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Published on 07/21/1999 All articles from this issue

Much of Los Altos Hills once 2,900-acre 'Taaffe Rancho'

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Voice of the Past

Rose Marie Taaffe's January 1949 interview is one of the earliest oral histories preserved at Los Altos History House.

Rose Marie Hoffman, the daughter of Fermina Rose Bellomy and Charles Hoffman, was born in Santa Clara County in 1868. Gently reared with a religious background by the sisters of Notre Dame, she was brought up in the old Spanish traditions in a secluded manner, never venturing out without a chaperon. Mrs. Taaffe's eyes grew soft as she recalled the days of her childhood. "I had such a very happy time," she said.

On Sept. 26, 1888, Rose Marie Hoffman became the bride of Martin Joseph Taaffe. Martin took his bride home to "Rose Hill," the house he built for her on his part of the Taaffe ranch, where she lived for nearly 50 years.

The Taaffe name is an integral part of Los Altos Hills. Long before there was any thought of a town in the area, the Taaffes owned 2,900 acres of property so that many a Los Altas Hills residents live on what was once "Taaffe Rancho."

William Post Taaffe registered in the first register in Fremont Township in Santa Clara County, Feb. 4, 1867. He married Elizabeth Yuba Murphy, daughter of the well-known Martin and Mary Murphy family, and they made their home on the Taaffe Ranch. When their four children were young, the parents died and their grandparents Murphy brought them up in the old Murphy home, "Bayview," now known as Sunnyvale.

La Purissima Concepcion Rancho was a grant from the king of Spain through his representative, the governor of California. The 2,900-acres of hills and land west of Los Altos, later known as the "Taaffe Rancho," was purchased by Martin Murphy from Dona Juana Briones de Miranda on Feb. 9, 1857.

Rose Marie Taaffe was widowed after 13 years of marriage and brought up six children alone. What had been a large family fortune was gone, too, carried away by crop failures and other misfortunes. Without previous training, Rose Marie went into the real estate business. After her father's death, she moved to San Antonio, Texas, to be near her mother, who was in Mexico. She later returned to Los Altos.

"I started keeping a diary from the time I was 10 years old, but several years ago these records of 43 years were lost in a fire and now exist only in my memory," she said.

The death of Rose Marie Taaffe in July, 1949, closed a chapter in local history.

- Adapted by Donna Shoemaker of Los Altos History House