Attachment 4 - Applicant Memorandum Responding to the Age of the Structure, dated December 9, 2019MEMORANDUM
TO: DON CAPOBRES AND WENDI BAKER
FROM: KATHARINE HARDT-MASON, ESQ.
SUBJECT: ADOBE HOUSE
DATE: DECEMBER 9, 2019
CC: EDWARD MORIMOTO
Per your request, I looked at some of the earlier reports and correspondence regarding the Adobe House
located at 14919 Los Gatos Blvd. As you know, there was a lot of discussion regarding this residence, as
well as several other residences, the Red Barn, the orchards, and miscellaneous other structures located on
what is known as the North 40. The Adobe House in particular became an issue because of some
conflicting information regarding the Adobe House in the reports prepared by Carey & Company. As
more and more information became available, however, it became evident that the Adobe House was built
sometime around 1943 and it is not a historical structure according to the Resources Agency of the State
of California.
Information that might be helpful to the Conceptual Development Advisory Committee in reviewing your
request to relocate the Adobe House includes:
•The Historic Resources Evaluation Report, dated November 21, 2011, which identifies the Adobe
House as having been built around 1940, with a compatible addition having been added in 1973.
See page 15 of the Survey Matrix attached hereto.
•The North 40 Specific Plan Historic Resources Technical Report, dated November 12, 2103,
attaches the Resources Agency of the State of California Primary Record for each property
identified in the Technical Report, which states in part “The building does not appear to be
individually eligible under NRHP/CRHR Criteria B/2, C/3, or D/4. The residence appears to
have been constructed by an early Italian farming family. Yet none of the family names
determined to be related to the property appear to be significant within the Los Gatos region…
the house does not appear to be a significant example of an architectural type… the residence
does not appear to possess the potential to yield information important to the prehistory or history
of the local area, state, or the nation.” See the Primary Record for 14919 Los Gatos Blvd.
attached hereto.
•My letter to the Town Council Members dated February 2, 2015, wherein I address the question
of when the Adobe House was built. According to Mr. Yuki, the Yuki family moved into the
house around 1945, which was two to three years after it had been built by the Gianandres family
who never lived in the house. See page 2 of the letter attached hereto.
•The aerial photographs of the property from 1939 and 1948 on pages 2 and 3 of this
Memorandum, which show that in 1939 the Red Barn was located on the property, but to the east
of the Red Barn there is a large grove of trees which in the 1948 photograph have been removed
in part where the Adobe House was built.
ATTACHMENT 4
2
In summary, despite supposition in some of the Reports prepared in connection with the North 40
Specific Plan that the Adobe House might have been built during the Valley of Hearts Delight, there is
clear support for Mr. Yuki’s memory of the Adobe House having not been built until a few years before
the Yuki Family acquiring the property around 1945 and its use as the family homestead after the era of
the Valley of Hearts Delight.
Aerial Photograph: 1939-F Santa Clara County Flight CIV 285-092, University of Santa Cruz Digital
Collections, http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16019coll5/id/1843/rec/1
The Red Barn is visible to the west of the large grove of trees near the entrance to 14919 Los Gatos Blvd.
3
Aerial Photograph: 1948 U.S. Forest Service Flight CDF-5 3-1, University of Santa Cruz Digital
Collections, http://digitalcollections.ucsc.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16019coll5/id/283/rec/1
Adobe House can be seen easterly of the Red Barn in what previously was a grove of trees.
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