The Fabric of Los Gatos — To Be Built On

I have been nagging people to get me any pictures they might have of Los Gatos from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. I haven’t had a lot of success but last week an old friend sent me dozens of great photos from the early 1970s. She lives in Idaho now but she’s kept these photographs in perfect condition and they were a delight to work with. She was hired as a hostess at Mountain Charley’s when it first opened, a hostess as she was too young to pour liquor. Through the years, she remained working there as a cook, waitress and cocktail waitress. People didn’t give up those jobs at first generation Mountain Charley’s very easily. Her name is Maureen and we still compare notes on what has happened to who from that first generation. Most of the pictures she provided to me were of these first generation people and would probably only interest those first employees, themselves. However, one picture stirred up some dusty old leaves in my brain:

The simple but prominent building in the lower right is a 50s/60s style motel called the “Village Inn.” When I worked at the old Los Gatos Times-Observer newspaper, I had to prepare and print all the advertisements for businesses of all sorts, from all over town. When I saw the sign on the side of the motel, I had a flurry of memories of many businesses and organizations who called themselves some version of “Little Village” or simply, “Village,” and I would actually work with these names in the advertisements and editorial articles that we put together and printed in the paper.

This picture was taken in 1973 or 1974 from the roof of the Canada Building (which housed the Mountain Charley’s restaurant) and the motel stood about where the Farwell Building is presently located on Main Street, or the building next to it, simply labeled with the addresses “229 – 243.”

I’m thinking there is no readily available electronic databases which I could access and see how many Los Gatos business have had “Little Village,” “Village,” or “Villager” in their names but it would be an interesting number to have, as there were so many. Historically, this town is a result of the industries that flourished in the mountains above it; logging, mining, and cattle, or the agriculture at the mountain’s base. It was the village at the foot of these mountains to service these industries which the mountains spawned. Even when this village got official and business like, it didn’t incorporate itself as a city but, specifically and intentionally, as a “town,” just something more than a village. And, obviously, many of the original residents clung to the “Village” nomenclature.

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