Former Los Altos Mayor Jane Reed has had a tremendous impact on the city’s history museum, and she’ll continue to do so even though she and her husband, John, are moving to Southern California next month after 52 years in Los Altos.
The Los Altos History Museum is holding a special fundraiser in honor of Reed, who served two terms on the museum’s board and helped organize the annual crab feed, co-chaired the recent Winchester/Merriman Gala and led the Changing Exhibits Program for 15 years. All donations made for the fundraiser will go toward that program.
Reed has been a fixture in the Los Altos community for decades, getting involved in the Rotary Club and Los Altos Women’s Caucus as well as traveling to the Yucatan in support of a Palo Alto group’s mission to support childhood literacy and environmental education. However, it was Nan Geschke who sparked Reed’s passion for the history museum when she invited Geschke to her help plan a permanent exhibit for the 8,000 square-foot museum in 2001. Reed went on to chair the museum’s exhibits committee starting in 2005 and either oversaw or helped curate each of its exhibitions through 2019.
“The development of the museum has been such a wonderful experience for me,” Reed said in a statement. “I have met so many dear friends, and it has been the perfect fit for my lifetime interests in history and art and working to build community.”
Donations in Reed’s honor can be made at losaltoshistory.org/JaneReed, and contributions up to $5,000 will be matched by Geschke. A video tribute will be posted on the museum’s website starting Oct. 1.
WINDOW BROWSING: More than 20 artists will be in downtown San Jose from Thursday through Saturday painting the windows of vacant storefronts as part of Local Color’s “Hella Gardens” project. The locations include the former home of TechShop, Hank Coca’s Downtown Furniture and the long-vacant Bessler-Haynes building — also known as the Dr. Eu building — on the corner of Second and Santa Clara streets.
Just to make it more fun, the artists will be peppering their creations with images of bugs, creating an insect scavenger hunt for passersby. You can find a detailed map of the window locations at linktr.ee/localcolorsj.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL CONCERT: Distance learning has been hard on everyone, but for many visually impaired students it’s been even harder because some of the specialized equipment they need is sitting unused in classrooms. To help with that issue, Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired is holding an online “back to school” concert fundraiser Sept. 12 to support the 150 visually impaired students it serves.
The South Bay rock-funk-soul band Sweet HayaH — featured in May on NPR’s Tiny Desk concerts — will play the Zoom event, which runs from 4 to 6 p.m. and is co-sponsored by the West San Jose-Campbell Lions Club. Go to www.vistacenterevents.org to register and donate.
RAISING THE ROOF: The announcement that the McDonald’s on North First Street near Brokaw Road is closing may be bad news for fast-food junkies, but it’s also a historic loss of a sort. The restaurant, which dates back 40 years, is one of the few in the area that still has a double-sloped mansard roof.
The distinctive design was introduced in the late 1960s and was everywhere as the burger chain expanded in the 1970s and ’80s. McDonald’s started phasing out the look about 20 years ago, and while the North First Street eatery has been freshened up with contemporary touches over the years, the tiled roof — and its “french fry” dividers — stayed put.
Of course, fans of roadside architecture know that San Jose also boasts one of the original McDonald’s design with the two golden arches. The McDonald’s at 2434 Almaden Road, which uses the original restaurant as a seating area with a modern version attached to it, is one of only two still around in California.
