blossoms were shipped in refrigerated boxcars to bring a taste of spring to the still-wintry eastern states. For this purpose, Edward Hohfeld grew 2,000 trees on his Los Altos Hills 100-acre estate.
• The worst fire in Los Altos history destroyed the Whitecliff Market in 1966. It was located on First Street, where Draeger’s Market stands today. It had been opened in 1950 to replace the small J&S Market at Main and First streets.
• Hannah Hendricksen was the first woman to cross the new Panama Canal after it opened in 1914. She later lived in Los Altos with her husband, Capt. Hendricksen, who was the canal’s first port captain.
• An early predecessor to our Los Altos Festival of Lights took place in December 1939, when $100 was raised by local merchants to purchase Christmas lights for the big oak at Main and First streets. The lights were hung by the Volunteer Fire Department. The Los Altos News described the result as “a handsome picture.”
• In the early 1930s , the Los Altos News reported that the local water table had sunk down to 335 feet. In 1898 it had been at 120 feet.
• A 1952 advertisement in the Los Altos News by The Institute of Music at 63 First St. stressed the importance of music by asserting, “your radio will drive you mad, but your piano will be your comfort.”
• The “largest rattlesnake seen here in 17 years” was reported having been killed locally, in a July 1939 Los Altos News article.
The snake had 15 buttons and was 6 feet long.
• Instead of the previously popular detached garages, the Federal Housing Administration reported in 1938 that 80 percent of the new homes being built were designed to have built-in or attached garages.
Don McDonald is a longtime Los Altos resident and member of the Los Altos History Museum Association. If you know of some old Los Altos stories, please contact McDonald through Town Crier Editor Bruce Barton by calling 948-9000, ext. 301, or e-mailing bruceb@latc.com.
