Great Neighborhood: Surrey Farms in Los Gatos

Broadway Area: the First Subdivision in Los Gatos

Guest Blog:
Jim Handy Discusses Harwood Road & Meridian

Do you like maps?  My better half, Jim Handy, is crazy about them. And when he learned that the road just on the other side of the house next door is actually a meridian, he got pretty excited. I think it's the engineer in him - that beautiful, inner geek - that loves the analysis of it all. Today's blog entry, then, is a Guest Post by my map enthusiast (and volunteer parks commissioner), Jim Handy. Thanks honey, for giving me a day off!

Many think of Harwood Road as the far eastern boundary of Los Gatos, which it is, but there's much more to this humble road than that.  Travel uphill to the top of the road and you can see views of the entire valley and get into beautiful Belgatos Park and Santa Rosa Open Space, but the majority of the street, the straight part of Harwood Road, has the distinction of following the Mount Diablo Meridian.

 

What's the Mount Diablo Meridian?

 

Back in California's early days, great tracts of land known as Ranchos or Spanish Land Grants were defined by features that sometimes changed: they might run north to the edge of a creek, east to a tree, south to a boulder,  etc.  Some of  these landmarks could move a bit over time, but when you're dealing with a tract of thousands of acres, these alterations are very small overall.

 

When the Gold Rush hit, and California's population roughly doubled between 1848 to 1850 (with land values in San Francisco multiplying 9-10 times). Land needed to be divided into smaller portions, and these smaller sections needed better defined boundaries.  With this in mind, the new state's legislature devised a rectangular survey system, with each land line reconciled to a base point.  The first base point chosen for California was the peak of Mt. Diablo (photo), the tall mountain that you can see from the Bay Area as well as from points west of Sacramento on the way home from Tahoe.  The line running north and south of this peak (at longitude 121:54:49 West) is called the Mt.Diablo Meridian, and the line running east-west of the peak is called the Mount Diablo Baseline.  This was established in 1851.  [Later on, when other parts of California started to develop, those lands that could not easily be measured from the Mt. Diablo Baseline were reconciled in the south to the San Bernardino Baseline (Based on Mt. San Bernardino in 1852) and later to the Humbolt baseline (the far north, based on Mt. Pierre in Humbolt County in 1853).]

 

The Mt. Diablo Meridian was the first benchmark established in the state to measure land in rectangular coordinates.  Interestingly enough, Harwood Road runs along that line - but Harwood is not the only road that runs this line.

 

Travel 3 miles north of the intersection of Harwood and Blossom Hill (the far northeast corner of Los Gatos) and you happen upon the south end of the aptly-named Meridian Avenue in San Jose.  Although much of Meridian Avenue runs straight along the Mt. Diablo Meridian, the southern portion, starting at about Curtner Avenue, veers off to the east, which allows Harwood to take over as the road that follows the Mt. Diablo Meridian.

 

The northern end of Meridian Avenue ends at Park Avenue in downtown San Jose.  Is that the end of the story?  It certainly is not!

 

From Mt. Diablo, travel another 27 miles north and you find another Meridian Road near Vacaville (photo).  This road runs north from the landing strip at Travis Air Force Base to Interstate 80, just past the Nut Tree.

 

Go 59 miles further north, and you run into the hamlet of Meridian California.  This town (population, 725) is in Colusa County, and is the smallest town in the Yuba City Metropolitan Statistical Area.

 

Travel another 40 miles north to find yet another Meridian Road, this one 15 miles long, running just west of Chico.  All this in a direct line from our own Harwood Road!

 

There are no other Meridian Roads north of this point.  If you were to follow this road straight north, you would pass through the Shasta National Forest running past the east side of Mt. Shasta, and would eventually run throgh the town of Dorris, on Highway 97 in Siskyou County, 158 miles north of the north end of Chico's Meridian Road, and just 3 miles from the Oregon border.  The border's 334 miles north of Blossom Hill and Harwood.

Mary here again. Jim continued on with this neat piece to tell us how the meridian goes south until it slops into the ocean just past Carmel, and asked what was done about measurements in southern California instead. (Hint: It's the San Bernadino Meridian and Baseline. That's enough info, right?)  Unlike my husband, I'm not graced with either a great love of maps or a great sense of navigation. If I look at the mountains, I know where I am. Otherwise, I rely on my navigation system. Seriously.

The Overlook Road Area

On the west side of Los Gatos, a little into the foothills and pulling into Monte Sereno, you'll find Overlook Road and adjoining streets.  This is a very scenic part of town and one of the oldest too.  It was developed beginning in  the late 1800s (starting a little after 1890)  to about 1910 initially.   A hilly place,  there are natural retreats due to bends in the terrain and clusters of trees. It is easy to feel remote.  But it's close-in.

John Steinbeck, the famous novelist known for books such as "East of Eden" and "Cannery Row"  lived near Overlook at 16250 Greenwood Lane (which is now in Monte Sereno and was unincorporated at the time he lived there). His first wife helped design the 800 square foot cottage and they moved in at the height of the depression, about 1935.   Written there, on the front patio of his home and in the living room of the guest cottage, was  “Of Mice and Men”.    Even John Steinbeck experienced setbacks, though.  As he was laboring over this piece,  his puppy was said to have eaten the manuscript and Steinbeck was forced to recreate it from memory!   It seems that he wrote “The Grapes of Wrath” from there too.    For awhile, this spot offered him the solitude and scenery that were conducive to, and critical for, his writing.  

Eventually, Steinbeck's fame made him the victim of uninvited visitors and he felt forced to build a fence to keep unwanted folks out.  As the area continued to develop, Steinbeck became increasingly unhappy until the crowding and the noise made him feel suffocated.  He and his wife then retreated further into the hills, moving to a 47 acre parcel in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Like most folks in Los Gatos, though, he did venture into town at times. He occasionally visit the Lyndon Hotel Bar, where he once reportedly entertained director John Ford and Charlie Chaplain.

As for the home on Greenwood Lane?  The original home has since been expanded. And it is nearly impossible to find - quite on purpose.  The current owners likewise seem to value their privacy.   That might true of most of the people in the Overlook area, who have moved into the small foothills of the valley for just a little more quiet and seclusion than is found in the majority of town.

Luminarias

Lost Los Gatos Luminarias?

Fairview Plaza

Fairview Plaza feels like a step back in time - and in many ways, it is. This little neighborhood is so quaint and unique that it seems perfect for a movie set. Located close to downtown and equally close to huge expanses of open space, it enjoys its own park, has an interesting history and is enough off the beaten path that it goes largely undisturbed.

In 1880, Frank McCullough came to Los Gatos and bought 166 acres of prime real estate.  From that land, he donated a parcel to become a park, now Fairview Plaza Park. At one time it included playground equipment and a bird sanctuary too. Today it's a little more congested with cars on the street, but you can view a 360 degree panorama of the park and see that even today, it's quite pleasant.  This little park is the heart of the neighborhood.

Being an older part of town, Fairview Plaza is an official historic district for the town.  It gets some special attention for this, but also some restrictions so that the character of the neighborhood is not harmed by bad remodeling or additions.

A prized part of Fairview Plaza is the Clara Huntington Perkins house, which was designed by Julia Morgan in about 1918-1919. For an arial view, please click here: http://eng.archinform.net/projekte/9253.htm.

To get to Fairview Plaza, you have two choices. You can make use of a staircase that rises from Broadway and makes a direct connection to the neighborhood, or you can arrive there via Pennsylvania Avenue, Fairview Avenue, and then Fairview Plaza.  The street is really an enormous cul-de-sac, with no "through traffic". But unlike the cul-de-sacs of suburbia, this one is an entire community unto itself.  Make a visit up there and rest a bit in the community park.  You will enjoy pretty architecture but also a glimpse back in time. Enjoy!

Neighborhood Spotlight: Belwood and Belgatos