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Published on 08/31/1998 All articles from this issue

Pages of the Past

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25 years ago in the Town Crier

As reported in the Town Crier in September 1973, the city's General Plan Citizens Advisory Committee had varying ideas on where housing for the elderly in Los Altos should be located. At its September meeting, the most unpopular of the proposed sites for such housing was the city-owned three-quarter acre at the corner of San Antonio Road and West Edith Avenue. A recycling center was located there.

Suggested senior housing within Shoup Park was rejected by the majority of the committee after several members cited problems that had surfaced in the vicinity of Garden House. The park had become an "in" place during night hours for youths.

A tree planted in Shoup Park on September 10, 1973 carried a plaque at its base that read, "The Freedom Tree with the vision of universal freedom for all mankind." The tree was dedicated in memory of Major Paschal Boggs and to all prisoners of war and to those missing in action. Major Boggs' sister, Ceceile Breuch of Los Altos, was an active member of the POW-MIA League as well as the Los Altos Junior Women's Club, the organization that hostessed the dedication ceremonies.

50 years ago in the Los Altos News

As reported in the September 9, 1948 issue of the Los Altos News, the local school board abandoned its plans to secure the Costello property on El Monte Avenue for the purpose of erecting an upper grades school. So much opposition had been raised against that choice that the board felt compelled to look for another site.

Two parcels of land, of seven and eight acres, located at Covington Road and El Monte Avenue, were under consideration.

With the arrival of Admission Day and on the theory that every knock was a boost, the Los Altos News reprinted the following excerpts from a book that had just hit the stands in 1948:

"California has been much overrated and much overdone."

"No honest man can be elected to office in California."

"California furnishes the best bad things that are obtainable in America."

The quotes were from a book, "Dreadful California," and were an adaptation by Lucius Beebe (identified as a New York boulevardier) and were from a book written by Hinton Helper in 1855 when the state was only 5 years old. The Los Altos News editor surmised that the re-issue may have been authorized by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

- Ellen Shaw of the Los Altos History House Association