The town of Los Gatos was orignally named after the Spanish land grant, "El Rancho de la Rinconada de los Gatos", the Cat's Corner Ranch. But how did the town get Leo and Leona, the ubiquitous cats, as its logo?
Residing today where they were originally placed in 1922, the cats sit proudly at the entrance to 17525 Santa Cruz Highway, just a stone's throw south of town en route over the Santa Cruz Mountains. They sit guard at the gate of Poet's Canyon.
Poet's Canyon is aptly named for a fascinating married couple, Charles Erskin Scott Wood (a poet, PhD, lawyer, Civil War Vet and West Point Grad) and Sara Bard Field (poet and suffragist), who built their home back in this 34 acre nook in the hills. They commissioned a sculptor named Robert Paine to make these 8' tall cement cats at the gateway to their home.
All three of these people are interesting in their own right, and diverse in their talents and abilities.
To see the cat sculptures today, take South Santa Cruz Avenue out of town and onto highway 17 (going toward Santa Cruz). They will be on your right hand side just before you reach the old roadhouse tavern, The Cats (which will be the subject of another blog entry on another day).
Welcome to Los Gatos! There may be several places where you can purchase the famous cat statues but the one I'm familiar with is Fiori's at King's Court Shopping Center (near Lunardi's at Los Gatos Blvd and Blossom Hill Road in Los Gatos). Their tel # is 408 358-2133.
I have heard that beyond this gate there is an old house with an empty swimming pool. It's rumored that Beatniks used to hang out there. Also, that there was either a murder, or suicide? As a teen living in the area, I heard a lot of weird things about this place with the locked gate. So, what's the scoop?
My English teacher told us a story about the "Stone Cats of Los Gatos". Back in college, he took folklore, and as part of that class, he, in a group of 5 other people, had to find a local story or legend and make a presentation.
Well, they heard the story of these stone cats of Los gatos. They're on either side of a gate off highway 17 just before the Los Gatos exit headed towards Santa Cruz. They decided to take a trip up there one night to see the cats and head up the road beyond them. The local legend had it that in the forest beyond the cats lived a troupe of albino cannibals. So, these 6 idiot college kids found the gate, popped it open, and headed up the road beyond. about a mile in, they start to see a shitload of red eyes in the forest around them. Everybody starts freaking out. Then suddenly, their truck dies. So the three guys in the group (my teacher included) decide to head up the road (not back the way they came, remember: idiot college kids) to find a house to call for help. Sure enough, they find a house. My professor insists that he remembers this house vividly, and the other two guys say they saw exactly the same thing. They get 50 feet away from the house, and it vanishes. The three run back to the truck down the road, scaring the heck out of the girls in the truck. They eventually get the truck started, and haul back down to the highway. As they exit the gate, they look back at the stone cats. The eyes of the cats are glowing red.
There are many stories of the Los Gatos mountains being haunted, but I've never heard one involving the Cats area and Poet's Canyon before. Nor have I heard about the vanishing house.
I'll try to learn more by reposting this on my Haunted Real Estate blog? www.HauntedRealEstate.com and will hope to glean some information from my readers there.
Thanks for sharing the story,
Mary
(for some reason my blog isn't letting me remain logged in to post comments....)
For those who are interested, you can read a complete account of this property, the two cats, and their owners in the book 'Local Girl Makes History' by Dana Frank.
Does anyone live in that house today? On March 31 my hubby brought me to see the cats for the first time. When we were just about to leave a woman in an SUV pulls up, punches in a code, the gates open, she drives through and up the hill. I was seething with jealousy and curiosity. Why did she get to go beyond the gates?!? Can anyone offer insight? This blog is great by the way. It already answered 2 of my questions... what is beyond the gates and where do you get the cat statues that graces the porches of Los Gatos...
For years I have pass it by and one day I stop in the 2001 volvo white roll out and saw a lot more then just the ca took some pictures.And I thought to myself this would be a great place to do my video at yet i DON'T KNOW WHAT THE RULES ARE? Man so maybe somebody will get back to me
My mother told a story about the place. When she was a student at San Jose State (This would have been in the early 1930s.) she had a summer job as a live-in nanny for a professor who lived at The Cats. There was another girl, also an SJS student living and working there, cataloguing the professor's library. One night they had time off and went out. They arrived home late at night and decided it was the perfect opportunity to explore the basement, about which they had been very curious. Down they went and discovered a trap door in the floor. They opened it up and found themselves looking into a large vat of wine. My mother accidently dropped one of her gloves into the wine. End of story. I wonder how the wine tasted.
I am inspired by local American history and I find these all very interesting. I especially love dog and cat articles. I am coming to California this summer (from UK) to market some clothing and I hope I can get over to Los Gatos to track down these cats and any other interesting artifacts.
We just moved to Los Gatos and I am desperate to find the cat statues that everyone has in their yard. I understand you used to be able to get them at Fiori's, but they seem to have gone out of business? Does anyone know where else you can find them?
I was the owner of Fiori's and sold the cat's , an item I developed as an exclusive for Fiori's and sold for over 25 years. The cat's should be available now at Green thumb Nursery in Los Gatos
A blog about Los Gatos real estate, homes, houses, condos, townhomes, housing market, neightborhoods, history, events, businesses, parks, schools, photos, issues, and lifestyle by Mary Pope-Handy, town resident, enthusiast and Realtor.
Mary Pope-Handy
Realtor, CRS, ABR, E-Pro
Sereno Group Real Estate
214 Los Gatos-Saratoga Road Los Gatos, CA 95030
DRE # 01153805
408 204-7673
Residing today where they were originally placed in 1922, the cats sit proudly at the entrance to 17525 Santa Cruz Highway, just a stone's throw south of town en route over the Santa Cruz Mountains. They sit guard at the gate of Poet's Canyon.
