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Published on 05/11/1998 All articles from this issue

Historical designation delayed for 1924 cottage

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Town Crier Staff Writer

A question of history stands between a developer and his plans to build three houses in Los Altos, and he's hired an attorney and a consultant for help.

David Wilson, a Saratoga developer, opposes the county's efforts to list his 1924 cottage, tucked away on three lots in an unincorporated corner of Los Altos, on the county's historic inventory.

The issue was scheduled for review at the May 12 meeting of the Santa Clara County Supervisors. Instead, Norman E. Matteoni, a San Jose attorney who was retained May 11 by property owner David Wilson, asked that the item be rescheduled until June 2.

Wilson "is gathering additional information to address the issue," Matteoni wrote to the supervisors.

Wilson's house is on the corner of Spaulding Avenue and Winding Way near Magdalena Avenue and Highway 280. He said his "information about the history of the house is different from the information provided to the commission." He said he has commissioned a consultant to learn "the true historical facts."

Wilson bought the cottage, known as the Bane House, sometime in 1997.

According to Nov. 5, 1997, building site permits, he plans to tear down the cottage and build three 35-foot high houses, with 6- to 8-foot side yard setbacks, on lots of 5,031, 6,321 and 7,114 square feet.

Wilson said he intends "to develop three modest homes. My plans (at an April 16 historical commission meeting) were described as 'monster houses,' an inflammatory and untrue description."

In the meantime, on May 5, the supervisors unanimously adopted an emergency building moratorium for sub-standard lots, those lots that are legal, like Wilson's, but less than the 10,000- to 20,000-square-foot zoning standards of today.

During the moratorium, which will last from 45 days to two years, Supervisor Joe Simitian, who represents Los Altos and Los Altos Hills, said the goal is to develop building guidelines for small lots in these unincorporated portions of Los Altos and Los Altos Hills.

A historic designation of the cottage would affect Wilson's plans for developing the lots.

The cottage was built in 1924 by two unmarried sisters from England and is "among the remaining first six early residential homes in the area," said Paul Bernal, chairman of the county's Historical Heritage Commission. The commission voted unanimously to recommend that the supervisors add the house to the county's historic inventory.

The sisters used plans from their father's home in England to build their board and batten Gothic Revival English cottage, Bernal said.

A plaque over the fireplace reads, "May God bless this dwelling, each stone and beam and stave, all food and drink and clothing ..." The last line has been chiseled out.

Years later, one of the sisters told the new owner of the house that the last line of the poem referred to "all men within," and since "'we were spinsters, we didn't want any reference to men,'" Bernal said.

In 1950 Commander Gilbert Bane bought the cottage. He died in 1992 and the house was rented. Sometime in 1997 Wilson bought the cottage and the three lots.