Saratoga Apartments
Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, USA. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, in the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 29,843 at the 2000 census.
Saratoga is an upper-class bedroom community in the southwestern corner of the Santa Clara Valley. Saratoga also has many antique shops, French restaurants, and European-themed bakeries. Well-known vineyards in the Saratoga foothills include the Garrod Estate Vineyards and the Mountain Vineyard, both of which were founded in the 1800s.
In July of 2005, CNN/Money and Money magazine named Saratoga the twenty sixth-best place to live in the United States. It is locally known for its affluence, vineyards, and excellent school system. In 2005, the median home price in Saratoga was $1.35 million. Saratoga’s zip code (95070) is listed on the Forbes List as the 42nd most expensive zip code in 2006.
The first European settlement of what is now Saratoga occurred in 1848, when William Campbell (father of Benjamin Campbell, the founder of nearby Campbell, California) constructed a sawmill about 2.5 miles southeast of the present downtown area. An early map noted the area as Campbell’s Gap. In 1851, Martin McCarty, who had leased the mill, built a toll road down to the Santa Clara Valley. The toll gate was located at the present day intersection of Big Basin Way and 3rd St., giving the town its first widely used name: Toll Gate. In 1855 the town received a post office under the name of McCartysville.
Industry soon sprung up: at its height the town had a furniture factory, grist mill, tannery, and a paper factory. To commemorate this newfound productivity, the town was renamed yet again in 1863, this time as Bank Mills. Shortly after this, however, a spring was discovered which had a mineral content similar to the springs at Saratoga Springs, New York. In 1865, the town received its final name, Saratoga. At the same time, a resort hotel was constructed at the springs, and it attracted tourists to the area until it burned down in 1903.
Saratoga then became quietly agricultural, along with much of the rest of the valley. A few vineyards and orchards from this period remain today. After World War II, the town quickly became urbanized, and it incorporated in 1956, partially to avoid being annexed to San Jose. A slogan during the campaign to incorporate the city of Saratoga was “Keep it rural,” according to historian Willys I. Peck. Today the city serves as a bedroom community for upper-middle class Silicon Valley tech workers.
