Welcome Back Dear Reader, And thank you for staying with us while we try to entertain you and tell the Story of a prosperous Community like Ladera Ranch throughout its formative Years!
The true meaning of a Cooperative Continued…
The first step for the newly-formed PHA was to find their land. They investigated two parcels in the Sand Hill/Whiskey Hill Road area. Even before the war ended they were negotiating to lease property there from Stanford. Even though President Tressider’s wife was an enthusiastic supporter of the cooperative movement, Stanford said no. They talked to the Bank of California representatives of Lord and Lady Hesketh of England (she was one of the Sharon daughters) about buying a substantial portion of the Sharon estate.
Nothing came of this. There was another piece of property, the Hidden Valley, on Portola Road across from the Portola Valley School, that looked promising, but negotiations did not result in a sale. They considered a ranch on Arastradero Road; it wasn’t for sale either. Then Norwood B. Smith, a Palo Alto realtor, and partner of William Cranston, Senator Alan Cranston’s father, suggested a portion of the Ormondale Ranch that had been the 260-acre Burke Ranch from 1885 until 1913.
What a piece of land this was! Only four miles from downtown Palo Alto, it was partially bordered by Stanford University lands which would probably remain open space forever. It mostly consisted of oak-dotted, rolling hills rising to a heavily-wooded, steep-sided plateau on the Northwest.
There were views in every direction-of Mt. Tamalpais, Diablo, Mt. Hamilton, Black Mountain, Jasper Ridge, and the Santa Clara Valley. From the plateau on top, one could see the Bay Bridge. It didn’t take long for the cooperative to realize that this was their land.
At first, Denton W. Macdonough, the last owner of the Ormondale Ranch, was horrified by the thought of 400 houses being built on his 260 acres. But he was beginning to feel civilization closing in on him, and he agreed to sell. However, it was to take well over a year for negotiations to be completed (the land was owned by the estate of Joseph M. Macdonough and was tied up in probate), and the final purchase price was far above their original hopes.
On Wednesday, July 31, 1946, at 10:00 A.M., the Superior Court of the County of San Mateo was asked to confirm the purchase for the original bid of $78,000, plus $34,000 to bring a water line to the property. The judge asked if there were other bidders, and representatives of a San Francisco real estate syndicate bid $123,000, the required 10% above the standing bid.
The bidding was open then and quickly reached $131,000, the highest price the PHA Board had authorized. Because of a legal point raised by PHA member and legal counselor, Willard Johnston, the court adjourned for two days. Dr. Luck and Mr. Johnson arranged for additional funds and were authorized by the Board to bid as high as $156,000. When The PHA bid $155,000, the San Francisco firm stopped. The final purchase price was $43,000 above the initial bid or about $100 for each of the proposed 400 members. That meant a total price of $387 for each undeveloped lot (by 2007, one undeveloped lot was valued at $700,000). The dream was beginning to become a reality.
The History behind the Naming of the Community
Let’s now look at the events that transpired to create this unique name that is “Ladera”.
“In 1946, before the land was owned, the selection of a name for the future home of the PHA was an actively discussed topic. Just the right name, one that was “imaginative, would quicken the pulse, stir the heart and catch at the purse strings” was sought. The members knew that the name selected would afterward be used as the common name for their region, so they simply wanted it to be “catchy, beautiful, dignified, descriptive, imaginative, accurate, and unforgettable.” That’s all. All members were invited to enter the name contest, the only prize being “ever-lasting, if anonymous, fame.” The suggestions fell mainly into three categories.
One was the conventional development sort of name. Suggestions were: Oak Ridge, Laurel Dale, Bay Knob, Rolling Acres, Poplar Rise, Hill Crest, Bay Ridge, Bayview, Portola Heights, Sunninhill, Sunninhill Park, Lark Hills, University Heights, Foothill Village, Ormondale Village, Village in the Hills, Meadowlark Hills, Fairview Hills, Peninsula Village, Vista Heights, Panvista, West Hills, Summerhill, Far Hills, Hillside Acres, Hillside Valley, Pepper Tree Hills, Oakwood Heights, Oakwood Hills, Oakwood Acres, Pacific Heights, Pacific Hills, Pacific Acres and Larkton.
A second category pertained to the cooperative nature of the project: Twin Pines, Concord Homes, Progress Range, Rochdale, New Rochdale, Rochdale Heights (inspired by the English birthplace of the cooperative movement in the mid-1800s), 400 Community, and P.H.A., California.
Finally, there were Spanish names representative of the early heritage of California and descriptive of the land or the cooperative nature of the development. Nominations were Los Cuatrocientos, El Modelo, Los Modelos, Piios Gemelos, Loma Verde and Ladera.
There were two suggestions in honor of the founders: Evansluck and Lucky Acres.
After studying the dozens of suggestions from members and weighing support for each, the names committee finally determined that the three most popular choices were Lark Hills, Ladera, and New Rochdale. Each had obvious reasons for support. For those who had walked the property, Lark Hills needed no explanation; New Rochdale (Rosh-dale) reflected the cooperative principles upon which the community was being built; and Ladera was Spanish for “slope” or “hillside,” and it had a smooth, melodious sound and was appropriately descriptive.
In a vote of the members on April 294946, Ladera was selected. (One member claimed Ladera also meant “bottlecap”; Erik Heegaard says the true Spanish interpretation would be the slope of a curve, rather than of a hillside.) Lest the fame remains completely anonymous, Ladera popped out of a Spanish dictionary one day when Heegaard, Dave Bonner, and Wallace Stegner were looking for a name for the community.
During the long months of negotiations for their land, the members of the PHA had been busy planning. At first, there were four main committees: Land Development and Utilities, Rules and Procedures, Architecture and Home Construction, and Promotion and Publicity. In January 1946, a finance committee was created. Much of the preliminary work had been done, and when the land was owned, the final plans could be laid. It was hoped that construction could begin by the spring of 1948.
The Architecture Committee interviewed many architects, visited homes they had designed, and studied available literature. At first, the thought was to have no general plan for the houses, but after some high-voltage meetings, the decision was that all houses should be of the same general design. One architect that many found interesting was Richard Neutra of Los Angeles. In the recollection of Mrs. Sanderson Smith, a member of the committee, his ideas were stark white cubicles and kitchen ceilings no higher than perhaps 6’9″. She has commented that he would have found the “contemporary California” style eventually selected ”romantic.”
It was Frank Skillman who introduced the firm of John Funk and Joseph Allen Stein of San Francisco. Both had received international recognition for their work. The committee was particularly impressed by the warm, soft use of redwood in some of Funk’s homes in Berkeley. They were unanimously selected by the membership to design the houses. They signed a contract with the PHA on February 1, 1947. Garrett Eckbo, a well-known landscape architect, was hired to work with the architects.
Then began the questioning of the members to determine their needs and wishes. What finally emerged were plans for 13 houses with seven variations designed for indoor/outdoor living. They had flat roofs to keep the homes low and unobtrusive and to preserve neighbors’ views. There were floor-to-ceiling windows. They were to have Roman brick fireplaces and living and dining rooms paneled with mahogany, birch, cedar, or elm-grained plywood. Most were oriented toward the rear of the lot for privacy. They varied in size from 1010 to 2100 square feet. Some sections could be added later. Ultimately each lot description had a list of the various house plans suited to it.
The Land Development and Utilities Committee, with the approval of the Board and general membership, engaged the services of Civil Engineer Nicholas Cirino; Electrical Engineer Charles Von Bergen; Mechanical Engineer George Brokaw; and Structural Engineer Edwin Vermer to work with the architects in the development of the site. The street plan that was laid out consisted of two meandering arteries with dead-end cul-de-sacs branching off of them.
There were walkways laid out behind the houses leading to the school site, the park sites, the play yards, and the shopping center. It was planned that one could walk almost anywhere in the development without crossing a street. Near the center of the lower section were to be the school and the recreation center. There was some discussion about having stables. Near one entrance, plans were made for a chapel and a guest house. Near the other entrance were plans for an office-which was built, the corporation yard, and a firehouse.
Large portions of the upper, steep, heavily-wooded area were to remain untouched open space. Eighty acres, or nearly one-third of the development, were to be parks or open spaces. Lot size varied from 80′ by 110′ to 2.6 acres, the average being one-third acre. The 1945- 1947 Biennial Report of the San Mateo County Planning Commission included a map of the subdivision plans for Ladera as an excellent model.
By the time the street plans were ready, the Names Commit- tee was ready too. They thought it appropriate to continue the use of Spanish names for the streets. Because of the ruling of the County Planning Commission that new street names could not duplicate any already in use, they had to reject many they might otherwise have selected.
They listed 59 names of persons prominent in California history and found that the pronounceable ones were already in use in several places. They then listed 160 names of trees, flowers, etc., and then rejected those already in use, any which would readily be mispronounced, and any which were too long to be convenient. The final recommendation was that the shorter circular main artery be named La Mesa and the longer eastern one be Called La Cuesta. The following names were selected for the short cul-de-sacs. They were to be in alphabetical order and without the articles el or la.
Opening onto La Mesa: Opening onto La Cuesta:
Alondra (meadowlark) Aliso (alder tree)
Balsamina (balsam) Berenda (gazelle)
Castanya (chestnut) Coquito (dove)
Dedalera (foxglove) Durazno (peach tree)
Escanyo (maize) Erica (Heather)
Floresta (forest) Fragaria (flower of the same name)
Granada (pomegranate) Gabarda (wild rose)
Linaria (flower of the same name)
Mimosa (flower of the same name)
A shopping center based on cooperative principles was planned to front on then-Portola now-Alpine Road. At least a gas station and a grocery store were to be included. Perhaps also there would have been a dry cleaner and a restaurant or a delicatessen. The stores were to be built on lands owned in common by all members. “Profits” from the cooperative shops were to be divided among members based on the number and amount of their purchases at a given store-the well-recognized patronage-refund principle that distinguishes consumer cooperative enterprises.
Developmental Planning Years
Those planning years of ’45, ’46, and ’47 were busy, exciting times for the PHA. Committees met regularly in one another’s homes. General membership meetings were held quarterly, usually in the Palo Alto Community Center or the old Mayfield Library. A bi-weekly newsletter, The 400, which went to all interested people, announced new members in nearly every issue. An adult education course, specifically aimed at PHA’ers, was organized at Palo Alto High School and was taught by Mrs. A. F. Bell. Every Sunday afternoon beginning on March 4, 1945, an informal group met on the property to picnic, hike, show the property to prospective members, and dream of the day they would live there.
There was a favorite, sheltered spot somewhere in what is today “High Ladera” where the view was particularly spectacular. The terrain has been changed so now that no one can quite identify where it was. There was a sort of gravel pit there and a flat place for sports. It was reached by walking through the fields (carrying all the picnic supplies) and over the hills or by driving up a rough road left from ranching days. (Part of this road can be seen today behind the shopping center.) There was an old gate across the road and a den of rattlesnakes nearby. Mrs. J. T. Rusmore has a hazy recollection of Stanford psychologist Dr. Farnsworth telling her that the snakes were taken there from a collection and put in an abandoned wine barrel or well. Regardless of how they arrived, Ralph Evans can recall tossing sticks around and waiting to hear a rattle. Maybe not the best advertisement for a prospective occupant! He can also remember the songs of the larks.
Erik Heegaard, while living in London, was treasurer then and in charge of promotion. He was the guide for many of these Sunday walks. He remembers biking out the two-lane dirt road today called Alpine Road to meet the hikers of the day. (Today he can only remember walking on the land, not driving.) At any rate, as chief of the guides’ union, he offered a particularly evocative choice of tours. There was the “Fat Man’s Tour” for fat men and women who insisted on wearing high heels. The tour went to the top of the first hilt where the tourists murmured “How beautiful” and coasted back to the gate. There was the “Old Reliable Tour”-up and back, all the way by road. It was guaranteed to convince a prospect that 250 acres was a huge hunk of territory. Tour #3 was called “Swiss Alps,” specially designed for rock climbers and goat hunters. It featured the rugged northwest corner. The final choice was the “Range Riders’ Special.” It was the ultimate test for the tourist. Although this tour promised a real knowledge of the property, the guide warned that bleached bones along the track told the pathetic story of those whose strength did not match their zeal.
In addition to optimism and enthusiasm and good spirits, there were times when crucial decisions had to be made and varying philosophies stirred strong emotions. These issues have been characterized; as “the dreamers” vs. “the practical men.” There were some meetings into the early hours of the morning, emotional speeches, and some resignations.
One of the most keenly felt of these issues was the question of an interracial community. Some felt that there should be no racial or ethnic restrictions of any sort; that a cooperative venture should be open to all; that Ladera should exemplify the best that is meant by the terms democracy and brotherhood. Others felt that an interracial community would bring financing difficulties and that such a posture shouldn’t be attempted. In November of 1946, the membership upheld the no-restrictions-of-any-sort policy by a mail vote of 93 to 42. Later, as a sort of compromise, the following addition to the Restrictive Covenants was proposed to the membership:
No person who is a member of a race other than Caucasian race may use or occupy any residential lot if, at the time of the commencement of such use or occupancy, the proportion of the population of Ladera equals or exceeds the proportion of such race to the entire population of California.
This prohibition shall not apply to any child of such person born during such person’s use or occupancy while living with such person. The Corporation’s determination from time to time whether any such proportion has been equaled or exceeded and as to what race any person belongs and as to all other questions arising under this paragraph shall be conclusive and not subject to review by any court or otherwise.
The alternative was to have no statement of any sort. The Board was opposed to this clause as well as to the “complete restrictive clauses of the conventional type” and so informed the membership by letter dated December 23, 1947.
On January 12, 1948, the mail vote was 78 for, 75 against, and the quota statement became part 4 L of the Restrictive Covenants. There were at least three black families who were members of the PHA- Clarence Braden, Felix Natis, and William H. White, Jr. Hans Roth recalls that there was also an Asian family.
Another issue that roused strong feelings and ultimately resulted in the resignations of Murray Luck and Ralph Evans from the Board was the question of a manager for the PHA and whether or not the cooperative should be its general contractor. By early 1947 it was becoming apparent that a manager was needed to handle the day-to-day affairs of the association. Whether or not this manager should also be in charge of the general contracting, who he should be, and how he should be selected were issues that became inextricably interwoven.
Dr. Luck and Evans were strong supporters of the appointment of Grant Miner, an engineer and the first to join the PHA after it was incorporated. He was in favor of the PHA’s doing its contracting. Feelings of Board members were aroused pro and con over these intertwined issues, and a series of lengthy informative letters was fired off to the membership.
Many felt that a more thorough search for a manager should be conducted and more study given to the contracting question. This all became a very sensitive point. A contract was offered to Grant Miner in February 1947, a protest was launched, and Mr. C. E. Jeffries was offered the manager’s contract in May. He accepted and resigned in August. The old issues revived, and Luck resigned from the Board, followed later by Evans, who also resigned from the association. (Today Evans recalls that he resigned because at this time the FHA refused to guarantee a loan to the PHA and he knew that that refusal would cause the failure of the venture.) On November 10, 1947, Hubert S. Hunter, a civil engineer, was hired to be PHA’s manager. By now there were rifts among the membership, the two4 generally considered the founders of the PHA were gone from active positions of leadership, and according to Willard Johnston, as a business venture, it was mostly downhill after that.
While serious discussion continued over philosophies and procedures, plans were continuing. Originally the goal was to begin six houses on the first of April 1948 and six more each succeeding week until all 400 houses were completed by November 1949. Various delays and failure to obtain 400 members made this impossible, but progress was being made. Representatives of PHA had been meeting with Officials of the State Department of Education about a school. Construction of an on-site office was begun on May 1, 1947, and its “housewarming” took place on Sunday, August 3. A truck was purchased for the elimination of vast quantities of poison oak.
Plans for a community-owned water system were approved, and Ladera joined the Woodside Fire Protection District. Telephone, gas, and electric services would be provided by utility companies. (They were considering underground electrical service.) Landscape plans for play yards, playgrounds, and common lands were ready by June. In September, Mr. Cirino began the lot survey, and men were at work laying out roads, dead-ends, walkways, and building sites. By December 1947 Joe Maes had been hired as a full-time yard employee. By January 1948, Norwood Smith and L. C. Mattfeldt was appraising the property, and the streets were roughly laid out and named. In that month Lester F. Lindwall was hired as a bookkeeper.
At last, the long-awaited lot reservation day arrived. Members had studied the maps and walked the property endlessly to be ready to make their choices. Sixty of the 391 lots cost over $3000, and of those seven were over $5000. These most expensive lots were around the boulevard part of La Cuesta. Lot 350 was the most expensive at $7000. There were four at $1800, one at $1900, and 140 at $2750. The selection days were February 14-15 and February 21-22, 1948. On Valentine’s Day, those with the lowest lot selection numbers met at the administration building.
There was a big bonfire, last-minute scurrying over the hillsides and jokes about the Oklahoma land rush. To Erik Heegaard fell the first selection. He chose the lot on which the Owen Gibbs home stands today at the end of West Floresta. He later traded for a site on Berenda which was to be developed sooner. More than one family camped out on “their” land during those weekends. By February 22, 179 of the lots had been reserved.
We are nearly at the finish line in this long Journey Dear Reader, for our final chapter on this ride through history.
Stay Tuned to Find out more about the slow decline of the cooperative and its Inevitable rise back to Fame, Popularity and Collective Cooperation through their founding struggles.
