Los Altos Hills Turned 70 by Restoring a House From Los Altos
October 29, 2026
October 29, 2026
"This is a tribute to how much we value history and tradition in our town. We care about our open spaces and rural character, but we also really value our tradition and our history. And, this is a standing symbol of that."
Mayor Rajiv Bhateja said that on August 19, standing at the newly remodeled Heritage House beside Town Hall, according to the Los Altos Town Crier. The ceremony was timed to the Town's 70th anniversary. The house he called a symbol of the Town's tradition is older than Los Altos Hills by nearly half a century. It also wasn't built in the hills. It started out in downtown Los Altos, near Second Street.
The Town was founded to keep the hills distinct from the valley below. The building it restored for its anniversary came from that valley, and the rest of the 2026 calendar shows the same link.
Los Altos Hills became a town on January 27, 1956. The Town's own account lists the pressures behind that vote: postwar urbanization spreading across the Santa Clara Valley, commercial development residents didn't want, and the fear of being annexed by a neighboring city. Incorporation was meant to protect one-acre lots, horsekeeping and the rural amenities that came with them.
Geography had already slowed growth. An unreliable water supply had held back development in the foothills, so homes and farms still sat on large parcels and the area remained distinctly rural. The Los Altos Hills Historical Society describes the founders the same way, as people who wanted to keep the foothills' rural atmosphere.
At its founding, then, the Town defined itself by what it would not become. That makes the story of its best-known historic building more interesting.
The Heritage House has had two lives, and the first one happened somewhere else.
The building is small. The Town's 2023 request for design proposals puts it at about 1,100 square feet. That document called it locally historic and said the goal was to make the interior more useful for volunteers, committees, staff and the community, while keeping its historically significant features and bringing systems, code compliance and accessibility up to date.
The house spent its first 77 years as part of downtown Los Altos. It has been in the hills for 41. For most of its existence, it belonged to the town next door.
Turning a century-old house into a working civic building turned out to be the slow part. The Town's project updates show how the schedule stretched.
The key funding was a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant through the Santa Clara County Office of Supportive Housing. It paid for an ADA restroom with a shower, an accessible coffee bar and an exterior access ramp. The Town's June 2025 update named Smelly Mel's Plumbing Inc. as contractor and projected completion in fall 2025. The accessibility work met the grant's March 2025 deadline. By July 2025, though, the Town's project report cited "numerous unforeseen and challenging building-improvement issues."
Fall 2025 came and went. In April 2026 the Town still listed punch-list work: touch-ups, cleanup and furnishing. In its July 2026 update, the contractor was finishing the last items needed to close out the building permit. The house finally reopened in the anniversary year. Whether or not anyone planned it that way, the delay put the ribbon-cutting in the Town's 70th summer.
Inside, the Town Crier reports, the remodel added modern electricity, plumbing and technology while keeping the house's historic feel and architectural style. The Town's newsletter also noted that formal Council acceptance of the project was still to come after the ceremony.
According to the Town's newsletter, community members, Councilmembers and County Supervisor Margaret Abe-Koga attended the August 19 ceremony, and Abe-Koga presented a Certificate of Commendation. The Town Crier's coverage describes speakers tracing the Town's growth "from mustard fields to apricot orchards" into its modern Silicon Valley form, followed by a tour of the building.
History Committee co-chair Bernardo Ferrari brought a selection of his grandfather's photographs of Los Altos Hills over the past century. This is where the borrowed building and the hills' own story meet. The rooms are from Second Street in Los Altos. What gets shown and discussed in them is the Town's own past, much of it from families who were here before 1956.
The Town Crier says the house will host committee meetings, historical education, social events and community engagement. The Town has not posted walk-in visiting hours or a rental process. For now, the way in is through Town programming.
The first public uses followed that pattern. Mayor Bhateja held office hours at the reopened house on August 28 and September 4. The History Committee, which held its May meeting while the opening date was still unknown, planned an anniversary cake and a booth for the 27th Annual Los Altos Hills Town Picnic at Purissima Park on June 7. It also canceled a planned History Walk. The committee's October 20 agenda included a Heritage House update, a fall presentation and the preparation of history articles for the December issue of the Town's Our Town magazine. Committee meetings are public, and for now they are the most dependable way to follow what the house will hold next.
Two events remain on the Town calendar before the 70th year ends. One is held in Los Altos, and the other takes place at a different Town landmark.
The Los Altos Hills Town calendar lists a Veterans Day celebration on Wednesday, November 11, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Los Altos Veterans Community Plaza. The program lists food, drinks, live music and guest speakers. A town that incorporated partly out of fear of annexation is marking a civic holiday across the line in Los Altos, which fits the story of the Heritage House.
On Sunday, December 6, from 2 to 5 p.m., the Town holds Barn Lighting at Westwind Community Barn, 27210 Altamont Road. The listing includes holiday refreshments, kids' games and crafts, face painting, pony rides, a petting zoo and Santa, with a countdown to the lighting at 5 p.m. Westwind ties back to the horsekeeping the Town incorporated to protect. In May, the Council approved a new three-year concessionaire agreement with Victoria Dye Equestrian LLC to operate the barn.
Town calendar listings can change, so check the dates and times on the Town of Los Altos Hills calendar before heading out. For more on the Town itself, see our Los Altos Hills neighborhood page.
Many homes in the hills have a story that goes back further than their current address, like the Heritage House. If you own one and want to understand how its history and setting fit into its value, Satinder Kaur is glad to talk it through with you, with no pressure attached. Contact Us when the time is right.
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