Imagine driving down Portola Road in Portola Valley today and seeing TWO historic schoolhouses, side by side. That could be the case, had the residents of 1950 made an effort to preserve the 1894 schoolhouse.
Fortunately for us, by 1955 the citizens realized their mistake in losing that first school and refused to allow the demolition of the surviving one.
Think about driving down Alpine Road and not seeing the Alpine Inn, affectionately known as “Zots” to generations. When folks grumbled about its rundown appearance in the 1960s, it was a tough job for town historian Dorothy Regnery to convince historic registries that it deserved official historic designation and thereby should be saved from demolition.
A historic preservation issue now faces us as citizens of the new century: the Chilean Woodchopper’s House on the Old Jelich Ranch. It’s that little white house in a sadly decrepit state that stands close by Portola Road. The new owners have offered to donate it to the town if the town removes it from the property.
The house is the oldest in town, one of only two buildings with sesquicentennial credentials. Few people know the tragic story of the Chileans who were driven from the gold fields by extreme prejudice and somehow found sanctuary on the rancho of Maximo Martinez. Until ships abandoned in the bay by gold-seeking crews could deliver them to their homeland, they chopped willows for the San Francisco charcoal market and occupied five or six humble huts situated around the valley floor. This one alone survives.
Current plans are to remove the historic siding, raze the house, build a replica near the historic schoolhouse, use the removed cladding as exterior finish on three sides, and have the new structure serve as a restroom facility for the new Town Center. While this is a reasonable plan, and is better than demolition, it is a far cry from what can, and should, be accomplished through an effective public-private partnership. With such a partnership, preservation and restoration can be possible.
In the midst of our busy lives in 2007, maintaining a quiet, rural atmosphere is one of Portola Valley’s core values, yet one by one, precious pieces of our heritage have disappeared. If funding appears and a site is found to preserve in toto this remnant of a simpler era, how could we use the building? A local museum? An interpretive center for Windy Hill? A teen center? A meeting place? A post office? Or, consistent with its historic role, housing for a ranch hand or caretaker for the new Town Center?
Can we preserve the small vestiges of our past that survive so that future stewards of this beautiful valley will have a window into days gone by? Photographs and markers are poor substitutes for reality.
To help preserve important parts of our town’s history, including the Chilean Woodchopper’s House currently in jeopardy, please contact the Preserve Portola Valley History Committee at: SavePVHistory@gmail.com, 851-7519, or 851-8069.
Nancy Lund is the town historian for Portola Valley and wrote this guest opinion for the Almanac.
