| Westridge, Portola
Valley
Former Portola Valley mayor and Sunset Publisher Bill Lane has fond memories of Westridge that stretch back to his childhood in the 1930's. An active Boy Scout, he went camping near a spring close to where he and his wife Jean later built their Westridge home. It was Ormondale Ranch back then, but by the late 1940's the land was being sold off to developers. More than 50 years ago, the Westridge Company purchased 750 acres of the old ranch, and a neighborhood central to the history and heart of Portola Valley was born.
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Today Westridge Drive still has many of the live oaks planted in the 1920's along what was then a grand drive leading to the heart of Joseph Macdonough's Ormondale Ranch, home of the world famous race horse, Ormond. Thanks to the foresight of the developers Jesse Hayes, Elmore Hutchison and Albert Evers, the rural beauty of the rolling hills has been largely preserved. The neighborhood backs onto Stanford's Jasper Ridge nature preserve. Each lot is a minimum of 2 1/2 acres and bridle path easement on each home creates a sense of continual open space.
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Westridge facts:
CHILD CARE & PRESCHOOLS: Windmill Preschool, 4141 Alpine Road, Portola Valley; Ladera Community Church Preschool, 3300 Alpine Road, Portola Valley; Carillon Preschool at Christ Church, 815 Portola Road, Portola Valley; New Horizons (after school care), 200 Shawnee Pass, Portola Valley
FIRE STATION: Woodside Fire Protection District, Portola Valley Station, 135 Portola Road, Portola Valley
PUBLIC SCHOOLS: Portola Valley School District -- Ormondale School (K-3), 200 Shawnee Pass, Portola Valley; Corte Madera School (4-8), 4575 Alpine Road, Portola Valley Sequoia Union High School District -- Woodside High School, 199 Churchill Ave., Woodside
SHOPPING: Nathhorst Triangle, Portola Road at Alpine Road; Village Square, 884 Portola Road; Ladera Shopping Center, 3130 Alpine Road, Portola Valley
Median Home Price: $4,030,000 ($1,850,000-$7,400,000)
No. of homes sold: 4
Neighborhood association: Westridge Architecture Supervising Committeevising Committee |
Many of the rules and architectural restrictions of Westridge are part of the subdivision deed, laid out in a little blue booklet called "Protective Restrictions and Regulations at Westridge" that covers everything from how many horses a property owner may keep (five), to a prohibition of hogs, to the approval of all landscaping and home designs.
You won't find many gated chateaus in Westridge. With the strict oversight of the Westridge Architectural Supervising Committee, most homes are barely visible from the road.
"Noticeable along all streets is the lack of pretension among the homes. The houses do not impose on the landscape a demand for the viewer's attention," is how the little blue booklet puts it.
Marianne Thompson has lived in Westridge for 54 years. When she and her husband moved there, they paid less than $8,000 for their lot. "It was not the stylish, exclusive neighborhood it is now," she says.
Her family moved to Westridge so the children could have a horse, she says. "We still have a horse, but it's too old to ride. It's more of a pet horse," she says, although cars have taken the place of many of the horses in the neighborhood.
With an easement on each property contributing to the more than 10 miles of private hiking and riding trails, there are more miles of trails in Westridge than roads.
"My brother and I probably rode horses before we could walk, so I wanted to have horses," Bill Lane says.
Mr. Lane helped incorporate Portola Valley as a town. A member of the first town council, Mr. Lane believes the governance of Westridge influenced how the town was set up.
"Westridge inspired many of the town's regulations," he says.
After almost 50 years of living and raising a family in Westridge, the Lanes are still enjoying an active lifestyle here. They are working on creating a conservation easement on their 10-acre property.
-- Sharon Driscoll |
