Nothing remains of the old Los Altos Twelve Acres estate except its idyllic wooded setting just west of Los Altos Avenue along Adobe Creek on what is now Twelve Acres Drive, Leaf Court and Meadow Lane. The following historical memories of early Twelve Acres have been compiled from interviews with Joe Marvin Jr. and a number of current and former Twelve Acres residents, including Robert Golden, Sue Gallagher and Nancy Herbert.
Twelve Acres Estates was built by Edward J. McCutcheon in 1924. Its centerpiece was a Tudor-style, 24-room mansion on 12 acres of land. One owner referred to Twelve Acres as "The last bloom of the great Peninsula estates." The grounds contained extensive gardens and lawns, a gardener's house, large greenhouse, stable, swimming pool, several orchards and a pump house.
McCutcheon's friend, John McLaren of Golden Gate Park fame, is said to have helped design the gardens. Large and ornate iron gates at the entrance to the estate were made by Bleibler Iron Works in Palo Alto. From the estate a footbridge crossed Adobe Creek.
McCutcheon sold the estate in 1929 to Adolph Meyer, a former treasurer of the Pet Milk Company. The Meyers had three sons and four daughters, most of them then in college. One daughter, Claire Golden, later lived at the estate with her three sons and daughter. In 1940 the Meyer family sold Twelve Acres.
The estate was again sold in 1942 to the Christian Science Church, which modified it to serve as a home for foster children. It became known as Twelveacres, Inc. The home also sponsored a summer camp program for children aged 6-12, using auxiliary tents for visiting campers. Former baseball commissioner and one of the new owners of Pebble Beach, Peter Ueberroth, was athletic director at Twelveacres in the mid 1950s, while attending Fremont High School and San Jose State University.
The home became an active part of the greater Los Altos community. A PTA tea held there in 1945 was acclaimed by the Los Altos News as "the outstanding social event of the fall season."
Twelveacres, Inc. owners sold part of the property for a subdivision in 1958, and in 1963 they deeded a section for the west end of the new Santa Rita School.
The mansion itself was destroyed by fire in 1960. The home continued operating until it moved to San Jose in 1970. The name Twelveacres was retained and the program continued to help children. The remaining portion of the original Twelve Acres land was then subdivided. Last vestiges of the once great estate became sites for residential homes.
- Compiled by Bob Golden, edited by Donna Shoemaker of the Oral History Program of the Los Altos History House