My grandmother was almost ninety- four years old when she passed away from dementia. She was born, raised and spent her whole life in Santa Clara County, mostly in the Rose Lawn area of San Jose. When she passed, our family was fortunate enough to save her home at 438 Rutland Avenue. Built in 1925 with two bedrooms and one bath, this eight hundred and forty square foot Craftsman style bungalow with its welcoming front porch was constructed on a four thousand one hundred and twenty-foot lot in the area once known as Rancho de Los Coches.
This twenty two- hundred acre piece of land was deeded to Santa Clara Mission Indian Roberto Balmerino in 1844 and sold it to an American settler Antonio Suñol two years later. During the 1860’s the Rancho de Los Coches area was sold to Henry Naglee and subdivided and the area surrounding the eventual Rose lawn area became known as Buena Vista. (https://www.bvnasj.org/then-and-now)Mr. Naglee continued to break off and sell other pieces of this land and in 1873 the Burbank area was purchase by Mr. Elisha Lafayette Bradley. Fruit trees were planted and the area began to develop along the San Jose-Los Gatos Interurban railroad. By 1904 the south side of this railroad became known as Rose Lawn. (http://www.burbankscc.org/community/)
Antone Golarte was the first known relative to live on Rutland Avenue. According to census records, he was thought to have immigrated to California between 1880 and 1884. In 1900 he was living at 429 Bellamy Street in Santa Clara with his wife Mary and their two young boys Aloysius, my great grandfather, and Charles. Antone was a farmer who could not read, write or speak English. The census has Antone listed as single and Mary listed as his sister, this could have been because of his language barrier and the fact that Mary was eight years younger than him. One interesting note on this census is that the Costa family was also living on this street at the time. Nineteen years later Al and Carrie would be married and living on Rutland Avenue.
The family is not found again until the census in 1910 where Antone and Mary are not only living on a farm on Fruitdale Avenue in Campbell, but have a new addition to their family, another son Clarence. Sadly, between 1900 and 1910 Mary lost two babies. Any other information on this is unknown. Also according to this census Antone considers his occupation in orchard and brick yard. Being an orchardist it is easy to see why he would have been drawn to an area abundant in horticulture. Both the Golart’s and Costa’s have a deep background in the orchards and canneries well known to Santa Clara County. His second occupation working at a local brick yard most likely would have been with the San Jose Brick Company located at 1916 Fruitdale Avenue. Brick making was also an important foundation in San Jose history and the bricks found around the Rutland avenue house could have been made and laid by Antone’s own hands. (https://calbricks.netfirms.com/brick.sj.html)
It was between 1912 and 1913 that Antone settled his family to the house at 111 Rutland Avenue. In 1915 the City Directory shows he owns a home at 123 Rutland Avenue. Until title records can be found and pulled it is unknown if 111 and 123 are the same house and if Antone purchased the house he was renting. 1915 was also the year the World’s Fair made it to San Francisco. In these early days before World War I it would have been quite a trip and expense to experience this once in a lifetime event!
During the early days on Rutland avenue this area of Burbank later known as Rose Lawn was a thriving close knit community. The citizens in the early 1900’s created their own school, fire department and sanitation service and as a unincorporated community, they had access to the Interurban railroad from 1905 until the late 1920’s. The original Burbank School was built in 1906 and was the school my great-grandfather Al and his siblings attended. Five generations of our family have studied at this still one school district once made for the benefit of local farmers’ children.
From 1915 to 1925 Antone Golart continued to live at 123 Rutland Avenue. On June 5th, 1917 at twenty-one years old, his son Al, my great-grandfather, registered for the draft. According to his draft card he was living at 868 Shotwell Street in San Francisco and working for Union Ironworks. Union Ironworks was instrumental in building naval ships but it was also known for building locomotives and later became a powerhouse for PG&E. Union Iron Works was taken over by Bethlehem Steel in 1906 but continued to use the name Union Ironworks until after the war began in 1917. (http://shipbuildinghistory.com/shipyards/large/bethsanfrancisco.htm)
When the war ended in November of 1918 its possible my great grandfather proposed to my great grandmother in celebration of new times ahead. One year almost to the day, on November 16th, 1919 my great-grandfather Aloysius Manuel Golart married his childhood sweetheart Caroline Isabel Costa and she was added to the family living at 123 Rutland Avenue on the 1920 census and from this time until 1923 Al and Carrie continued to live with Antone, Mary and Al’s brothers at 123 Rutland Avenue. Al and Carrie are not listed in the 1922 San Jose City Directory and are not listed at 123 Rutland Avenue. They may have been living with the Costa family as their daughter Betty was born in 1922. It is hard to know at this time without looking into other records. Both of Antone’s other sons however are listed with Antone until 1927. In 1923 Al is once again listed with Antone at the Rutland address and in 1924 my grandmother Thelma was born. The records for 1924 and 1925 do not change as it is believed Antone’s family continues to live under his roof in the little two bedroom, one bath house. His two little granddaughters growing up among the Golart family.
1926 was the year the address changed. City directory records show the Antone and Mary and the two younger sons, Charles and Clarence still live on Rutland Avenue but the address is now 105 Rutland. This could be an error and the address could actually be 150 Rutland since the 1927 census shows Al and Carrie living at the 150 address and it is around this time Thelma remembered living at the house that has been known as 438 Rutland Avenue to family.
More research is needed at this time since there are still many questions about the houses along this street. In 1920 when the family was at 123 Rutland, a man by the last name Camp was living at the 150 address but according to county assessor records this could not be the house we know today since the 438 address was not built until 1925. In 1926 Al and Carrie had their own little house at 115 Raymond Avenue. More than forty years later his granddaughter Gayle bought a house on the same street and lived there with her children for 5-6 years. During Al’s time on Raymond, although short, he was a boxmaker for a local packing company. This company may possibly have been the California Pine Box Distributors located on Auzurais Street. It would have been an important job in Santa Clara Valley as fruit growing, canning and packing were keeping the economy alive.
In 1927, after fifteen years on Rutland Avenue, Antone passes the house at 150 to his son Al and moves with Mary and Clarence to 98 Leland Avenue. City Directory records indicate he is the owner of both the Rutland Avenue house and the house on Leland. Charles has married and moved to 64 Raymond Avenue. Later, he and his wife Virginia move to Topeka Avenue and settle there for several years.
From 1927 to 1932 AL and Carrie lived at 150 Rutland Avenue. The family story goes that Carrie saved her money from her job at the fruit cannery to buy the 438 Rutland Avenue house for two thousand dollars. Since the family was living at 123 Rutland until 1926 and the 438 house was built in 1925 this would be possible and the reason for the change in address. More research into the neighborhood is needed to confirm the family lore.
The San Jose City Directory from 1928 is the first known record for Al Golart working for PG & E. His obituary states that he worked for the company for about forty-two years! In 1928 he was working as a ditchman for the company, the next year he was a machine operator. For some reason the City directory lists Al and Carrie living at 59 Raymond Avenue in 1928 but 150 Rutland after that and until 1933 when they are again back on Rutland. In 1930 Al and Carrie are on census records at 150 Rutland Avenue and cousin Eugene Carrera is also living with them.
In 1933 their son Ronald was born in the front bedroom of the house at 438 Rutland. The address at the time was 148 Rutland Avenue and it does not become 438 until about 1941. The story of my uncle’s birth has been told to everyone who enters. When Nana Carrie was ready to give birth, her husband Al told his two girls Betty and Thelma that their mama was sick and they would need to go stay with their grandparents Costa in Santa Clara. Once Ronnie was born the girls were brought home just as the doctor was leaving. Noticing the new addition to the family the girls asked how the baby got there and the doctor replied, “in my little black doctor bag of course!”
1933 is the first known record to show the house address as 148 Rutland Avenue. It continues to show Antone as the owner up until 1938. Antone and Mary live at 98 Leland Avenue until about 1936 when he is not found in the San Jose City directory. He has probably moved to Santa Clara at this point and directories for the City of Santa Clara were not available online at this time. The 1940 census shows Antone and Mary at 363 Santa Clara- Los Gatos Road. This was also declared their same address in 1935. More records are needed to determine other information about the family.
The 1940 census shows that Al and Carrie owned their home on 148 Rutland Avenue. Betty was in her second year of High school at Santa Clara and Thelma, at age fifteen was in her first. Ron was only seven and in first grade. By the time the city directory came out in 1941 the address had officially changed to the address we all remember, 438 Rutland Avenue. 1941 was also the year the United States entered World War II. It was Ron’s ninth birthday when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. Two months later at just seventeen years old, Thelma marries her childhood sweetheart Harry Wendell Camara. Four months after Thelma and “Wendy” were married, at age nineteen, he registered to join the war.
Between the time Thelma and Wendy were married in 1942 until their daughter Gayle was born in 1945 it is believed they lived with Thelma’s parents Al and Carrie. Since Wendy was away at war this would have made sense for Wendy’s bride to be with family. Gayle was born on May 22, 1945 while her father was fighting the war. She was born in a hospital and would have come to the family home on Rutland. She would have taken her first steps here and she would meet her father here, at a year and a half years old, when he came home in 1946.
After Thelma was diagnosed with Sundowners and eventually Dementia, she went to live with her daughter Gayle and then an assisted living home. Her only grandson, Erik, carried on the long family tradition of living and caring for the family home. He lives there today and raising his own children there. The home has been passed down to Gayle and her grandchildren, Anton Golarte’s three times great grandchildren, are the 6thgeneration to live on Rutland Avenue.
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