The Duvenecks: Disseminating Kindness at Hidden Villa

This photograph of Josephine and Frank Duveneck, founders of Hidden Villa summer camp, was taken in 1978 on the couple's 65th wedding anniversary. Josephine died 11 days later, shortly after completing her autobiography. Frank died in 1985 at the age of 99. Image courtesy of the Palo Alto Historical Association.

I was very surprised to read Hidden Villa was caught in the middle of a controversy about some Asian tiles on the side of the old Duveneck house. The tiles represent an ancient symbol in Asia and bear some resemblance to a swastika but are not exactly like the ones we associate with Germany. The controversy shut down the Hidden Villa children's camp this summer for the very first time.

I thought perhaps it might be a time to revisit the history of this forward-thinking couple, who made so many lives better during their lifetimes and beyond.

Here's a piece I published recently about them in the Los Altos Town Crier.

CLICK FOR ROBIN'S ARTICLE ON THE DUVENECKS

The Peninsular Railway: Electric Tech Ahead of Its Time

This rail car, from the Peninsular Railroad is Number 102 and shows a sign in the window that it runs from Los Altos to San Jose. It also sports a sign that says "Flyer," which means it was likely used for direct commuting. Photo courtesy of the Palo Alto Historical Association Archives.

This lovely map cover for the Peninsular doesn't even show a train: It was likely used to advertise the line's Blossom Special to tourists in a valley which then had the largest number of commercial fruit orchards the world had ever seen. Image courtesy of History San Jose Archives.

During the years I have done research on the San Francisco Bay Area I have seen a number of images of what looked like a small rail system that ran around the Santa Clara Valley. I always thought the lines were some branch of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which was the only rail I remembered from my childhood. 

Early in August, I attended a lecture by Ray Cosyn at the Saratoga Historical Foundation for the reopening of their museum, and the whole thing began to come into focus. And this led to a story of course. Click to learn more from my regular column in the Los Altos Town Crier: 

THE ELECTRIC PENINSULAR RAILWAY

Marking California History Along the Old El Camino Real

This Mission Bell Marker can be found near the intersection of El Monte Avenue and El Camino Real on the southbound side of the roadway.

I'm not sure if drivers and passengers are taking note of what is outside their windows these days as they ride along America's highways. But there is a lot of history to see out there for those who would find it.

Thomas Foon Chew: The Man Who Made A Difference

BaySide Cannery (sometimes identified as Bayside or Bay Side) was the third largest cannery in the United States in the 1920s. It was owned by Thomas Foon Chew, a Chinese immigrant to California.

Thomas Foon Chew was born in the late 1880s in China and came to San Francisco with his mother and his father in 1897. How this was possible, following the implementation of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, we don't know.

The Story of A Silicon Valley Landmark and its Pioneer History

Halsey House at Redwood Grove Nature Preserve is owned by the City of Los Altos and has been shuttered and unused in the middle of a public park for a decade. The people in this 1920s photo are Theodore and Emma Halsey, among the earliest residents of Los Altos.

What happens when we don't take care of our history? In the case of a local public landmark in my hometown, Halsey House, it has meant a deteriorating building in the middle of a public park, never a good thing.