Happy 50th anniversary, Los Altos Hills – you’ve come a long way.
As residents in this highly affluent town of 8,000 prepare to celebrate the Jan. 27, 1956, incorporation date with a big party Friday at the Los Altos Golf & Country Club, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on what makes “The Hills” so unique.
Surely, there are huge differences in both the landscape and the people in relation to then and now. In the 1950s, the area was thought by some a “weed patch,” not only affordable but also not particularly desirable. Those drawn to the area were maverick personalities, individualists looking to put down roots in a place unencumbered by government bureaucracy or the suffocation of suburbia. Early residents were used to roughing it.
Indeed, the move to incorporate was intended to keep things thoroughly rural, to give residents control of their own surroundings. The vote to incorporate was close – 424 to 339. Many were opposed for the same reasons the proponents were in favor – they feared a new bureaucracy along with increased taxes to pay for the new town’s services. In fact, a disincorporation movement arose two short years after the town’s birth but was defeated soundly in a 1959 election.
As the years went on, the number of horses decreased as house sizes and land values increased – enormously – and some argue the new generation of Hills residents has tamed the land somewhat with elaborate homes and carefully tended vineyards.
Maybe so. But there remain striking similarities in the residents of then and now.
Today’s Hills residents also are mavericks, many the heads of successful companies with clear visions on how things should be done. And, as in the old days, when people with strong, often uncompromising views are gathered together to deal with a town’s problems, conflicts are a frequent byproduct. The town has, throughout its history, faced one consuming controversy after another, from off-road pathways to housing development. But somehow, the town perseveres. The emergence of Bullis Charter School typifies a community that, faced with not having a public school, takes matters into its own hands.
So here’s to you, Los Altos Hills – to your fierce independence and still-strong commitment to rural living. “God’s little acre,” as famed author and resident Wallace Stegner called the town, is still going strong.
