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The Waverly Park neighborhood, like just about every other neighborhood in Mountain View, sits upon what used to be orchard land. Joel Levin lay stake to the area in the mid 1800s, and, according to Barbara Kinchen of the Mountain View History Center, likely grew apricots and prunes. Development began on Waverly Park in the 1960s.

"The '60s was a great expansion for the whole Bay Area," Kinchen said, noting that in the years following World War II, families flocked to California in droves.

Today, a vestige of Levin's land remains untouched. For many years now it has served as a pumpkin patch bordering the Waverly Park neighborhood.

Brian Toby has lived in Waverly Park since 1988 and likes the community for its stability and because, as he puts it, "everybody knows everybody." The neighborhood celebrates the Fourth of July each year with a big party, which he said is always well-attended and fun for the whole family.

At the heart of the neighborhood — which is bounded by Grant Road, Highway 85 and Sleeper and Bryant avenues — lies Cooper Park, where Toby remembers enjoying many afternoons with his children before they flew the coop.

Camille Diamond, who moved to Waverly Park from Los Altos in 2006, loves the fact that there is a park within walking distance of her home. An added bonus for her, is that she feels comfortable letting her sixth-grader walk there on his own, since there are no major streets he would have to cross.

"It's just the kind of neighborhood we had when I was growing up," Diamond said. "A back-to-basics, fundamentals-of-raising-a-family kind of neighborhood."

Practicality is another reason Diamond enjoys Waverly Park. Easy freeway access means that her reverse commute to South San Jose only takes 25 minutes. There is also plenty of shopping close by, including a Knob Hill and Safeway just minutes away. The lively Castro Street is also a relatively short drive from her cul-de-sac.

"It's just a great neighborhood for kids and families," Ann Martin said of Waverly Park, where she has lived since 1994. "There's a bunch of neighbors that hang out together and they have progressive dinners, and they're always watching out for each other's kids."

Martin seconds Diamond's appreciation of easy freeway access, while observing that the transportation arteries are not too close either. "They're all surrounding us," she said of highways 87, 101, 237, 280 and 101, "yet we don't have to live with the freeway noise."

Her daughter's school is about a mile away, and like Diamond's route to Cooper Park, Martin doesn't have to take any main streets to drop her daughter off.

Martin said she and all the residents of Waverly Park are anxious to see what will happen in light of the recent sale of the Levin pumpkin patch land to developers and that sometimes nearby El Camino Hospital can get noisy, but other than that she doesn't have any concerns or complaints, though she believes some of her younger and more mischievous neighbors might:

"The kids can't get away with anything, because the neighbors are always watching."


FACTS


CHILDCARE AND PRESCHOOLS: El Camino YMCA, 2400 Grant Road; Mountain View Parent Nursery School, 1299 Bryant Ave.; Primary Plus, 333 Eunice Ave.; St. Timothy's Nursery School, 2094 Grant Road; YMCA — Way to Grow Full-Day Preschool, 1501 Oak Ave., Los Altos (nearby)

FIRE STATION: No. 2, 160 Cuesta Drive

PARKS: Cooper Park, Chesley Avenue at Yorkton Drive

POST OFFICE: Blossom Valley, 1768 Miramonte Ave.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS: St. Joseph, 1120 Miramonte Ave.; St. Francis High School, 1885 Miramonte Ave.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Mtn. View-Whisman School District — Huff Elementary School, Graham Middle School; Mtn. View-Los Altos Union High School District — Mountain View High School

SHOPPING: Blossom Valley Shopping Center, Miramonte Avenue at Cuesta Drive; Grant Park Plaza; Downtown Mountain View

MEDIAN 2008 HOME PRICE: $1,275,000 ($1,025,000-$1,860,000)

HOMES SOLD: 18

— Nick Veronin