Woodside, California

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For other places with the same name, see Woodside

Woodside (pop. 5,352) is a small town in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula.

1 History and culture
2 Geography and climate
3 Environmental features
4 Government
5 Demographics
6 Film and television
7 Notable residents
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] History and culture

The Woodside area was originally home to natives belonging to the Ohlone tribe. In 1769, led by Gaspar de Portolà, Spanish explorers searching for San Francisco Bay camped at a site near Woodside.

Woodside is said to be the oldest English-speaking settlement in the Southern part of the San Francisco Peninsula. The first English-speaking settlers arrived in the early 19th century to log the rich stands of redwoods. Charles Brown constructed the first sawmill in Woodside on his Mountain Home Ranch around 1838. His adobe house, built in 1839, still stands today. By mid-century, the Woodside area could boast a dozen mills producing building materials for a booming San Francisco.

In 1849, during the California Gold Rush, 20-year-old Mathias Alfred Parkhurst purchased 127 acres of timberland and named it “Woodside"; of course, this name kept. By the late 19th century, Woodside was home to country estates. The town was incorporated in 1956 to prevent urbanization, and it still retains a rural residential character, though it is a short commute to Silicon Valley.

Today, Woodside is among the wealthiest small towns in the United States. Affordable housing is unavailable; vacant lots, were any to be found, would sell for over a million dollars. Several well-known people live here, including Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation; Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel and originator of Moore's Law; John Thompson, CEO of Symantec; Neil Young, rock singer, who owns a 1500 acre ranch there; Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar has a house here, but actually lives in Palo Alto; Shirley Temple Black, US ambassador and former child actress; Michelle Pfeiffer, actress, and her husband David E. Kelley, producer; Thomas Siebel, founder of Siebel Systems; Scott Cook, co-founder of Intuit, Inc.; John Doerr, venture capitalist; and Joan Baez, folk singer. Woodside is also home to Koko, the gorilla who was taught American Sign Language.

The very small business district includes a few restaurants (Buck's, Woodside Bakery & Cafe, John Bentley's, and The Village Pub), a grocery store (Roberts Market), a hardware store, and a nursery. The town is home to the famous "Buck's of Woodside" restaurant, which is well known among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs as the location where many VC investment deals have been signed. The inside of the restaurant is decorated with historic Silicon Valley artifacts.

Horses are part of the local culture. Many residents keep horses, and the town government maintains a network of horse trails. The town is also quite popular among local cyclists and draws them in large numbers on summer weekends. Most popular road cycling routes include Old La Honda Rd., King's Mountain Rd, Canada Rd., Skyline Rd. and Highway 84.

The Woodside Fire District is a special district serving Woodside, Portola Valley and unincorporated areas including Ladera, Los Trancos Woods, Vista Verde, Emerald Lake, and Skyline/State Route 35 area.

Dr. Carl Djerassi founded an artists colony in the community in memory of his late daughter. The Djerassi Resident Artists Program is one of several Bay Area programs which house artists in an environment where they can be creative without worring about how to pay the rent. Others include Villa Montalvo in Saratoga and Marin Headlands Center for the Arts north of San Francsico.

An entity named the Littlefield Foundation calls Woodside home. The operation was created by Jacques Littlefield, who is described in the press as being a stockholder holding a significant stake in General Electric. The foundation maintains a collection of armored military vehicles on a large Woodside property. Tours are occasionally offered to the public by prior arrangement. Sometimes, demonstrations of the vehicles are staged. Littlefield was in the news in recent years when he is alleged to have tried to acquire a Scud missile erector-launcher for the collection. The US Customs Service would not release it when the vehicle arrived at the Port of Long Beach. News accounts say the vehicle is now stored at a site in the United Kingdom.

All in all, Woodside is an extraordinarily beautiful town, very lush and green. It is adjacent to the campus of Stanford University, which is east of the town.

[edit] Geography and climate

Woodside is located at 37°25′15″N, 122°15′35″W (37.420704, -122.259777)^GR1.

Woodside is located on the San Francisco Peninsula, midway between San Jose and San Francisco, just north of Silicon Valley, in San Mateo County. The infamous San Andreas Fault runs through town. This fault is a major source of earthquake activity in California, including the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Much of Woodside is wooded, with redwoods dominating in the western hills and more oaks and eucalyptus in the lower areas. San Francisco Bay lies to the east, while Pacific Ocean beaches lie to the west. The Santa Cruz mountains separate Woodside from the ocean and extend down to Monterey Bay about forty miles south.

As is true of most of the California coastal areas, weather is mild during most of the year. Summers are dry and can be hot; winter temperatures rarely dip much below freezing. Snowfall is extremely rare. Hills between Woodside and the Pacific coast make fog much less prevalent than in nearby San Francisco.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 30.5 km² (11.8 mi²), all land.

The nearest cities and towns are Redwood City, Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Atherton, San Carlos, Belmont, East Palo Alto and Palo Alto.

[edit] Environmental features

Woodside has a variety of habitat types including California oak woodland and riparian zones. There is considerable biodiversity present, Woodside being within the California Floristic Province. Notable species present include the rare and endangered species Acanthomintha duttonii, the San Mateo Thornmint'

[edit] Government

Woodside uses a council-manager system of government.

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^GR2 of 2000, there were 5,352 people, 1,949 households, and 1,516 families residing in the town. The population density was 175.7/km² (455.1/mi²). There were 2,030 housing units at an average density of 66.6/km² (172.6/mi²). The racial makeup of the town was 90.21% White, 0.37% African American, 0.15% Native American, 4.99% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 1.31% from other races, and 2.86% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 4.33% of the population.

There are 1,949 households, of which 31.6% have children under the age of 18. 68.8% were married couples living together, 5.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 22.2% were non-families. 15.9% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.74 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the town the population was spread out with 23.4% under the age of 18, 3.6% from 18 to 24, 24.1% from 25 to 44, 32.9% from 45 to 64, and 16.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there were 98.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.1 males.

The median household income in the town is $171,126, and the median family income is $196,505. The per capita income for the town was $104,667. About 1.6% of families and 2.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.4% of those under age 18 and 4.8% of those age 65 or over.