Castro City, Mountain View

When Gary Castro first moved to Castro City in 1979, he had no idea he was living in a neighborhood that shared his last name. "A lot of people in the neighborhood think I have some ties," he joked.

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As far as he knows, Gary has no connections to the family of Mariano Castro, whose Spanish rancho once encompassed almost all the land that Mountain View was built on. The Castro mansion stood just across the street from Castro City in what is now Rengstorff Park.

Up until the late 1950s, the neighborhood was surrounded by farmland. Its isolation helped fuel a civic identity distinct from the rest of Mountain View. With its own train stop, Castro Station, its own grocery, Castro City Market, and its own founding family, the Castros, the neighborhood came to be known as "Castro City."

However, Castro City was not this quirky enclave's original moniker. In 1908 a land speculator subdivided the neighborhood and named it "University Park" in hopes that it would become a country suburb for Stanford professors and San Franciscans. The neighborhood, bounded by Rengstorff Avenue, Stanford Avenue, College Street and Leland Avenue, still retains street names that tie it to this early vision.

Facts: CHILDCARE AND PRESCHOOLS: Oaktree Nursery School, 2100 University Ave.; Wonder World, 2015 Latham St. (nearby) FIRE STATION: No. 3, 301 N. Rengstorff Ave. PARKS: Castro Park, Toft Avenue at Latham Street; Rengstorff Park, Rengstorff at Crisanto avenues POST OFFICE: Mountain View, 211 Hope St. PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Mtn. View-Whisman School District -- Castro Elementary School, Graham Middle School; Mtn. View-Los Altos Union High School District -- Los Altos High School SHOPPING: Mi Pueblo Market, Rengstorff Avenue at Leland Avenue; San Antonio Shopping Center, California Street at Showers Drive MEDIAN 2007 HOME PRICE: $830,000 ($634,200-$849,000) # HOMES SOLD: 3

"University Park" remained largely undeveloped until the 1930s when cannery worker cottages were moved here from Campbell. Over time the neighborhood became an affordable locale for Mexican farm and cannery workers who established a close-knit community that is still very present today.

Keith Teleki, who has lived in Castro City since 2004, is fascinated by the neighborhood's rich history. "There's so many more layers to it than a lot of other neighborhoods in the area. It's less of a cookie-cutter suburb," he said. "I think it should be celebrated more, there should be a plaque or something."

If there is ever a plaque made in honor of Castro City's history, it should commemorate the pluck of long-time residents such as Mary-Luz "Lucy" Garcia, who helped save this unique enclave from the bulldozers in the 1960s. Garcia, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1945, still remembers when one city councilmember publicly called her neighborhood "the disgrace of Mountain View." Back then, city hall was eager to replace Castro City with "modern" apartments. Its modest old cottages and 25-foot-wide lots were seen as substandard. Castro City was just an obstacle in Mountain View's path towards progress.

However, the residents of Castro City refused to be forced out of their neighborhood. Garcia and her neighbors protested the use of federal redevelopment funds that would have mandated the complete demolition of the neighborhood. The city eventually backed down and only condemned those houses that were seen as irreparable.

Garcia owned one of those homes, but was able to build a new house on her property. Since then, she's witnessed a gradual transformation of Castro City. "They're building so many two-story houses and squeezing them into small lots," she said, adding that she no longer feels she has privacy. "They're crowding our small homes," she added.

In recent years a spurt of new homes have risen beneath its graceful old oaks. For better and for worse, housing prices have also gone up significantly.

The rest of Mountain View seems to have finally discovered what long-time Castro City residents like Garcia have long cherished.

-- Nick Perry