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It was the height of the Roaring '20s. Upwardly mobile San Franciscans aspiring to the Good Life had to have a country place down the Peninsula. On land that was originally part of Don Maximo Martinez' 22,000-acre Mexican Rancho Corte de Madera, several developers advertised lots for summer cottages.

In the horseshoe-shaped area off Portola Road the subdivision map marked off 41 lots called "Brookside Orchard," selling for about $300 each. The Great Depression emerged before all the lots were sold and by the early 1940s only 20 houses had been built.

Portola Valley Town Councilman and former mayor Richard Merk lives in one of those houses, which he inherited from his mother and has reconstructed using much of the original lumber and siding.

"I was raised here. In fact I worked in the local hardware store in the valley when I was a teenager," Mr. Merk says, noting he has other strong local roots.

"My grandfather was a Geology professor at Stanford and my mother Martha Blackwelder and her family lived in the historic old Escondido Cottage on the campus."

The councilman is a traditionalist and often defends traditional community values in his work on the council as well as in his contracting business.

"I've even preserved some old cast-iron hooks here imbedded in the living-room wall, which I suspect were used to cook ducks when this was a hunting lodge in the early days," he says.

The lush green open space and quiet natural beauty make this area one of the valley's most sought-after districts, according to Mr. Merk.

Many Brookside Park homeowners are long-time residents. Mr. Merk mentioned Ben Sanguinetti and his sister Gloria Morris who live on neighboring lots on what was once their parents' property on Brookside Drive. And nearby on Brookside, nurse Sharon Humphries and her husband Philip, a Silicon Valley exec, live in a small group of houses, developed in the '60s.

"There were three houses in a row here when we bought our house in 1974. We raised both of our children here, and our grandkids love to visit," Mrs. Humphries says.

Mrs. Humphries, who grew up in Woodside, tells of one of her more interesting civic duties: "I once served as town stable inspector! I had to tour all the houses and make sure the stables lived up to the rules — the number of horses, care of the animals, that all was in order."


FACTS


CHILD CARE & PRESCHOOLS: Windmill Preschool, 4141 Alpine Road, Portola Valley; Ladera Community Church Preschool, 3300 Alpine Road, Portola Valley; Carillon Preschool at Christ Church, 815 Portola Road, Portola Valley; New Horizons (after school care), 200 Shawnee Pass, Portola Valley

FIRE STATION: Woodside Fire Protection District, Portola Valley Station, 135 Portola Road, Portola Valley

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Portola Valley School District —Ormondale School (K-3), 200 Shawnee Pass, Portola Valley; Corte Madera School (4-8), 4575 Alpine Road, Portola Valley

Sequoia Union High School District — Woodside High School, 199 Churchill Ave., Woodside

PRIVATE SCHOOLS: Woodside Priory School, 302 Portola Road, Portola Valley

SHOPPING: Nathhorst Triangle, Portola Road at Alpine Road; Village Square, 884 Portola Road; Ladera Shopping Center, 3130 Alpine Road, Portola Valley

MEDIAN 2008 HOME PRICE: NA

NO. OF HOMES SOLD: NA

View the neighborhood map (PDF)

— Phyllis Butler