Advertised in 1906 as the loveliest place on the peninsula, Los Altos was the vision of Paul Shoup, a Southern Pacific railroad executive who sought to make it a commuter town on a new rail line linking Palo Alto and Los Gatos. By 1911, the town consisted of a few homes, office buildings and stores. Eschenbreuchers Hardware Store on Main Street was the first business in town and also housed the Post Office. It wasnt however, until after WWII in the 1950s when most of the towns homes were built -- rambling California single story ranchers on large, flat lots. Los Altos has achieved the perfect California community balance of an attractive, centralized down town flanked by semi-rural residential neighborhoods. Its conveniently located near highways #280, #85, El Camino Real and Foothill Expressway.
Complimenting Los Altos quiet, suburban, tree lined, residential areas, commercial development is strictly limited to downtown and a few shopping centers and office parks along Foothill Expressway and El Camino Real. The downtown area is comprised of several city blocks full of boutique shops, upscale restaurants and office buildings. The Los Altos Farmers Market which occupies a few blocks of downtown State Street from May through September is a Bay Area Parent Family Favorite in Silicon Valley, voted the Best of The Best in 2003. Among Los Altos most famous residents are high tech moguls, Apple Computer founder, Steve Jobs, Adobe Systems co-founders, Charles Geschke and John Warnock and domain name system inventor Paul Mockapetris.
27,693 residents live within the 7-square-miles of Los Altos, earning a median household income of $126,740 yearly. 396 single family homes were sold last year, with a median price of $1,726,860. The desirability of Los Altos with its excellent schools and proximity to Palo Alto has made it a favorite community for custom home builders and developers to construct large, high quality homes which sell at the higher end of the market in the $2 to $3 million price range. Many of the smaller 1950s, ranch-style homes are giving way to these executive homes and the well-to-do buyers attracted to them have helped make the Los Alto 94022 zip code the the19th most affluent zip code in the United States according to the April 2005 issue of American Demographics magazine. Los Altos schools are among the highest scoring in the state with the six elementary and two middle schools scoring an average API of 949. Los Altos High School is one of two high schools in the Mountain View Los Alto High School District. The two high schools serve students from both Los Altos and neighboring Mountain View. Los Alto High School was built on the site of an orchard in 1954 and ranks 10th in the state with an API base score of 791. Most graduates continue on to well-known universities throughout the United States.