About five more Newcomers came for today’s Coffee Program, a tour of the Smith History House and the History Museum.  They included Marilyn Bourbon, Anna Alioto and Farah Tabatabai.  Liz Nyberg, our Newcomers Membership chair, is a docent at the Los Altos History Museum, and she led our program. 

Liz was President of the LA Historical Association in 1996-2000, while the building project was going on to create what is here today.  The Smith House is not usually open to the public, but she will show it to us, along with the special exhibits in the Museum.

The LA History Museum is fairly new,  as is our town. Los Altos was incorporated in 1952, Los Altos Hills in 1956.

The home was built by J. Gilbert Smith himself in 1905, and until the 1930’s, the property was an apricot orchard.  Smith died in 1966, and when his wife died in 1973, the home was sold to the town, along with 10 acres, to be a civic center. 

In 1977, LA formed an association to run the home and museum, and in the 1990’s, another building was added.  Today the space can be rented out for parties, weddings, and community events. 

There is a permanent exhibit upstairs at the Museum that features a model train going through a replica of early Main Street.  (There used to be a train thru the town, but that track has become Foothill Parkway!)

The focus of the special exhibit right now is “What Do Los Altans Collect?”  The answers are many and varied: Coca Cola memorabilia, Elvis Presley, frogs, Pez containers, etc. 

The highlight for us was the vintage jigsaw puzzles donated for the exhibit by Dana Haviland. Many are wood, others are paper. Puzzles were a big craze in Europe and the US starting in the early 1900’s, before the era of TV and cars. Dana has “thousands” of puzzles in her collection, and she has mounted and framed dozens of them that on exhibit here.  Not only do they look like fine artworks, but they show the amazing concentration and skill it took to put them together.   Fabulous!   

*Addendum:  This is info from Barbara Mordo to clarify the 2 other events she mentioned at the meeting that are fund-raisers for the LA History Museum…

1. The fashion show and catered luncheon takes place Friday, October 12 at the Garden House in Shoup Park off of University Ave.  All proceeds benefit the History Museum.  Tickets are $60 for members of the museum and $65 for non-members.  We have started a Newcomers table. Tickets may be purchased by calling (650) 948 – 9427 ext. 15, thru the website www.losaltoshistorymuseum.org, or at the Museum Thursday-Sunday noon – 4 p.m. Barbara can get the tickets for us as well. 

2. The Packard exhibit is all about the Packard family, especially Louise, who started the children’s hospital.  It opens mid-January.