• From its beginnings in 1908, Los Altos was recognized as one of the premier apricot producing centers of the world. Sadly, those famous orchards gradually became tracts to house the huge influx of people moving to this area after World War II.
  • In the Depression Era years 1931-32, Los Altos Golf & Country Club caddies were paid $1 to tote a golf bag for 18 holes. On Mondays, the Club allowed caddies to play free. Most played the entire 18 holes with a #3 iron – the only club they personally owned.
  • The February streets of Los Altos have long been graced with clouds of golden acacia blossoms. In the 1930s, branches of these local blossoms were shipped in refrigerated boxcars to bring a taste of spring to the still-wintry eastern states. For this purpose, Edward Hohfeld grew 2,000 trees on his Los Altos Hills 100-acre estate.
  • In 1899, young carpenter J. Gilbert Smith arrived from Oregon to pursue an engineering degree at Stanford. Soon after he bought 5 acres of land on which the town of Los Altos would later arise. There he built a farmhouse from mail-order plans, while also planting his Blenheim apricot orchard (a section remains an orchard to this day). His well-built house survived the 1906 earthquake without damage and is today designated a California Historical Point of Interest.
  • Friends since childhood, Margaret Hill and J. Gilbert Smith had long planned to marry. But Margaret made no secret of her refusal as long as his formidable mother ran his house. Soon after Gilbert’s mother died in 1931, Gilbert and Margaret, then in their 50s, married and never had children. Happily for generations of Los Altans, the City of Los Altos was able to purchase the charming house and its surrounding 10.44 acres of apricot orchards from the Smiths in 1954.
  • An early predecessor to our Los Altos “Festival of Lights” took place in December 1939, when $100 was raised by local merchants to purchase Christmas lights for the big oak at Main & First Streets. The lights were hung by the Volunteer Fire Department.
  • As part of the new digital age, some of the largest companies in the nation were founded by Los Altos & Los Altos Hills residents such as David Packard, Steve Jobs, Chuck Geschke, and Sergey Brin.
  • The Los Altos Pet Parade has been among the most beloved traditional community events since its inception in 1948. As expected, dogs and cats have always been the most popular entries, but other featured pets have ranged in size from ponies and exotic lamas to white mice & spiders.
  • In 1938, a group of Los Altans tried to re-name San Antonio Road, “Los Altos Avenue”, but enough citizens objected to defeat the proposal, arguing on the historical ground that Los Altos was built on land once part of the Spanish land grant, “Rancho San Antonio.”
  • A plaintive ad in the 1938 Los Alto News urged people to reject those new-fangled electric refrigerators in favor of the old reliable ice box, because “a block of ice never gets out of order.”
  • Perhaps the first time Los Altos received national attention was in October 1921. One typical headline read “WAVES IGNORE LOFTY PEAKS—Radiophone station at Los Altos, Calif… has broken all records by sending messages 2000 miles overland to Great Bend, Kansas.” The station “known officially as 6XAC” was owned by the Colin B. Kennedy Co. Its chief engineer, Emile A. Portal, accomplished this pioneering radio exchange from his home in Los Altos.
  • During the Prohibition year of 1926, a newspaper article reported that Los Altan Steve Murdoch had paid a fine of $500 for illegal possession of liquor. It then observed that he had prospered far more as a bootlegger than he ever had running his Los Altos garage which had fallen into bankruptcy in 1925.
  • Los Altos school enrollment increased 400% during the huge influx of new residents between 1946 and 1952. For several years, Los Altos schools doubled class sessions to accommodate all of the new students. Meanwhile, a frantic expansion program gradually increased Los Altos schools from one to thirteen.
  • Countess Margit Bessenyey, widow of the Hungarian ambassador to the US, purchased the Westwind Barn in Los Altos Hills in 1971, as an extension of her Montana Hungarian thoroughbred horses stud farm. She and well-known horse woman, Linda Hills, joined forces to form the Pacific Coast School of Horsemanship – drawing students from all over the US and Europe.
  • In 1975, the Town of Los Altos Hills acquired a portion of the Westwind Barn property for $25,000, with the remaining 13 ½ acres and 24,000 square foot “U” shaped Barn gifted to the Town by Countess Bessenyey.