history walk

Los Gatos historical walking tour app: LOST GATOS

Michael Kane as Mountain Charlie 2007 Historic Walking Tour in Los Gatos
Michael Kane as Mountain Charlie in the 2007 Historic Walking Tour in Los Gatos

Locals may remember that a few years back, there was a wonderful “Los Gatos History Walk” put on every year or so.  Town residents would don garments from a bygone era and take on the persona of legendary Los Gatos figures for a few hours. Both fun and educational, it provided a sense of the town’s past – both the buildings and the people’s.  It was absolutely wonderful while we had it.

Today, there’s an app for that!  It’s called Discover LOST Gatos and as of this writing, there are 3 different tours:

  1. The Heart of Los Gatos (approximately a 35 minute walking tour with 12 stops)
  2. Los Gatos: The Gem City (a 45 minute walk with 12 stops
  3. The Cradle of Los Gatos (50 minute stroll with 13 stops)

The Mercury News did a nice article on this and will fill in the details on who’s behind this wonderful idea.

http://www.mercurynews.com/los-gatos/ci_30098778/los-gatos-discover-lost-gatos

As for me, I just downloaded it to my phone and look forward to getting to know our beautiful town a little more.  You can find it online wherever you get your phone’s apps – just search for LOST Gatos.

Town of Los Gatos Historic Districts

While there are many neighborhoods with homes which qualify as historic, such as Glenridge, just five of these areas have the historic district designation: Almond Grove, University or Edelen, Fairview Plaza, the Broadway area, and Downtown.

The Town of Los Gatos has a wealth of information on the districts designated as historic and what qualifies them as such. For more information, have a look:

http://losgatosca.gov/1999/Historic-Districts

The 5 Official Town of Los Gatos Historic Districts

Town of Los Gatos Historic Districts Map

Los Gatos History Walk

May 10, 2007

Los Gatos History Museum on Tait Avenue, Los GatosSunday afternoon, Jim and I got to the History Walk (2nd annual) a little too late to make the 1:30 tour – they were sold out. But we were in luck. The goodnatured volunteers kept their costumes on a little longer and tacked on a 2pm show for us and a few other stragglers. We were very, very grateful.

Dan Turkus, one of the guides, explaining the "code" used with the fire bell in Los Gatos CA for the History WalkI was certain that the performance would be great, and I wasn’t disappointed.

What I did not expect was to have so many “blanks filled in”. There were bits and pieces of history that I knew, but they didn’t all fit together quite right. The docents did a great job of helping me to make sense of these odds and ends.

I had never known, for instance, why there was a resevoir up on the hill near the Jesuit Novitiate. Turns out it had everything to do with making Forbes Mill profitable back in the day. (That resevoir has not been used in awhile and is now being turned into housing. That’s for another post.)

Stone House (University Avenue) owners Juliet Panter & Janet Goodman opened their Los Gatos home to the tourThat kind of thing.

It was the most fun I’ve ever had learning history.

I highly recommend this tour to anyone who loves Los Gatos, and I expect to go back again next year.

A wonderful article was done on this event by The Los Gatos Observer. I had planned to share many more photos and a more detailed explanation here, but the LGO did a great job with better photos – so have a look at the review there and enjoy!