Downtown & Santa Cruz Avenue

Early Los Gatos traded on Main Street, on both banks of the creek. Fires in 1891 and 1901 burned much of it, and after the 1901 fire destroyed 60 buildings, business moved north onto Santa Cruz Avenue. The old core along West Main Street, North Santa Cruz Avenue and University Avenue was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1991. (Wikipedia)

Look up at the corner of Main and Santa Cruz: the La Cañada Building, or Hofstra Block, built from 1891 to 1905, has a round bay window under a witch-hat roof. Across Main Street, the 1920 First National Bank building carries reliefs of the California missions over its windows. (Wikipedia)

Trains ran through the middle of town until 1959, and the old station site is now Town Plaza and the post office. The Old Town shopping center fills the 1923 buildings of the University Avenue School. (Wikipedia)

On Sunday mornings the plaza holds the Los Gatos Certified Farmers’ Market, with more than 40 local farmers and food makers, and on summer Wednesday evenings it fills for the free Jazz on the Plazz concerts. (Farmers’ market, Jazz on the Plazz)