Step into the fruitful days of early 1900s Los Altos

"In 1901, when he was 25 years old, Smith bought five acres along the unpaved two-lane Giffin Road, "a little dirt lane" that snaked all the way from El Camino Real up to La Honda. Now called San Antonio Road, it was then used for redwood logging. Gilbert Smith pitched a tent on his property - "amidst the owl clover and California poppies" - while building a house and tank tower. Those structures still stand today, having survived one of the area's worst earthquakes in 1906."

"The cozy Smith bungalow is now a permanent historical exhibit at Los Altos History Museum. The Los Altos Heritage Orchard right by the museum is the oldest city-owned heritage orchard left in the Bay Area. Planted in 1901 by Smith, it was sold to the newly incorporated city of Los Altos in 1954 when architect Frank Lloyd Wright "urged city officials to incorporate the orchard in their design," according to Robin Chapman's book titled "California Apricots: The Lost Orchards of Silicon Valley.""

"Outside the Smith House you can see a palm that is supposedly a cousin of the trees that adorn Stanford University's Palm Drive. Decorated and populated as a Depression-era residence, the Smith House is filled with many nostalgic surprises inside. Smith constructed his two-story home using redwood transported from the Santa Cruz Mountains. He personally selected the redwood boards - at the cost of $15 per 1,0"

Los Altos Depot stood amid early 20th-century fruit-canning activity, with workers commuting by train and bicycle to nearby canneries. J. Gilbert Smith bought five acres in 1901 along Giffin Road, then used for redwood logging, and planted an apricot orchard. Smith built a Craftsman-style two-story house and a tank tower, living initially in a tent while selecting redwood boards personally. Those structures survived the 1906 earthquake. The Smith House operates as a Depression-era exhibit at the Los Altos History Museum. The adjacent Los Altos Heritage Orchard, planted in 1901, became city-owned in 1954 after Frank Lloyd Wright urged its incorporation into design.

Read at The Mercury News