January 16, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Duveneck/St. Francis

by Lia Steakley

W hen Mary and Bob Carlstead moved into their home on Walter Hays in 1965, they had a 5-year-old, an 18-month-old and Mary was nearing her due date on their third child.

What attracted the young family to the neighborhood was being within walking distance from an elementary school, churches, Eleanor Park, the main library and a swimming pool.

Known then as Green Gables, the neighborhood changed names after Green Gables and Crescent Park elementary schools merged in 1982. The combined school was renamed after Los Altos Hills philanthropists, Frank and Josephine Duveneck and was a natural community meeting place for parents and residents. Today, neighborhood meetings are frequently held in the school's multipurpose room and the school yard is a weekend hot spot. Children gather for sporting events, residents exercise their dogs, while others take leisurely strolls.

"It has everything we need close by," Carlstead said. "We are close to pharmacies, church, Stanford Hospital, grocery stores and the Palo Alto shuttle. We have very nice neighbors. Some are old friends who moved in about the same time we did."

Thirty-eight years later, the Carlsteads live in the same house along the horseshoe-shaped street curving though the Duveneck neighborhood.

Convenience also drew Karen White and her family to the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood. In 1979, Karen was working in San Mateo and her husband was commuting to San Jose. The Whites chose their house on Walter Hays for its easy access to Highway 101 and Stanford sporting events, but they stayed because of the neighborhood's charm.

"Our neighborhood feels like a family. People know each other, they greet each other. We take papers in for each other. We know the children," said White, president of the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood association.

Although the neighborhood block parties, holiday socials and residential gatherings are not as prevalent as they have been in years past, the neighbors remain close largely because they all shared in the flood of 1998.

"Everyone dug in to help. It was definitely a galvanizing event on the positive side. I got to know people that I had no introduction to before and there we were slogging through the water," said Jeff Shore, whose house barely escaped the flood waters.

Shore lived in Midtown prior to moving to the neighborhood and he said he chose Duveneck because he liked the landscaping and aesthetic of the area.

In 1951, the Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood was just beginning to transform from a vegetable truck farm into a burgeoning community. Once filled with one-story, tract homes built by the Golden Gate Bridge builder, Barret and Hilp, the neighborhood has gradually changed as residents have individualized their homes with landscaping and renovations.

"Even as tight as the building code is today you can add a second story to these base homes and many people have chosen to do that," said Elliot Bolter, who moved into his home on Walter Hays in 1951.

One of several original home owners in the area, Bolter said the proximity of recreational facilities, the art center and good schools were all a part of his decision to buy a house in the neighborhood.

Walking the quiet streets of the neighborhood, one spots isolated modern homes tucked between the ranch-style homes. Some have grown second stories, while others have expanded to the edges of the yards. Originally priced in the mid-teens in 1951, housing prices now hover near the million-dollar mark.

The city of Palo Alto has taken measures to prevent flooding in the area during heavy storm periods, but the memory of 1998's flood is still vivid in residents' minds.

"The danger and specter of flooding is always with us, but the city has fixed a storm-drain bottleneck between Walter Hays-Channing-Heather, which is supposed to fix the storm-drain back up," Carlstead said.

Shore agrees. "When we have a long series of storms and then a big one such that the ground is saturated there is no question that people are nervous and watching their creek monitors that the city set up on the Internet," he said.

It was after the flood that the St. Francis and Duveneck neighborhood associations combined forces. Since then, the neighborhood association has worked to preserve the quality of life in the area and bring back local retail stores.

The main issues facing the neighborhood are traffic, including speeding on Embarcadero Road and elsewhere, and Edgewood Plaza, according to White.

"Residents agree that (Edgewood Plaza) would benefit from improvement," she said. "We need a shopping center and community shops for convenience."

White added that the residents were in the process of working with the airport to include residents' noise concerns in the master plan and had successfully worked with the city to increase the amount of funding earmarked for traffic calming.

The Duveneck/St. Francis neighborhood is a hybrid of generations with diverse needs, but the residents are all focused on making their neighborhood the best place to live in Palo Alto.

"The neighborhood is gradually changing and the families that are moving in are families with young children. We have a wonderful mix of the original owners and new families. We have all generations; there is a lot of camaraderie," White said.
Duveneck/St. Francis facts: Fire station: 799 Embarcadero Road Library: Main Library, 1213 Newell Road Neighborhood association: Karen White, 494-7026, karenwhite4@sbcglobal.net Park (nearby): Rinconada Park, 777 Embarcadero Road Post office: Main Post Office, 2085 E. Bayshore Road Private school: International School, 151 Laura Lane Public schools: Duveneck Elementary School, Jordan Middle School, Palo Alto High School

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