The California and the West study group invites you to tour the exhibition at the History Museum of Los Gatos, American Bohemia: The Cats Estate in Los Gatos. The exhibition explores the storied lives of Charles Erskine Scott Wood and Sara Bard Field, acclaimed literary figures and intellectuals, and their home, which became a gathering place for some of America’s most significant artists and writers, including Robinson Jeffers, Ansel Adams, John Steinbeck, Ralph Stackpole, and Lincoln Steffens. Please contact Ann Harlow if you are interested in the 2:00 p.m. tour, and let her know if you would like to have dinner in Los Gatos and attend the 7-9 p.m. program, “a salon-style evening of conversation, food, and drink with scholars of the lives of Sara Bard Field and C.E.S. Wood and their time in California.” The program will take place at the Former Los Gatos Library, future home of The Museums of Los Gatos.
The Cats Estate was recently sold, but a series of short videos of the property are still viewable at realtor Duane Adams’s website.
The History Museum of Los Gatos is housed at the old Forbes Mill Annex, an 1880 stone building. The name Los Gatos goes back to an 1840 Mexican land grant, El Rancho Rinconada de los Gatos, named for the cougars and bobcats that still inhabit the nearby hills. Sara Bard Field and C.E.S. Wood commissioned sculptor Robert Paine to create the pair of eight-foot concrete statues of wild cats that can still be seen from Highway 17 at the gateway to the estate. They have become a kind of symbol of the town.
Downtown Los Gatos also has many historic buildings. There are some interesting local history photographs at the Los Gatos Public Library website.
