Robin Chapman News

New Edition of Sara Winchester Biography by Mary Joe Ignoffo

2022-10-31T14:11:00.001-07:00

The house Sarah Winchester built before her death in 1922 is certainly a remarkable one. Most of her real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area sold quickly after she died. This house did not and within a very short time became a very successful tourist attraction.

The stories that circulated about rifle heiress Sarah Winchester in Santa Clara county seem to have been the result of her reclusiveness. She lived in an age when newspaper reporters--given little real information--would just make up things in order to sell newspapers. Imagine that.

Author Mary Jo Ignoffo of San Jose has drafted the definitive biography of this diminutive author with the out-sized impact. For the 100th anniversary of Mrs. Winchester's death and the upcoming centenary of the house as a tourist attraction, Ms Ignoffo has updated and expanded and revised this fascinating book. Lots of interesting information in this book to keep you reading. Highly recommended.

I met Mary Jo Ignoffo when I used "Captive of the Labyrinth" four years ago in drafting a profile of Mrs. Winchester for my book "Historic Bay Area Visionaries." Reading the updated version I found lots of new information and photos. Click the link for my piece about the book in the Los Altos Town Crier.

Click Here for Updated Sarah Winchester Biography Review

Railroads Once Powered Work and Life in the West

2022-10-31T13:45:00.004-07:00

Two commuters wait for the Southern Pacific railroad in Los Altos, California circa 1963. Service ended very soon after that with the construction of Foothill Expressway. The photograph was taken by Greg Gnesios.

A friend of mine from Los Altos High School found me on the internet and sent me a photo he had taken one morning long ago of two men waiting for the railroad train--very near the end of the era when Los Altos commuters could easily get back and forth to work that way.

His message made me ponder how important the rails were to our families, when I was young, and in the life and settlement of the West. And led to this column in my "Santa Clara Valley Lives" series for the local newspaper. Click the link for the story:

Railroads and Santa Clara Valley Lives

Famous Writer's Widow Owned Santa Clara Valley Retreat

2022-08-25T13:08:00.003-07:00

Robert Louis Stevenson's wife Fanny was not conventionally beautiful, but the writer told friends when he met her in France in 1876 he fell in love at first sight. After RLS dies, Fanny built a home in the foothills above Gilroy, CA, above right. Originally a small cottage, it was extensively remodeled in the 1930s.

Here's a story that came to late too late to be included in my new book. I think you will enjoy it:

The tools of the Industrial Revolution carried the stories of Robert Louis Stevenson all around the globe, which, along with his talent, helped to make the author of "Treasure Island" and "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" one of the 19th century's best-loved authors. When he died in Samoa in 1894, his widow, Californian Frances "Fanny" Van de Grift Stevenson, inherited his copyrights and became a very wealthy woman.

CLICK FOR THE REST OF THE STORY

Look for "Valley of Heart's Delight" in SC Valley Media

2022-07-30T09:57:00.007-07:00

You can go to the web site of the Palo Alto Daily Post for Saturday 7/30/22 and read a higher resolution version of this (which I converted from a PDF). l have links below and excerpts for other articles about the book.

My new book about the San Francisco Bay Area came out on July 25, 2022, and one thing I can say for certain: it is easier to get coverage for a third book, than it is for the first one. As a writer, I now have a track record with two other books and reporters know the work is credible (and, I like to think, likable as well). This has helped my new book gain attention more quickly.

Here's the first review I received, which arrived on the publication date, thanks to veteran journalist Craig MacDonald at See California: Valley of Heart's Delight Review

Here's a brief piece in the Los Altos Town Crier: Los Altos Town Crier Article

Here's what award-winning columnist Sal Pizarro had to say in the San Jose Mercury News on Friday 7/29/2022. (Since their web site charges for membership, I've just excerpted it):

"GOOD READ ON HISTORY: Author Robin Chapman has completed a trilogy of historical stories about the Santa Clara Valley with her latest book, “The Valley of Heart’s Delight: True Tales from Around the Bay.” The collection of stories covers some of the interesting people and events that happened here in the 20th century, with tales about celebrities like Bing Crosby, Alfred Hitchcock and Esther Williams, as well as more local legends like Juana Briones and Lope Inigo.

It’s a great companion to the previous works by the Santa Clara Valley native, “California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley” and “Historic Bay Area Visionaries.” Chapman will appear July 31 at Recycle Bookstore in Campbell at 11 a.m., which will be followed by talks or book signings at Feldman’s Books in Menlo Park on Aug. 5 and Books Inc. in Mountain View on Aug. 11."

I have one more article to post, by Carol Gerwitz at the Campbell Press, but it isn't posted yet and it is too long for me to paste here. I'll post a link to it as soon as it is on line. Meanwhile, thanks to all my colleagues in the press for giving my new book some of their time. I think their readers will be happy they did! It certainly gave me a boost. Even a small book takes a long time to write and get right and it often feels like a lonely process. When it comes out, it is nice to celebrate. Hope you enjoy!

Did I mention it is for sale on Amazon right now?

Hope you enjoy.

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"The Valley of Heart's Delight" Gets its First Review!

2022-07-20T10:31:00.004-07:00

"The Valley of Heart's Delight: True Tales from Around the Bay" is my new book from The History Press. Isn't that a dandy cover?

For many years I worked in daily journalism and my experiences in newsrooms was that they were a cacophony of noise and activity. Newsrooms were full of interesting, intelligent and talkative people: phones rang constantly, police radios blasted, news crews dashed in and out and reporters gabbed at each others' desks. Our deadlines were hourly and daily. Then we went home and came back for more the next day.

Writing a book isn't anything like that. The deadlines are years, not days. The room I work in is quiet and I often feel isolated by the work. Sometimes I do something exciting and go to the library or an archive. Not noisy places, those. When the book is written, there are several more months of copy editing and then page proofs and covers to approve. By the time the book is finally published the writer wonders: do you suppose people will like it?

Today, after working on my new book for a long time, I received my first review. I wanted to share it with you. Thanks to Craig MacDonald of the popular "See California" web site for taking the time to read my book, care about California's many heritage stories and share his thoughts with you.

CLICK HERE TO READ ROBIN'S FIRST REVIEW

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The Duvenecks: Disseminating Kindness at Hidden Villa

2022-07-05T12:01:00.002-07:00

This photograph of Josephine and Frank Duveneck, founders of Hidden Villa summer camp, was taken in 1978 on the couple's 65th wedding anniversary. Josephine died 11 days later, shortly after completing her autobiography. Frank died in 1985 at the age of 99. Image courtesy of the Palo Alto Historical Association.

I was very surprised to read Hidden Villa was caught in the middle of a controversy about some Asian tiles on the side of the old Duveneck house. The tiles represent an ancient symbol in Asia and bear some resemblance to a swastika but are not exactly like the ones we associate with Germany. The controversy shut down the Hidden Villa children's camp this summer for the very first time.

I thought perhaps it might be a time to revisit the history of this forward-thinking couple, who made so many lives better during their lifetimes and beyond.

Here's a piece I published recently about them in the Los Altos Town Crier.

CLICK FOR ROBIN'S ARTICLE ON THE DUVENECKS

Lunch With the Queen: A Stanford Student Remembers

2022-04-02T14:34:00.005-07:00

Stanford student Garin Veris look very shy as he shakes hands with Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. His fellow student Raga Elim is on his right and Stanford president Donald Kennedy is at far left. HRH looks truly delighted to be meeting Mr. Veris.

Nearly 40 years ago, Queen Elizabeth II came to California on an extended tour. I was working in Washington DC then, but I read about the visit as I researched an upcoming book. I decided to write a short piece for the local newspaper about the visit and looking for a quote for my piece, I realized many who met her then were no longer with us. Reviewing the list of Stanford students who met her, I came up with a winner. Click the link for the rest of the story:

STUDENT MEETS THE QUEEN

Soldiers Battled Pandemic in Waning Days of World War I

2021-12-11T08:52:00.005-08:00

Soldiers from Camp Fremont celebrate the end of World War I on University Avenue in Palo Alto.

Note all of the soldiers are wearing masks due to the 1918 pandemic. Photo courtesy of "The Story of Camp Fremont" and the Menlo Park Historical Society.

I'm working on a new book, which will be a collection of my articles so I'm going back and making sure they still hold up. When I first wrote about Barbara Wilcox's book in 2018, "World War I Army Training by San Francisco Bay: The Story of Camp Fremont," my article was mostly a promotion for an upcoming talk the author was giving. I grew up right down the road from Stanford and I had never heard about this vanished military base.

When I re-read the book in 2021, I found its section on the 1918 pandemic absolutely fascinating for obvious reasons. So I wrote a new column for the local paper. Click the link for my report.

The WW I Pandemic on the SF Peninsula

Alfred Hitchcock and his Northern California Connection

2021-11-16T09:34:00.002-08:00

Director Alfred Hitchcock displays his famous profile at his estate above Saratoga. The outline was easily identified as it graced the opening of his popular television mystery program "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." Photo courtesy of UC Santa Cruz Special Collections & Archives and Tere Carrubba.

There is something absolutely fascinating about movie director Alfred Hitchcock, who was born in London in 1919 and died in California in 1980. His movies were unlike those of any other director. He became easily as famous as any of the stars he featured in his films. And he seemed to love the macabre.

What most people in Northern California don't know is that he had a home in the mountains above the Santa Clara Valley that also looked down upon the California Coast and spent a lot of time there from 1940 through 1974 when Hitchcock grew frail and his wife Alma made arrangements to sell the home.

Having a home in Northern California had a direct impact on "The Birds" one of his most famous films, due to an event on the California Coast Hitch learned about because he kept up on the local news.

I've recently secured permission to use several interesting archival photos of him at the estate and though I have written about this before I felt the photos definitely added some fun to the tale. Click the link to read the column I filed about him in the Los Altos Town Crier for Halloween.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK AND HIS SCOTTS VALLEY ESTATE

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The Peninsular Railway: Electric Tech Ahead of Its Time

2021-08-09T14:33:00.005-07:00

This rail car, from the Peninsular Railroad is Number 102 and shows a sign in the window that it runs from Los Altos to San Jose. It also sports a sign that says "Flyer," which means it was likely used for direct commuting. Photo courtesy of the Palo Alto Historical Association Archives.

This lovely map cover for the Peninsular doesn't even show a train: It was likely used to advertise the line's Blossom Special to tourists in a valley which then had the largest number of commercial fruit orchards the world had ever seen. Image courtesy of History San Jose Archives.

During the years I have done research on the San Francisco Bay Area I have seen a number of images of what looked like a small rail system that ran around the Santa Clara Valley. I always thought the lines were some branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was the only rail I remembered from my childhood.

Early in August, I attended a lecture by Ray Cosyn at the Saratoga Historical Foundation for the reopening of their museum, and the whole thing began to come into focus. And this led to a story of course. Click to learn more from my regular column in the Los Altos Town Crier:

THE ELECTRIC PENINSULAR RAILWAY

A DC Reporter Looks Back After a Riot Shocked the World

2021-01-21T14:55:00.000-08:00

Robin Chapman served as a reporter in Washington D.C. covering national and local news for WJLA-TV, the ABC affiliate. She later worked as national correspondent for Group W TV. In photo right, Robin prepares to go live from the "swamp site" on Capitol Hill.

I still have a hard time processing what happened on Capitol Hill, January 6, 2020. I was lucky to spend some of my career there covering the news in what I have long considered a post-graduate course in how United States government works. I never live up to my own expectations and, looking back, often think how I should have and could have done so much during my years in the capital.

After the riot that shocked the world there, I had to sit down and write about it--just to help myself process what happened. Here's what I wrote for hometown paper in Silicon Valley.

CLICK HERE FOR ROBIN'S STORY IN THE TOWN CRIER

Surviving Covid? You May Need the Little Free Library!

2020-09-14T13:02:00.005-07:00

At far left, the book which helped me discover a talented relative of Robert Louis Stevenson, a book I found in a Little Free Library. At right, one of the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood.

We are all missing lots of things that were once regular features of our lives before the recent pandemic. I often miss going to the local YMCA, where I had a set of "workout" friends I never saw in any other place. They were my gym friends. I miss going to restaurants and socializing. And, for many months I missed my local library, which is now open for online ordering and pickup only. What to read? Well, you just begin to look everywhere for books, and this, as it turns out brought me a treat. Click the link for my recent column!

PRAISE FOR THE LITTLE FREE LIBRARY

Restoring a Bronze Tribute to a Local Leader in California

2020-09-14T12:45:00.009-07:00

Walter Singer was able to view the bronze bust of himself commissioned by his friends in Los Altos, before his death in 1992.

Holocaust survivor Walter Singer lived a remarkable life. Now a tribute to him lies gathering dust in a storage barn on the grounds of a California museum. What is his story. Click the link to learn more:

https://www.losaltosonline.com/news/sections/community/177-features/62996-santa-clara-valley-lives-restoring-a-displaced-bronze-tribute

Collings Foundation "Wings of Freedom" Tour on Hold Across America for 2020: Pandemic Not to Blame

2020-06-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

At left is a photo of me with the "Witchcraft," a B-24 in which I won a ride last year. Owned by the Collings Foundation is has been part of their "Wings of Freedom Tour" for many years.

Below, is a photo I took that same day of the "Nine-O-Nine" a B-17 that was also part of the tour. It was destroyed in a crash just a few months later.

In the spring on 2019, I won a ride in a B-24 from World War II. The iconic bomber was part of the Collings Foundation's "Wings of Freedom Tour." And though I admit I was apprehensive about flying in an aircraft that was older than I, as a reporter I felt I ought to do it.

There is more to the story, of course. I did not fly in the B-17 that day and I have no idea why, as I was told I could fly in any of the bombers and the B-17 "Flying Fortress" is arguably the most famous. Just a few months later, that same aircraft crashed in Connecticut, killing seven people and injuring seven others. The crash has left a lot of devastation in its wake. Click the link to read my column on the story:
WINGS OF FREEDOM TOUR ON HOLD: CLICK HERE FOR MORE

Lost Photo of Bing Crosby Uncovered After Sixty Years

2020-06-04T16:40:00.000-07:00

Oscar winner Big Crosby poses, circa 1961, with a plaque created for him by the

City of Los Altos, California. The photo is signed by Bing and appears to have suffered damage (to his nose and hand) from being left on the floor of a tool closet at a local community center.

Photo courtesy of Jim Shattock.

Los Altos, California, is a small town on the San Francisco Peninsula, between San Francisco and San Jose. Since I uncovered a connection between singer-actor Bing Crosby and Los Altos--my hometown--I've been reading a lot about this very talented man, who was one of the most famous men of the 20th century.

My first article about him prompted a call from another Los Altos native, who had some new information. Being a historian is a lot like being a detective. Click the link, for my article in the Los Altos Town Crier for more on Bing, his philanthropy, and what the photo (above) has to do with all of this.

CLICK HERE FOR BING CROSBY LOST PHOTO STORY

Crooner Bing Crosby & His Connection to a California Town

2020-03-06T12:23:00.001-08:00

A recent book about Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby claims he was color blind. That suit and tie he has on in this studio photo suggests he at least enjoyed mixing lively patterns. The headline above is from the January 12, 1961, "Los Altos News."

In a book published by the "Los Altos Town Crier" at the turn of the 21st Century, I noticed one sentence in a timeline at the back: "Bing Crosby pledges $10,000 to new Los Altos Youth Center." Though I spotted the phrase several years ago and didn't research it right away, I promised myself I would look into it one day.

When I finally did so, the tale turned out to be just what I love: it was forgotten history with a twist. Here's the link the my recent article about this in my column in the Los Altos Town Crier:
HOW BING CROSBY MADE BIG HEADLINES IN LITTLE TOWN

Silicon Valley Celebrates 1939 at Historic Palo Alto Theater

2019-12-04T10:27:00.005-08:00

Any film festival that includes "The Hound of the Baskervilles" is something worth considering.

If you would like a chance to step out of today and look at how the movies viewed our world eighty years ago, here is your chance to step into a Time Machine and whisk yourself away. A classic theater showing classic films is a wonderful place to find respite from the troubles of today.

Judy, Judy, Judy. We wish you had not been so unhappy.

My choice is the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, California. But you may have a classic theater in your neighborhood too. I hope you will support it and enjoy it as a treasure. I have loved these films all my life and all them were of my parents and grandparents generation. But they have endured, haven't they? Here is a recent piece I wrote about the Stanford Theatre for our local newspaper. Their programs are always first rate and this one on 1939 is especially so. Just click the link to read the piece:

A GREAT YEAR AT THE MOVIES

The Origin of Alfred Hitchock's Classic Movie "The Birds"

2019-11-08T09:13:00.001-08:00

Alfred Hitchcock in a vintage postcard promoting his 1963 film "The Birds."

Because of his television show (1955-1965), he became at least as famous as the stars of his movies.

Most fans of classic films love Alfred Hitchcock, and I am certainly among them. I do think he's a tad too corny at times. But I suppose corny can be a relief from the really scary things he does to us. The movie "Psycho," for example, is one of my favorite films. I don't want to like it: but each time it is on television, I can't seem to look away.

And that is true of his film "The Birds." The dialogue is nonsense, the plot incomprehensible, and the beautiful Tippi Hedren has this little teensy baby voice that doesn't seem to fit her body. But I watch it anyway because I can't not do that. What I did not realize, until I happened to be at a museum in Capitola one day recently, was that "The Birds" owes a lot to a very odd, very real event in that California beach town. Click for my article from the Los Altos Town Crier:

CLICK FOR ARTICLE ON HITCHCOCK AND THE BIRDS

Flying at Moffett (NUQ) with POTUS, Dad and Navy

2019-10-24T09:17:00.001-07:00

My father and I at Moffett Field in 1987,

getting ready for the only civil aviation flight I took with him.

Sometimes a single photograph in our lives will remind us of a tale about a day that had a sweetness to it. Glancing through an album in recent days, I came across the picture (above) taken on the only day I ever flew in a plane in which my father was the pilot.

Look under the entry for 9/9. Once you've read the story it will make sense!

I was able to confirm the date we flew by looking in my father's Pilot Log Book, which all pilots keep of every single flight they take. It turned out there was another interesting story there as well. Click the link for my article in the Los Altos Town Crier:

FLYING AT MOFFETT WITH POTUS AND DAD

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Rediscovering a Chinese-American Success Story: The Legacy of Thomas Foon Chew of Bay Side Cannery

2019-10-01T10:46:00.002-07:00

Bay Side canned its products under at least seven different labels, something new we've learned since publication of Historic Bay Area Visionaries last October.

At left, a portrait of a young Thomas Foon Chew who became a millionaire with his Bay Side Canning Company

When I published Historic Bay Area Visionaries (History Press 2018) last fall, I included a chapter about Thomas Foon Chew, whose story was well known during the early 20th century in the San Francisco Bay Area, but had almost been lost by the time I published my book. Historians new about it, most of the general public did not.

Since the book's publication, I've enjoying following the trail of new information relating to this improbable Chinese-American success story. Foon came to American from China at the age of 8 in 1897. A few years later, with his father, Sai Yen Chew, he founded Bay Side Canning Company, and became a multi-millionaire.

Here's an article I wrote for a local newspaper about how historians need to be good detectives. And, about the things a writer can learn about a subject, even after a book is published.
CLICK TO READ MORE ABOUT THOMAS FOON CHEW

Quiet Engineer Helped Apollo 11 Speed Safely to the Moon

2019-08-01T10:46:00.000-07:00

Henry "Hank" Cole and his dog Mimmi still live in Los Altos, half a century after his work at NASA Ames Research Center was critical to the Apollo 11 mission. Can you see that Mimmi is smiling?

There are always quiet heroes who walk among us. The men and women of the Greatest Generation certainly qualify for that designation, as do the teams of people who worked to successfully launch America's--and the world's--first manned mission to the surface of the moon. These dedicated professionals did their jobs using very early and rudimentary computers, many developed in the early days of Silicon Valley. I have been fortunate to meet one of those who made that moon launch possible.

Cole at NASA Ames in 1959 with his award-winning HC-9 Wakefield model. The Ames wind tunnel ran tests on lunar launch vehicles too.

Henry Cole is 98 years old (as of August 2019) and served in both World War II and at NASA. He walks his dog Mimmi every morning for at least an hour and says they have walked so long together he calculates he's walked her several times the distance around planet Earth. He thinks like that. He's an engineer.

I enjoyed telling his story recently in the Los Altos Town Crier. Just click the link to read more:

QUIET ENGINEER AND THE APOLLO 11 MOON LAUNCH

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Green Space and A Community's Story at the Heart of a Town

2019-08-01T10:16:00.002-07:00

We gathered eighty people to celebrate Heritage Orchard's very first sign. It was a day to celebrate!

I confess that I have loved apricot trees of all sizes and shapes since I grew up surrounded by them in the small community of Los Altos, California. I left my hometown after graduate school, and spent many years away, working as a journalist.

Returning home to care for my parents, I reconnected with my roots: and some of those roots were connected to the orchards--now dwindling--that I loved.

Our Los Altos Heritage Orchard just got its very first sign, thanks to the efforts of residents. Here's a piece I wrote about that for our local newspaper. Just click the link below:

A NEW SIGN FOR THE LOS ALTOS HERITAGE ORCHARD

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World War II Aircraft Speak of Courage on D-Day Anniversary

2019-07-01T11:03:00.002-07:00

Robin Chapman standing with the B-24 aircraft dubbed "Witchcraft" at Moffett Federal Airfield. The B-24 is maintained by the Collings Foundation.

I probably would not have taken a flight on this World War II aircraft, if I had not won it in a drawing at the Moffett Historical Museum. My parents were members of the museum before me, and every year the museum holds a drawing when the Collings Foundation's Wings of Freedom Tour pays a visit to Moffett. Entering the drawing is a way to contribute to the museum. No one was more surprised than I when they drew my ticket.

I was a little bit jittery about going up in that old crate. But when I decided to write about it in my column at the Los Altos Town Crier I was able to click into journalism mode. The 75th anniversary of D-Day was at hand and I realized it was a great way to pay my respects to the young men who long ago had flown this craft in harm's way. Click on the link for my story:

HONORING D-DAY WITH A FLIGHT ON A B-24

We flew low and we flew slow. What an experience!

I didn't mean to be smiling in this picture, nor trivialize what a machine gun can do.

I'm pretty sure I was still scared when I grabbed on to it and another passenger snapped my pic.

Fire at Notre-Dame de Paris recalls Mission Santa Clara Blaze

2019-05-11T16:40:00.001-07:00

This 1926 photo of Mission Santa Clara burning was taken on October 25, 1926, when fire destroyed the 101 year old building. It may be used only with the permission of the

Department of Archives & Special Collections, Santa Clara University.

Historic buildings, like Notre-Dame de Paris and Mission Santa Clara, are often subject to fire because they were built long before the use of electricity. In older times, candles often started the fires in old buildings. In the twentieth century, primitive wiring, retrofitted on to these historic buildings is often to blame.

This may be what happened to Notre-Dame de Paris this April. And it was faulty wiring that was suspect in the fire that burned Mission Santa Clara in 1926. By then, the mission was a parish church and a university chapel. But its loss was devastating to history nevertheless. Here's more on what happened that day in my column for the Los Altos Town Crier:
CLICK TO READ ABOUT THE MISSION SANTA CLARA FIRE

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Take a Walk Through the Historic Los Altos Apricot Orchard

2019-04-22T13:39:00.003-07:00

Artist Cynthia Riordan spends some quiet time in the Los Altos Civic Center Apricot Orchard. The Orchard is a City Historic Landmark.

I thought you might enjoy taking a walk at your leisure through the Los Altos Civic Center Apricot Orchard. I researched and wrote it last summer and have led it myself half-a-dozen times. But now I've posted it here so you can call it up on your device and take it yourself. Or you can relax at home and take it as an armchair tour!

Orchard Entrepreneurs Walk

by Robin Chapman

Location I: Orchard-side door of the Los Altos Library (face the orchard with the library at your back), 13 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos:

Welcome to one of the oldest continuously operating apricot orchards remaining in Santa Clara Valley, a City of Los Altos Historic Landmark.

What is this Orchard Doing Here?

Gilbert Smith in the hills above Los Altos in the early 20th century.

Smith is the orchardist who planted the original orchard that today surrounds the Los Altos Civic Center. Photo from California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley by Robin Chapman (History Press 2013)

The orchard you see here was planted by a man named Gilbert Smith in 1901. Smith rode his bicycle back and forth to Stanford University where he worked as a carpenter so his siblings could go there to school. After studying briefly there himself, he quit and bought his first five acres right here and planted his first apricot trees. Eventually he owned 15 acres in and around this site.

Location II: Use the sidewalk to turn to your left and walk to San Antonio Road, the busy roadway adjacent to the Orchard. Look up at the hills above our village and then down (to your right) toward San Francisco Bay. As you face San Antonio Road, City Hall will be on your right.

If you were to stand at the stop of Skyline Boulevard and look down on this land, you would see San Antonio Road goes down to the edge of San Francisco Bay (you used to be able to see all the way to the Bay from here, but today there are too many trees and buildings and cars and people in the way). The Ohlone were probably the first to forge these paths as they traveled from Bay to mountains and back, hunting and gathering during the seasons.

In the 19^thand 20^thcenturies, orchardists needed land on direct routes like this one, which crosses El Camino Real, because El Camino was the main highway that linked the busy cities of San Francisco and San Jose. Horses and wagons full of heavy loads of fruit needed to be near main roads. Once automobiles came along, El Camino Real, in 1912, became the first paved highway in Northern California. Entrepreneurs need good transportation for their products to succeed.

Climate can also influence business. The weather is so good here, Gilbert Smith pitched a tent to live on this land while he built his house and cultivated his orchard. His house was completed in 1905 and you will see it at the end of this walk.

Location III: Use the sidewalk to walk along San Antonio Road to the entrance to City Hall along San Antonio Road at 1 North San Antionio Road, Los Altos, and step into the Orchard there and stand in the shade.

California Agriculture and the First Spanish-Speaking Immigrants

A vintage postcard of Mission Santa Clara from California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley, (History Press 2013).

Apricots are not native to California. Scientists believe their origins are in China. Through the centuries they moved with traders along the Silk Road to Central Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean, where they thrived. The Romans discovered them in Armenia where they named them prunus Armeniaca, or the “prune out of Armenia” and that is their scientific or binomial name today.

Researchers believe the first Spanish-speaking immigrants brought apricot trees to California when they came in 1769 on their 1000-mile journey from Mexico. They brought these trees because the fruit reminded them of their homes in far away Spain.

Father Junipero Serra came from the Spanish island of Mallorca, which is still today noted for its cultivation of apricots, so it isn’t surprising he brought this fruit with him. We know apricot trees were here as early as 1802 because English explorer George Vancouver saw them in the gardens at Mission San José in (what became) Fremont and at Mission Santa Clara on this side of the Bay. Coastal California, like Spain, is warm and mild and the trees thrived here. The Bancroft Library in Berkeley has an 1880 interview with an Ohlone in Santa Cruz who said his father told him he remembered the fruit trees coming to the missions in oak barrels filled with soil to protect the roots of the seedlings.

There were only a few thousand Spanish-speaking immigrants in California during those early days. When Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821, the missions and their orchards were secularized and many were abandoned. But fruit trees have a long life and thirty years later, during the California Gold Rush that was important. Three hundred thousand people came to California to seek their fortunes, and there was no commercial agriculture in place to feed them.

That’s when historian Edward Wickson of U.C. Berkeley says some of the farm boys who had come here to seek gold, noticed the fruit growing in the mission gardens. They harvested the fruit from Mission Santa Clara and Mission San José (probably without permission!) and sold it in San Francisco and got the idea to make their fortunes as growers. Their gold was the gold of an innovative idea.

They showed the entrepreneurial spirit that would dominate this valley on into the 21^stcentury.

Location IV: Walk into the parking lot between City Hall and the Los Altos Youth Center (LAYC) and standing on the asphalt, face the Orchard.

Other Innovations Helped Make the Orchards Thrive

It is impossible to understate the importance of the First Transcontinental Railroad to agriculture in California. People said it was an impossible task. But through deserts, plains and into the Sierras, America--and many immigrant workers--worked to make it possible. Vintage postcard from of Historic Bay Area Visionaries by Robin Chapman (History Press 2018).

California growers had a problem, once they got rolling after the Gold Rush. They could bring trees here by ship—for a seedling can survive a long journey—but their fruit would spoil in the time it took to travel from here to New York by ship or wagon. First, they needed a way to preserve the fruit. Then, they needed better transportation.

During the Civil War, industry perfected the mass production of canning in order to feed the millions of Americans in uniform during that terrible war. After the war was over, people who wanted to make a profit brought the cannery business to the Santa Clara Valley.

There was another way growers could preserve their fruit; and that was by drying it. At first, valley entrepreneurs used machines called dehydrators, but they are expensive machines to buy; they require fuel (which also costs money); and the process is time consuming. One year there was a shortage of dehydrators and somebody looked up at the California sun. That’s when the orchard entrepreneurs revived an ancient practice that was then perfected in California: the sun drying of fruit. Used by the ancient Egyptians, its first big commercial use in human history was right here in the Santa Clara Valley.

Finally: there was the issue of transport. How to get goods to market in the Eastern U.S. and the world? American railroad entrepreneurs solved that problem.

During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln signed the bills into law that created the First Transcontinental Railroad—the longest railroad in the world at that time, going over the highest mountains, designed to connect America from coast to coast. Nothing like it had ever been done before. When it was completed in 1869, the tools were in place for California growers, in the Santa Clara Valley, to create a business that could preserve its products and transport them around the world. The orchard you see here is a landmark to these business innovations.

Location V: Walk around the playground and stand on the sidewalk between the Los Altos Youth Center and Los Altos City Hall (there is some shade from the roof here too). Who were these Orchardists? It turns out, Gilbert Smith who owned this orchard, was typical.

Family Orchards Dominated the Santa Clara Valley

Agriculture is hard work. But in the Santa Clara Valley it was also very beautiful.

Vintage postcard from California Apricots (History Press 2013).

This orchard you see here was one small family business among the many that dominated the Santa Clara Valley during the peak of the orchard business here between 1870 and 1970. Big Ag, as it is known today in California, did not exist then. In fact, throughout the history of mankind, farming of all kinds was done almost entirely for subsistence—first to feed the family, with only the surplus going to market.

California fruit entrepreneurs turned that on its head. Here in the Santa Clara Valley they grew primarily for market keeping only the surplus for their own use. This is why California farmers are not called farmers—they have always been called “growers” because they grow things as a business and always have. Orchardists discovered they could earn enough from a 10 or 15-acre orchard to feed a family and send their kids to college. By the turn of the 20^thcentury there were 25,000 growers with their own orchards right here in the Santa Clara Valley. Nearly half the valley’s acreage was in agriculture. There were 85 canneries at the peak of the agricultural era, 23 dried fruit processing plans, 25 frozen fruit operations, and 85 fruit and vegetable packing houses. This valley in aggregate, was the largest commercial fruit orchard the world had ever seen.

The preserved fruit could be shipped by rail all over the United States. From railheads on the Pacific and Atlantic coasts it could then be sent by steamship around the world. Canned and dried fruit from the Santa Clara Valley helped feed Allied soldiers in World War I and World War II and improved the diets of people worldwide. In the early 1930s, one third of the processed fruit in this valley went to Germany, until Adolph Hitler came to power in 1933 and cancelled the contracts.

Californians in the Santa Clara Valley had created the largest fruit business in the world.

Location VI: Walk on the sidewalk in the center of the Orchard to City Hall and stand in the shade of the building there and turn to face the orchard.

How Did a Collection of Growers Grow Their Businesses?

Sunsweet (which is still operating today), was one of the innovative business models created in the Santa Clara Valley.

Mr. Smith’s orchard here in Los Altos was one of thousands of independently-owned orchards in the Santa Clara Valley. How does a collection of 25,000 individual businesses like that, growing the same products, competing with one another, make a profit? Who sells their fruit to the canneries? Who sets the price? Must each grower make a deal with every grocery store, chain, or distributor? That would be chaotic.

Growers—who also had to be entrepreneurs—tried many systems. They established growers' cooperatives in this valley to sell and market their fruit. Some succeeded and some did not. One of the most successful was established in San Jose in 1917. It was called the California Prune and Apricot Growers Association and it is still in business today. You’ve probably heard of it. It is called Sunsweet.

Some growers established relationships with local canneries and signed their own contracts to one or the other. One of the most successful cannery businesses in the Valley was owned by a Chinese immigrant called Thomas Foon Chew who with his father founded Bayside Cannery in Alviso and eventually had operations in Palo Alto, Alviso, Monterey (where he canned fish) and on the Sacramento River. He was a millionaire when he died in 1931.

Across the street from Los Altos City Hall is the fruit stand called DeMartini Orchard established in 1932 for the DeMartini family's own orchard products. Though Mr. Smith sold his apricots through various outlets, today you can buy the Blenheim apricots from the Civic Center at DeMartini Orchard during the season. Fruit stands were another way these entrepreneurs made a profit. In addition to DeMartini, C.J. Olson Cherries did this in Sunnyvale (though their store is now closed) and Andy’s Orchard in Morgan Hill still is in operation. But fresh fruit and fruit stands were always the smallest part of these growers’ business. Millions of pounds of fruit from this valley was more likely to be traded on the commodities market in Chicago than sold at a fruit stand along a roadway.

Location VII: In front of the Library’s back door again, note irrigation pipes as we pass them. Apricots need one-acre-foot of water per tree per season in climates that have no summer rain (as we do not).

How Did City Hall End up In the Middle of An Orchard?

That's my father standing in the middle of the lot he bought in Los Altos in 1947.

It was a newly subdivided apricot orchard off Covington Road. He died in 2010.

Photo courtesy of Robin Chapman.

For the first half of the 20^thcentury Mr. Smith’s orchard was in Los Altos, but Los Altos was only an address—it was not an incorporated city. The population was low and it was mostly rural. That began to change after World War II, right about the time my own parents moved to the region. The people of that generation had seen the world during WW II and California looked pretty good to them. That’s a picture of my father standing in the apricot orchard on the ¼ acre lot he bought here to build his first home for his family. The population of this little town began to grow after World War II. So, in 1952 Los Altos residents voted to incorporate. Los Altos was a village with a small-town atmosphere and big, quarter-acre lots. Housing developments were beginning to sprout up in Mountain View, so Los Altos incorporated as the first mayor said: “To keep from becoming a city.” (Good luck with that in California!)

To keep the semi-rural feel of Los Altos, the little village vowed to put in as few street lights as possible in the neighborhoods and only install sidewalks when absolutely necessary. These two features of Los Altos (while challenging for nighttime strolls) turned out to be very good for the environment.

Yes, But About Those Trees Around City Hall …

Vintage postcard view of the Santa Clara Valley from Historic Bay Area Visionaries by Robin Chapman (History Press 2018)

After incorporation, Los Altos needed a City Hall. In February 1954, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright was visiting Stanford University just at the time Los Altos was looking for land on which to build its first city buildings. George Estill Senior, one of our first council members and mayors, knew the famous architect and asked him to come to Los Altos and look at possible City Hall sites. Frank Lloyd Wright fell in love with this spot for, “its beauty and its heritage” (as city leaders later told the Los Altos Town Crier newspaper) and urged Los Altos to put its City Hall right here.

Wright probably hoped to be the architect for it. But he was in his 80s and time was running out. Los Altos was new and had no money. In the end, the Civic Center was designed by a Palo Alto man called Carol Rankin at Ernest J. Krump Associates, the same firm that designed Foothill College.

But I’m getting ahead of myself: First the city had to buy Smith's property, and Gilbert Smith negotiated a remarkable deal. Los Altos agreed: 1) to remove only the trees as necessary for construction; 2) to give Smith a life interest in the fruit of the trees that remained after construction and finally; 3) to keep an apricot orchard here in perpetuity. For his part, Gilbert Smith and his wife Margaret agreed to deed their home to the city when they died to be used for history and education. Quite a deal. Still when the city pulled out the first trees for City Hall—city workers said Gilbert Smith cried.

Gilbert Smith died in 1966 and his wife Margaret died in 1973. Their home became our city’s first museum. He proved to be an able entrepreneur. He was not only able to keep his orchard operating after he sold it, he was able to keep it operating after he died!

Location VIII: Walk from the library, along the edge of the Orchard toward the Los Altos History Museum and note the shaded and shingled house across the roadway. Stop there at the edge of the Orchard and admire it. That is Gilbert Smith’s house. After his death it served as the first Los Altos History Museum.

The Orchard Today

The J. Gilbert Smith House is open for tours Thursday through Sunday, noon to 4:00 p.m.

But you must ask next door at the Museum for a docent led tour. Photo from Historic Bay Area Visionaries (History Press 2018).

Mr. Smith’s orchard began to be cited as an historic landmark by the county as early as 1962. In 1970, the city council voted to preserve it. It was given landmark status by the city in 1977, again in 1978, and became an official City Historic Landmark under CEQA (the California Environmental Quality Act) in 1981 and is now, also, an official California Point of Historical Interest. It is the only Historic Landmark that is not a building but is, instead, an agricultural space. And it is the only City Historic Landmark that does not carry a sign or its landmark plaque.

Parks Department records show it is 2.84 acres today with spaces for 444 trees: a size set by law in 1991.

As the orchard businesses were replaced by technology after World War II, many of the orchard entrepreneurs leveraged their land to join enterprises in real estate, development, and other startups. The Olson family of Sunnyvale did that, the Pavlina family of Los Altos did that, and so did the Vidovich family of Los Altos Hills among many others. That’s the practical way orchards became connected to a new generation of innovators after 1972 (the year technology's profits passed agriculture's profits in the Valley). Land was capital and that capital was invested right here in California’s future.

The orchards also have an emotional connection to the new technologies. After David Packard of Hewlett Packard took his company public, and he had wealth to invest, he cultivated 60 acres of apricot trees in Los Altos Hills. When he died he left those orchards to his foundation, which operates them today. Steve Jobs in the 1990s bought the house next door to his in Palo Alto and tore it down—not to build a bigger house, but to plant an apricot orchard there. Jobs told an historian at the Smithsonian Institution that he recalled moving to the Santa Clara Valley from San Francisco when he was five years old: “Silicon Valley for the most part at that time was still orchards,” he said. “Apricot orchards and prune orchards—and it was really paradise.”

It still is today. Thank you for taking this walk through our history and a small piece of our paradise.

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