Stanford Weekend Acres
Neighborly respect for the land and privacy

Click the map to view a larger image

Tucked between a busy traffic corridor on Alpine Road on the one side and San Francisquito Creek and the Stanford Golf Course on the other, Stanford Weekend Acres is easy to miss. Some seven short streets make up the San Mateo County neighborhood, but in many ways they feel independent of each other.

Charles Westbrook moved his family to Bishop Lane back in 1964, when there were many little houses on the street originally built as weekend retreats for San Franciscans. His property had "just a shack" on it then. It was torn down to make room for the three-bedroom home he still lives in today. It was a big house then, but not big compared to today's standards and the two-story stucco "large homes they recently put in that are actually out place, right on the creek" at the end of his dead-end street.

Mr. Westbrook feels great about his neighborhood, fondly recalling a recent block party on Halloween. He notes only a few children live on Bishop Lane now, "we've got more professional types, and quite a few of the houses are rentals."
Mary Blazensky and her husband live around the corner, and "stumbled" on the neighborhood 16 years ago. They soon discovered how special the location is, so close to the Piers Lane entrance to the Stanford Dish. "We are constantly running up there, we used to take the dog up there, and then the kids in strollers, and now, I run the Dish all the time. It's my total outlet, my sanctuary," Mrs. Blazensky says.

She notes that most of the people living on her street are older, or working, so her kids don't have many playmates in the immediate vicinity. She mentions one family she knows who lives a couple of blocks away on Homer Lane, a cul de sac where hippies flocked in the 1960s, and author Ken Kesey once lived. Mrs. Blazensky describes the current residents as "a retro group who love their little tiny cottages and do communal laundry like in Guerneville."

Mosaic pottery and a vintage washer decorate some front lawns, giving the street a somewhat funky appearance. Every Fourth of July the neighbors band together for a block party, and in between, they keep up an active e-mail correspondence.
Jean Harman says living a couple of streets away on Stowe Lane, she feels a world apart from Homer Lane and the rest of the community.

"We step out our gate onto the golf course and we're near nothing, that's why we like it," says Ms. Harman. She finds the view relaxing, and the setting nice and quiet, except for the occasional raccoon or skunk.

Her family built the house more than 40 years ago, paying $40,000 for the land. Now she estimates it's worth well over a million dollars. Over time houses have filled in around them, and undergone remodeling, but a row of former summer homes still exists with virtually no yards. She has seen many neighbors come and go over the decades, but not so many families lately. Ms. Harman says some very young children live down the street, but her observation is more professional people are moving in these days, looking for starter homes.
"We don't know all our neighbors," Ms. Harman says, reflecting that she and her husband are probably some of the longest established residents in the area.

-- Kate Daly