THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR A COMMUNITY AND ITS RISE FROM THE STRUGGLE!
On June 2, 1948, Redwood City contractor Peter Sorensen began grading the streets, and an official starting-of-Ladera ceremony took place on June 7. Emmett Mossman, the Board member, took the controls of a giant bulldozer, Betty Lundquist, member, and office secretary, christened it with a bottle of champagne, and the first “official” shovel of Ladera earth was moved.
During that summer contracts were let for sewers and water for Unit I (Aliso, Berenda, and the connecting part of LaCuesta), for the construction of a 200,000-gallon water reservoir, and a connecting sewer line to Menlo Park. These contracts cost $100,792. Paperwork was underway for loans and an FHA guarantee. On October 29, 1948, the subdivision map was recorded, paving the way for the transfer of deeds from the PHA to individual members.
Bids were received on December 31, 1948, for the first 31 homes. Costs ranged from $12,125 to $17,793 plus about 5% for architectural and administrative fees. The cost per square foot varied from $8.10 to $10.15. An exhaustive study ~undertaken by the Board at that time showed that houses of similar quality cost 20-30% more in Mann County, Berkeley, and Palo Alto. By January 1949, the reservoir and mains down to Unit II were finished. Curbs, gutters, and sidewalks were going in. The PHA’ers were proud that their land was not mutilated and that the construction seemed to fit into the landscape. A lot of development of section II was scheduled to begin in the summer.
On April 3, 1949, 150 PHA’ers gathered to dedicate the foundation of one of the first homes, that of Miss Lorraine Knoles (today 4 Aliso Way). Dr. Luck christened the foundation forms and spoke, as did Frank Skillman and the manager, Herbert Hunter. By June, contractors Borror and Gesso had 10 houses under construction. There were delays for such reasons as difficulty in obtaining clear, all-heart redwood siding. By January 1950, there were 25 homes either completed or underway.
By January 1950, there were 25 homes either completed or underway.
But by now, the PHA was in serious difficulty. They were out of money. Financing was a problem since the Federal Housing Authority had refused to guarantee a loan. Although 400 members had joined, many had dropped out for various reasons-an important one being that they needed housing desperately and couldn’t wait. Prices were rising rapidly. What seemed a reasonable price for a home one year was ridiculously low a year later. The PHA had to face bankruptcy or make some sort of other arrangements. On March 24, 1950, they decided to sell Ladera to the Portola Development Company, a subsidiary of Hare, Brewer, and Kelley.
Those were sad days for the PHA, and the memory of those days can still bring tears to many eyes now, nearly twenty-five years later. Ladera had been a dearly-held dream, and its failure was a strongly emotional experience for many. One of the most heartbreaking aspects for some was that they had to ask their minority members to withdraw. As a condition for a loan imposed upon the Portola Development Company by the American Trust Company, a restrictive clause had to be imposed. Mrs. William H. White, Jr., a black member, recalls the day a PHA member came to her home to explain the situation to her. She said there was nothing they could do but withdraw-they couldn’t be the cause of their friends losing their investment.
And so, the PHA transferred all of its assets to the Portola Development Company, and Portola gave the PHA a non-negotiable, non-interest-bearing promissory note for $392,327.95. That amount represented the total amount invested in PHA by then-present and withdrawn members. Portola assumed all of PHA’s liabilities which totaled approximately $141,530.51. The indebtedness assumed by Portola was $533,858.46, and the value of PHA’s assets was less than half of that. The President of the PHA Board, Frank Skiflman, became a member of the Board of Directors of the Portola Development Company. Finally, and importantly for PHA members, the Portola Development Company would honor its promissory note to the PHA within fifteen years or begin paying interest. If their dream was lost eventually at least the financial loss would be only $50, the non-refundable portion of the membership fee.
A nucleus of PHA’ers did move into Ladera, in those houses on Alisa, La Cuesta, and Berenda built by the PHA. Some made their arrangements for builders. The first four families to live in Ladera were the John Cannings, 276 La Cuesta; the William Ryders, 264 La Cuesta; Mrs. J. A. Atkinson and her son Richard Muffley, 36 Aliso Way; and the Sigurd Varians, 24 Aliso Way. Of these four, only Mrs. Canning still lives in Ladera today. Others came shortly afterward. They took an active leadership role in the continuing development of Ladera and perhaps have been instrumental in helping to establish the spirit of community which exists there today.
Houses and subdivisions also began in upper Ladera in the late 1950s, with La Mesa and Gabarda extending up into formerly open spaces, with larger plots, and courts such as Siesta and Lerida extending on steep land made accessible to buildings by increasingly sophisticated house foundation technology. The last empty and steep lots were sold in the 1990s, while a few of the larger plots have undergone division and sprouted new homes.
The Slow Demise of the Ladera Cooperative
The final chapter of the PHA story was written in the mid-1960s. In June of 1963, the Portola Development Company deposited $392,327.95 in a special account in the United California Bank. The Directors of the PHA were to repay in full the 262 members. Individuals were owed from $250 to $5000, most around $2500. On June 4, 1963, the Directors of the PHA filed suit in the Superior Court of San Mateo County against the membership for “the involuntary winding up and dissolution of the defendant.” Then began the arduous tasks of bringing the PHA books up to date, having an independent accountant examine them to see that no Internal Revenue Service claim could be filed against the corporation or its directors, and locating the members and former members.
Once again Willard Johnston, a PHA member and the attorney who had aided in the purchase of Ladera 17 years earlier, acted as attorney. In a letter from him to the Directors of the PHA dated December 6, 1967, he stated that all proceedings involving the PHA had been completed. The Directors had been discharged from their duties and liabilities to creditors and shareholders. The corporation had been dissolved.
Why did the Peninsula Housing Corporation fail? In the opinion of Murray Luck, the plan for total development (acquisition of land, installation of roads and utilities, and construction of the houses) was too ambitious given the slow growth in membership and the innumerable delays imposed by local ordinances, the FHA, and internal dissent on a variety of issues. Had the PHA limited itself to the cooperative acquisition of the land and installation of the roads, utilities, and building sites, it might have succeeded. The lots would then have been sold to members and each would have been free to contract for construction of his own home.
The PHA did perhaps spend beyond its means. From the day that the land cost more than they anticipated, the expenses were high for architectural plans, landscaping plans, utility development, and a paid staff of employees. The slowness of the democratic process in making decisions (the committees studied and debated; then the membership studied and debated the committees’ recommendations) meant that inflation took its toll.
Perhaps there were other factors at work too. Federal legislation aimed at providing government assistance for cooperatives failed to pass. The FHA refused to guarantee a loan, and some believe to this day, without documentation, that the refusal was due to the interracial nature of the proposed community. One opinion was that the group fried too hard to go too fast toward idealism.
It was a fantastic dream. Twenty-five years ago Frank Skillman said, “This cooperative housing project is blazing a new pattern of living as vital to America’s future as were the pioneering trails of our forefathers. It’s an economic democracy in action- people like you and me cooperating to build a better community for better living-truly this is of, by, and for the people.”
Erik Heegaard said on February 22, 1974, “If I should sum up my recollection, it would be by saying that participating in this venture was one of the greatest experiences of my life. The group planning involved and the enthusiasm it generated for creating a new kind of community was something to behold. Many of the problems which today’s youth think they invented, such as environmental protection, pollution- control, group living, and planning an interracial community, were tackled most practically and fundamentally twenty-five years ago. It is difficult to be a pioneer with a new idea, but it is fun if it succeeds, even if only in part.”
The Memorial Sign on La Mesa
A letter from the Engineering and Road Department, County Government Center, Redwood City, California, dated June 23, 1964, granted the Board of Trustees, Ladera Community Association a Revocable Encroachment Permit “to install and maintain a sign, partially or wholly within the public right-of-way of La Mesa Drive, County Road No. 607, 125 feet, more or less, westerly from Alpine Road. Said sign is to be a memorial to Frank Skillman, San Mateo County Planning Director, in the form of a Road Map of Ladera Subdivision. It is to be installed and maintained by the committee.”
The sign, made from two-inch thick heart redwood and purchased from the McCreery Sign Company, Palo Alto, for a cost of $175.00 was put up by Chuck Heyler, George Abbott, Bob Taylor, Fred Franklin, and Rick Kernoll.
It was decided by the Ladera Community Association to install this sign because Frank Skillman had made a very valuable contribution to Ladera, both in the early formation of the community and also through his office on the Planning Commission of San Mateo County.
The Ladera We Know and Love Today
These days, the unincorporated community of Ladera is home to around 700 families. Among residents, there appears to be a strong feeling of togetherness and neighborhood connections. Such cohesion may develop over time in close-knit rural places like this. Here, regular interactions and collaborative problem-solving around shared issues faced by living in the same area could foster social ties.
The natural surroundings still host various wildlife species. At night, one might spot creatures like coyotes, deer, foxes, or the occasional bobcat roaming on the outskirts. While local teens no longer camp overnight in the woodlands as before, the rhythms of the natural world and signs of other inhabitants remain.
On rare clear moonlit nights, the hills lay silent but for whatever wakes in the dark. Sometimes one could imagine echoes from Ladera’s history drifting across the quiet landscape, as if ghostly figures from tales past still raced these trails beneath the stars. But the stories of earlier times live on now only in memory upon these rolling slopes.
Bibliography and Sources:
Stanger, Frank. Sawmills in the Redwoods: Logging on the San Francisco Peninsula. San Mateo County Historical Association, San Mateo. 1967.
Goodman, Marian. San Mateo County–Its Story. Goodman Publishing Company. Redwood City. 1967.
Lund, Nancy, Gullard, Pamela. “Life along the San Andreas Fault: A History of Portola Valley,” 2003.
Lund, Nancy. The Portola Valley Primer. Lisbet Nilson, editor. 1966.
Telfer, Dorothy. The Story of Portola Valley and the Neighbors. Instructional Materials from Portola Valley School District. 1964.
