The Chamber That Named Big Basin Way Celebrates 100 Years This Saturday

In the fall of 1926, twelve people sat down to decide what to call the road through the middle of Saratoga. It was still Lumber Street then, named for the traffic that ran up it to the mills in the Santa Cruz Mountains. "Big Basin Way" won with nine of the twelve votes. The group voting had just renamed itself too. On October 4, 1926, the Saratoga Improvement Club voted to become the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce, and the street name was one of its first major accomplishments.

That Chamber turned 100 on Sunday, October 4. The public celebration is Saturday, October 10, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Odd Fellows Saratoga, 14414-A Oak St. It is free and serves light hors d'oeuvres and drinks. Donations are welcome but not required, and the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce is taking RSVPs on its site. The anniversary is also a good excuse to read the Village's fall calendar the way that 1926 vote reads. The street got a destination for a name because the people naming it wanted visitors to come up the road, and the Chamber has been building reasons to walk Big Basin Way ever since.

A booster club before it was a business group

The Chamber's roots go back to March 7, 1887, when local residents formed the Saratoga Village Improvement Association. The Saratoga Historical Foundation calls it the first known Saratoga booster association, and it lists the group's goals:

• beautify the area
• lobby county supervisors to grade and regularly sprinkle the roads
• plant hedges
• promote Saratoga

The officers were local figures of some standing. Milton Myrick, a former State Supreme Court justice, was president. James E. Gordon of the Miramonte Ranch was first vice president. L.A. Sage, who owned the Congress Springs Resort, was recording secretary. Sage's seat makes sense. Visitors had been coming to Saratoga for its mineral springs since the resort opened in 1866, and the road through town was the way to reach them.

Some promotional ideas did better than others. Around the turn of the century, when San Jose was the "Garden City" and Los Gatos the "Gem City," Saratoga's boosters tried "Crown of the Valley, the Pasadena of the North." By the Historical Foundation's account, it never caught on widely.

The idea that worked was an event. The Blossom Festival began after two dry years, when Rev. Edwin S. "Sunshine" Williams invited the Bay Area to celebrate the rain coming back. The Historical Foundation dates the first festival to 1900, while a May 2026 Mercury News column puts it in 1899. Either way, its success revived the Improvement Association, which renamed itself the Saratoga Improvement Association and made the festival its main job. In 1904, the year the first Interurban Railway brought in more visitors, a separate Board of Trade formed to push for street lighting and road repairs.

Before Saratoga incorporated, the Chamber worked as something like an unofficial town council, and the Historical Foundation credits it with helping the town incorporate. For most of the 1900s, though, the core of the work stayed close to what those 1887 founders wrote down: keep the road appealing and keep giving people a reason to use it.

The building hosting the party has its own Village history

Saturday's venue fits the story. Saratoga Lodge No. 428 of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows formed in 1912 with 32 members. The hall at 14414 Oak Street came later, in 1948. A 2022 walking-tour brochure from the Historical Foundation says the upper floor is used for meetings and events and the lower floor is rented out.

Before Oak Street, the lodge met on Big Basin Way itself. The Cloud-Smith Building at 14501 Big Basin Way has a corner store dating to 1884 and an attached residence from 1895. By 1918 its second story was in use as an IOOF hall, according to the City of Saratoga's historic resource file on the property. If you walk from the Cloud-Smith corner to Oak Street before the event, you cover most of a century of civic life in the Village in about a block.

Who has stayed on the street, and who just arrived

The Village's business list shows the same pattern at storefront scale. Some names have lasted for generations, some have closed, and new ones keep opening in the gaps.

The two newest arrivals are locally owned. Both Wild Hare stores belong to Lexi Christian. The Haberdashery carries craft supplies such as specialty fabrics, yarns, and hand-printed textiles. The Mercantile sells finished goods from small makers, including apothecary items, gifts, and home décor. Pop Haus Coffee was founded by Anya Kolty and Erik Abramyan.

Foot traffic is still the open question for the Village. In May 2025 the Mercury News ran a story on whether the Village could find an upswing, and it treated foot traffic as a long-running issue. The 1887 founders would have recognized the question, and the Chamber still answers it the way it always has, with events.

The fall calendar runs the old playbook

The 2026 Saratoga Nights season ended on October 1 in the Village parking lot. This year the first-Thursday series added a farmers' market partnership. It sold local produce and gave what was left to the SASCC food pantry. Chamber President Jim Cargill described the series this way to the Mercury News: "Saratoga Nights is all about celebrating the people and businesses that make this town special."

With the summer series over, the Village and the hillside venues around it pick up the rest of the season:

October 10 is the busiest night of the season. The centennial, the first day of the Hakone workshop, and a Mountain Winery show all land on the same Saturday. Hakone's two-day bamboo class costs $500 for members and $550 for everyone else. With only five seats, it is the hardest ticket on the list. Tea ceremony tickets are sold separately from garden admission, so visitors need both.

November 1 is the other busy day. Hakone's tea ceremony and the Montalvo Lowrider Art Showcase happen the same afternoon, and SCAREatoga's scarecrows come down that day too. Montalvo is putting on its showcase with the United Lowrider Council of San Jose and Local Color SJ. The program includes lowriders, art-making, local artists, food vendors, DJs, and dancing.

One detour to plan around

Not every change this fall is a celebration. Valley Water's West Pipeline Phase II repair work runs from fall 2026 through spring 2027 and includes areas near the Cox Reservoir on Cox Avenue. Expect partial, temporary closures of Joe's Trail at Rodeo Creek, plus the dirt path along the Union Pacific line at several Cupertino crossings, including McClellan Road and Stevens Creek Boulevard. Work is scheduled weekdays from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., and most of it happens underground or inside manholes. Neighborhood liaison Aimee Green at Valley Water takes questions at [email protected]. Saturday walks to the centennial and Sunday trail loops fall outside those work hours.

Saratoga Village has kept its character for a century partly because people have kept investing in it. If you own a home near Big Basin Way and want to know how this fall's activity factors into what your property is worth, VKG Real Estate Group can walk you through it. Get a Free Home Valuation, and we will build it on what is actually happening on your street.