HISTORY

Mayors
On the rainy night of Tuesday, January 10, 1956,
the votes were cast and the polls closed at 7:00
p.m. By a close vote of 424 yes to 339 no votes
the Town of Los Altos Hills emerged as Santa
Clara County’s 14th city. In the town of 2,500, 65 percent
of 1,200 total registered voters had cast their ballots.
When the town was
incorporated, the old
Purissima School served
as a makeshift town
hall (see opposite page,
bottom). The original
single-building school
was built in 1901 for
$1,051. It was sold
in the mid-1960s and
renovated to become
the Little Chapel in the
Hills. It is now known
as St. Luke’s Chapel
in the Hills.
State Supreme Court
Justice John Shenk officiated
at the swearing-in
ceremony of the first
Town Council, and
the official date of the
Town’s incorporation
became January 27, 1956.
The first Town
Council (shown on
opposite page, top)
consisted of Sidney W. Treat,
retired executive and teacher, first
officiating Mayor; T. A. Dungan,
Bechtel Corporation chemical
engineer, deputy Mayor; C. Easton
Rothwell, director of the Stanford
University Hoover Institute and
former Secretary-General of the
U.S. delegation to the United
Nations; Leighton M. Bledsoe,
attorney; and Arthur E. Fowle,
philanthropist, replaced by son
John “Jack” Fowle.
Arthur Fowle,
at age 85, polled the
highest number of
votes in the race
and was slated to
become the Town’s
first mayor. When
he suffered a heart
attack and had to
resign on the advice
of his physician, he
appointed his son, John, to take his
place on the council.
The Town Council immediately
voted to continue existing
county services, with the
exception of the County Planning
Commission. The original Town
Planning Commission consisted
of Richard S. Bullis, Richard S.
Dawson, Raymond O. Hoefler,
Proctor Melquist, Thomas
Sherlock, William Simrell, Jr., and
James Stedman.