A handful of streets on and off Blossom Hill Road make up the Winterbrook Rochin area. Residents there enjoy the highly acclaimed Los Gatos Union School District and a close proximity to Blossom Hill Elementary School, Blossom Hill Park, and much more. Many properties can boast a view of the coastal range, too.
Not every neighborhood in Los Gatos has a name, and I could not locate one for residential part of town, either, so I’m calling it the Winterbrook Rochin area as those streets bookend these homes.
Where is the Winterbrook Rochin area?
This pocket sits just a little east of Blossom Manor in east Los Gatos, separated from the Manor by Ross Creek, and it hits the eastern boundary of the Los Gatos Union School district for this part of town (a snippet of Los Gatos schools can be found in Almaden Valley off of Camden and Coleman in the farther side of the Campagna subdivision – that is the very far east boundary!).
The streets include Winterbrook Road, Stephanie Lane, Linda Avenue (south of Ross Creek), Costances Court, Rochin Terrace, Rochin Court, and part of Blossom Hill Road.
What are homes and streets like in the Winterbrook Rochin area?
This area has a lot of variety in home age, size, style and more. I pulled the data up in Realist, which provides MLS members info from the county records, for the following statistics.
Quick stats:
There are 76 single family homes in this neighborhood.
49 of them are single story, the rest are 2 story homes.
The most modest homes have 2 bedrooms and 1 or 2 bathrooms. The largest has 8 bedrooms and 8 bathrooms.
The houses have living space square footage from 850 SF to 6828 SF. Most houses have between 2,000 and 3,000 SF. (Three homes are under 1,000 SF. The three largest have 3,951, 4,646, and 6828 SF.)
Lot sizes range from 7823 to 65,213 SF
The oldest house was built in 1925, and the newest in 2020. The two oldest homes are on Linda. The three youngest are tear downs that were built new.
The newest subdivision is on Constaces Court. There are 7 houses there, 6 built in 2014 and 1 constructed in 2018.
The other day, my husband, Jim Handy, found a photo of Ralph Heintz’ QSL Card on a history website and requested permission for me to share it with our readers here. Permission given – I hope you enjoy this step back in time!
Ralph Heintz’ QSL Card
Credit Engineering and Technology History Wiki (used by permission)
QSL cards are postcard sized collectibles used by ham radio hobbyists to record when they have communicated with each other. Traditionally they will include cartoon drawings related to the ham who sends them out.
Ralph Heintz’ QSL Card has three cartoons: His miniature train (ridden by him, wife Sophie, and their dog, Gilmore, and parrot, Shorty), his observatory, and his home with a big ham radio antenna over it.
The Heintz Open Space in east Los Gatos still has remnants of all three landmarks.
There’s grading for the long-gone railroad and a tunnel entrance. The tunnel entrance is closed up for safety reasons, of course.
The round concrete foundation of the observatory is still there.
And there are remnants of a house next to the observatory.
Another part of the trail appears to have been the driveway leading up the hill.
The one thing I’m not sure of is the location of the house when Ralph and Sophie lived there. Previously I thought it was the large farmhouse now within the Heritage Grove neighborhood. It makes sense that the ham radio antenna would be higher up on the hill, though, and if the house was next to that antenna it wouldn’t be the farmhouse lower down. When I find out, I’ll correct this post. If any of our readers have more insight on any of this, please email me and I’ll update this post.
Ralph Heintz’ QSL Card is a fun step back in time. I wish I could have seen his railroad, tunnel, observatory, and antenna.
The Stonybrook neighborhood of east Los Gatos, just off Kennedy Road, is particularly scenic with its large canopy of trees, big lots, gently curving roads, and mostly understated and sprawling ranch style homes. This area has a semi-rural feel as there are no sidewalks and only soft gutters. It’s also a close in Los Gatos neighborhood, which adds to its appeal.
In December, this area is especially festive with holiday lights, making it a fun part of the season for driving through.
Interestingly, the Stonybrook area is listed in the county’s list of subdivisions as Stony Brook. (Similarly, we refer to a nearby neighborhood as Surry Farms, but the official name is Surry Farm – in the singular. There was in fact just one ranch or farm there!)
Where is the Stonybrook neighborhood?
You’ll find the Stonybrook (Stony Brook) pocket Los Gatos east of Los Gatos Blvd and north of Kennedy. The streets are Stonybrook Road, Cardinal Lane, Robin Way, plus 3 homes on Kennedy just west of Cardinal. From here it’s a quick trip to downtown LG! All but the 3 with Kennedy addresses are part of tract # 1642.
The zip code here is 95032. It is part of the highly sought after Los Gatos Union School District and the Los Gatos-Saratoga Joint High School District.
A spacious 4 bed 3 bath open floorplan home on a deep lot
in a beautiful, convenient East Los Gatos cul de sac!
Spacious home featuring hardwood floors throughout. Large kitchen with abundant counter space and breakfast bar. Open living space overlooks the back yard. Four bedrooms, two with en suite baths. Deep back yard provided newer, heated lap pool with safety cover, large deck, and storage shed.
Highly regarded schools: Alta Vista Elementary (convenient access via pedestrian bridge), Union Middle, and Leigh High.
Heritage Grove is a younger east Los Gatos neighborhood which was developed by Summerhill Homes, a very highly regarded builder in Silicon Valley, in about the year 2000. It sits between the beautiful Heintz Open Space Preserve (with trails to nearby Belgatos Park and other open space) and a mini orchard along Blossom Hill Road between Union and Leigh Avenues. Recently I videotaped the community and think it’s a pretty good introduction to the neighborhood.
A few years back, I wrote about this area extensively, and included a map and slideshow, on another of my blogs (SanJoseRealEstateLosGatosHomes.com). If you’d like more real estate information on the homes there, or the open space trails, please continue to learn more here:
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