If you have read much of this blog, you know that the first European settlers, Peralta and Hernandez, made their adobe home on the land which is now Vasona Lake County Park. There was no lake there at the time, of course, but the Los Gatos Creek wove through the meadow and the surroundings were scenic and lush.

Closer to the mountains, a mill was founded - Forbes Mill - and the town grew up around it. Wooden buildings and sidewalks popped up, with homes scattered nearby. Eventually, someone got the idea to build a neighborhood of homes in Los Gatos. That insightful fellow was John Weldon Lyndon, the same gentleman who bought the Los Gatos Hotel and later moved and renamed it the Lyndon Hotel in 1878. At the same time, he had greater visions for the neighborhood.

John Lyndon developed Broadway and put 48 lots on it and offered the first of them for sale in 1881 (6 years before the Almond Grove area was developed). Some homes may have been built there before this division took place - there are indicators that a few of the homes in the area pre-date 1881.

Lyndon moved his hotel to the location of today's Lyndon Plaza in 1878. This is the town's very oldest subdivision. As of now there are 12 pre-1900 homes remaining. Other developments in the 1880's include the nearby Almond Grove, Fairview, and the Edelen Districts.