Chemeketa Park, California
Chemeketa Park is an unincorporated community of approximately 150 homes located in Lexington Hills, in the Santa Cruz Mountains in Santa Clara County, California. The postal designation for Chemeketa Park is "Los Gatos 95033", although it lies approximately five miles South of the official boundaries of the incorporated town of Los Gatos. The community is in area codes 408 and 669.
Nearby communities are Redwood Estates, Aldercroft Heights, and the ghost town of Holy City. Chemeketa Park is accessed off of State Route 17, on Old Santa Cruz Highway along the Big Moody Curve.
Chemeketa Park was developed in 1925 and 1926 by J.B. Balcomb, a civil engineer from Palo Alto who had acquired a 63-acre (250,000 m2) orchard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. An advertisement in the Sunday, June 20, 1926 edition of the San Jose Mercury Herald lists a "pre-opening sale" of lots "as low as $50.00."
Initially, lots were used for vacation cabins. The mountain communities of Chemeketa Park and Redwood Estates, etc., were considered too remote, and too difficult to access, for year-round living. Lots were advertised to Bay Area families as a summer retreat, far from the stress of city living in San Francisco or San Jose.
By the mid-1930s, with the improvement of roads and water systems, many residents began occupying their cabins year-round and combining smaller lots into larger parcels.
J.B. Balcomb was killed in an automobile accident in the summer of 1927. His widow and son continued the sale of lots at Chemeketa Park. Balcombs continued to own property in the development until the mid-1960s.
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