16660 Cypress Way, Los Gatos, CA 95030

"A thousand feet above sea level, one looks over the vast Santa Clara Valley..." --Sunset Magazine, which featured this house in a 1918 photo tour as one of America's notable homes. Wouldn't you like to live in one extraordinary place in your life? Wake up to a breathtaking view of Silicon Valley every morning. Drink in California history, yet be roughly a mile from Los Gatos High School, one of the best high schools in the nation. At the turn of the century, the Yung See San Fong House drew a steady stream of the era's artists, authors, and statesmen, among them President Hoover, Governor Stephens, Hollywood's Bennett sisters, and Robert Service, the best-selling poet of his age. Today this National Register of Historic Places landmark is one of only a dozen or so registered homes in all of California you can actually live in. Out of the state's 14 million households, it is a literal one-in-a-million experience. An architectural marvel, the house climbs five stories, from the lower level housing the KPCR transmitter and generous covered storage for bicycles and surfboards, to the tippy-top "Crow's Nest" overlooking all of Silicon Valley. In an age when virtually everyone lives in a box, here you get a wonderful tangle of nooks, crannies, and hidden corners. We believe there are approximately 20 doors to the outside, but we're not sure, because we tend to lose count. With four separate porches, there's always somewhere to get away. Guests on tours routinely stop and say, "I have no idea where we are in the house right now." At 4,000 square feet, it somehow feels far larger. There is a large cement path that cuts along the side of one of our hills, and we have set a bench there. This allows you to walk a rolling 0.15-mile loop around the Main House just far enough to clear your head, close enough that you're never really away from home. Halfway around, the bench waits at the point where the hill opens up, and the view goes wide: the tops of the old trees, the rooftops below, and the valley stretching out past them. People sit there longer than they mean to. It's the kind of spot where you bring your morning coffee and lose track of the time, or where you end up at dusk without quite remembering deciding to. On the property, it's become the place you go when you want to watch the day arrive or leave. Pictures of the path and bench are included in the photo gallery. In the spirit of transparency, we should warn you: the deer do not always respect your privacy. On our very first morning in the house, we found one at the bedroom window, trying to work out what we were doing in there. (The drapes went up quickly.) At least once a year we're also visited by wild turkeys strutting their stuff. And despite the deer eating their way through the garden and one unfortunate car scratch courtesy of a passing flock of turkeys we'd say that animals and humans coexist happily here. As we plant the new fruit trees, we're figuring out how to keep the deer bandits out of the garden. For now they've been raiding our fig tree, generously leaving us only the fruit at the very top. By the way, if you like figs, you'll have them in abundance, and some of our previous guest show up to take away a yearly stash of the fruit. The home is old, and some bathrooms are shared. The Crow's Nest and two bedrooms share the upstairs bathroom. On the main floor there are two more rooms that work as bedrooms or offices, along with an enormous main-floor bathroom when the house was built, outdoor plumbing was still common, and this bathroom was the talk of every visitor. There is also an external wing, connected by a floating hallway. In 1922, as the Senator's mother grew older, the family built a special room for her beneath their own bedroom. We've always called it the "Mother's Room." Both the Primary Bedroom and the Mother's Room are large and have their own bathrooms dated but fully workable, and on the list for a future renovation. The Mother's Room also has its own external entrance and full bathroom, offering a private, self-contained space separate from the rest of the house. The home's creators, Senator Sanborn Young and his wife Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young, were larger-than-life figures. He was a state Senator known for his deep convictions and his love of dogs, and a founding member of the La Rinconada Golf Club. She was a writer whose plays ran on Broadway and whose screenplays reached Hollywood, with legions of fans who craved each new book about the singular life of Californians and the joys of self-reliance. In addition to her 16 novels and other fictional works, we know of that Ruth Comfort Mitchell Young's stories and plays were adapted into films during the silent era. The Price of Happiness (1916) was based on one of her plays, and it was followed the same year by The Blindness of Love (1916). Two later adaptations, Perjury (1921) and Into Her Kingdom (1926), continued her presence on screen, along with a lesser-known fifth film, A Six Shootin' Romance (1926). Her writing were to the common man, spoke of women's independance, and her legion of fans nominated her for a Nobel Prize for literature in 1941, one of the 15 candidates. (Although the committee quickly dismissed the idea that a popular novelist should be considered, the nomination speaks to her legion of fans.) The Youngs were active in Los Gatos. Their generosity reached well beyond their own walls: Senator Young's financial support helped Mary Orem assemble the $2,000 down payment toward the $20,000 purchase that seeded what became Hillbrook School, and the Youngs donated the lot adjoining the Town Hall to Los Gatos, allowing the town to expand its civic heart. Over the years, this property has been home to a wonderful group of people, each of whom left their mark. But for the first time in a hundred years, the Main House isn't looking for a renter. It's looking for someone who wants to be part of loving, guiding, and dreaming up how to make magic here. The owner has been called to Washington State for his business for at least the next ten years, and he's seeking someone to work alongside a talented group of people to renew this property's heritage. Whether that means supporting Los Gatos's only public radio station based right here on the grounds or building community with the other caretakers and visitors who share the property, this is more than a place to live. It's for someone who wants to leave their own mark on both the history of California and the life of the local community. We believe this place is at its best when it's shared and when the people who live here bring their own traditions and open the doors to the wider world. We welcome people of every background and culture, and we love seeing residents celebrate what matters to them. One household on the property, for example, hosts a large annual cultural festival that fills their place with visitors, music, and food from their heritage. When they ask, "Is it alright to have this many guests that day?" we tell them it's the whole mission of the property. We want the people who live here to see it as a place to share with those around them, whatever form that sharing takes. The current owners are in the midst of moving and handing the property off to a manager, but they want to personally get to know the people who might take over the Main House. If you're simply looking for a place to live at a certain price per square foot, this isn't the right place for you. At over four acres, the property is vast, and we're eager to restore the garden, where the Youngs were said to grow all their own produce on site. Fed by a natural spring, the land has plenty of water, and we've hired a gardener to begin the multi-year process of planting up to 40 varieties of fruit trees and grapes. But if you're looking for something truly special for yourself, the people you care about, and your community we want to talk to you. If you want to build community with thoughtful, generous people and share a special place with the people in your life and your guests, we want to talk to you. And if you're willing to get a text from Daniel, the station manager at KPCR, asking you to "check if the power is on in the transmit room," we really want to talk to you. Yes, this place will ask things of you. But that's what belonging is all about. We're hoping to find the special person who understands both the magic and the responsibility. We aren't asking for much of your time or money others will handle the upgrades we have planned over the coming decade but we are looking for someone who cares, and who wants to share this special place. Update: As we've begun talking with prospective tenants, a few more details. The house dates from 1916, and parking and access are unique. Because of the radio station and the size of the property, we ask that you tour the property before submitting an application. If you're remote and can't visit in person, we'll arrange an extensive FaceTime (or equivalent) tour. Renter will pay for all utilities, but subject to discussion about property radio station. One month rent required as damage deposit. Parts of house are of significant historical importance to USA history, and suplemental process and brief material will be required to be read and acknowegled to preserve the nature of the house and to ensure the community guidelines are maintained for the property with other guests. Traditional "Servants Quarters" that occupied the lower section of the main house, and served as the Servants residence, is reserved for access for house utilities, and provide a maintence area for staff responsible for grounds, radio station and house servicing. Dogs are highly encouraged because this has been historical passion of the Senator and his wife. However, we will discuss parameters to ensure that we don't damage the historical property.