BAY AREA QUAKE : Residents Determined Quake Won’t Shake Los Gatos’ Roots

Harry Fromm can spot a building inspector a mile away.

When two of them showed up Friday at the end of the sidewalk leading to his 108-year-old, two-story Victorian house, Fromm was quick to react.

Standing in front of his quake-damaged wreck of a house, Fromm declared in a no-nonsense tone, “The house is going to be saved.”

The inspector looked up and said, “I hope so. It’s wonderful.”

The second inspector agreed, saying, “This is not San Francisco,” which was gaining a reputation for demolishing quake-ravaged buildings quickly.

This is Los Gatos, a community so preservation-minded that a Fire Bell Committee has been formed to restore and protect the 90-year-old fire bell that occupies a place of honor in the town square.

This is a town that has a historical society and a history club. It also has dozens of turn-of-the-century Victorian houses and commercial buildings that suffered extensive quake damage because of Los Gatos’ proximity to the San Andreas Fault.

Some buildings may have to be demolished. But residents insist they will save as many as possible. What must be torn down, they say, will be replaced with historical look-alikes.

“We’re taking pictures of all the badly damaged structures so if we have to tear them down, we can reconstruct them,” said Bud Lortz, a senior urban planner for the town.

Lee E. Bowman, head of the planning department, said, “The town has the power to demolish damaged buildings, but that wouldn’t happen without a lot of soul-searching.”

Spread across the slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, Los Gatos and its 28,000 residents overlook the Silicon Valley, California’s high-tech enclave. But in the last 20 years, as the communities on the floor of the Santa Clara Valley rushed to embrace modern housing tracts and industrial parks, Los Gatos spruced up its gingerbread, becoming a picturesque commercial and recreational center.

“People are really proud of this town,” said Peter Jodaites, an artist and part-time employee at the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Co. He was helping clean the coffee shop to ready it for reopening.

Across the street from the coffee company, the old Ford’s Opera House had a huge crack in its three-story facade, and police barricades kept onlookers away. Inside, the antique dealers who now inhabit the building were busy moving out while town officials pondered the damaged building’s fate.

Next door at Main Street Exchange, another old building that houses purveyors of antiques, workers were sweeping shards of broken porcelain and glass into garbage bags. Chairs and armoires were overturned and broken, jewelry cases were smashed, mirrors and picture frames had crashed to the floor.

“I want to tell you,” said Grace Garcia, manager of the exchange, “we’ll be open on the weekend. We’re tough.”

A quarter-mile away, Gail and Bill Golden Birdsong displayed the same determination. After the Victorian house they rented was knocked four feet off its foundation in Tuesday’s quake, they spent three nights in a tent. On Friday night, they planned to stay with Gail’s brother, and then it would be on to a condominium loaned by a friend. They plan to take advantage of a local storage company’s offer to store belongings rent-free for one month.

“I love Los Gatos,” Gail Golden Birdsong said. “My goal is to be back by Dec. 1.”

Los Gatos suffered more damage than any other Santa Clara County community, authorities said. Residents interviewed Friday said they felt grateful that no lives were lost.