![\"Neighbors](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/SJM-L-PIZARRO-COL-0626-02-1.jpg\")
Neighbors line up to check in at a block party celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Laurel Park East neighborhood in Santa Clara on Saturday, June 6, 2026. (Photo by Susan Peters)\u00a0<\/p>\nFor Santa Clara, 1976 was a pretty big year. It\u2019s when the amusement park then known as Marriott\u2019s Great America opened its doors, quickly becoming the Mission City\u2019s most famous landmark until Levi\u2019s Stadium, or perhaps Nvidia\u2019s headquarters came along.<\/p>\n
But that wasn\u2019t the biggest deal of the year for the residents of the city\u2019s Laurel Park East neighborhood, off Pruneridge Avenue and San Tomas Expressway. It also was the year the 106-home subdivision opened, and residents celebrated the 50th anniversary with a block party earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Neighbors line up to check in at a block party celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Laurel Park East neighborhood in Santa Clara on Saturday, June 6, 2026. (Photo by Susan Peters)\u00a0<\/p>\n
About 200 people attended the June 6 party, including some of the 20 families that have been there the entire five decades, as well as the the neighborhood\u2019s newest residents, five families who moved in within the past six months. The adult children of some families traveled to be at the party to reconnect with people they grew up with. They even invited a former mail carrier, Manny Santos, who served the neighborhood from 1983 until 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it was a fantastic opportunity to celebrate this neighborhood and get to know each other,\u201d neighbor Jared Peters, who served as co-emcee with his wife Susan Peters, said during the June 6 party.<\/p>\n
Laurel Park East was considered very \u201cmodern\u201d when it was developed by prolific homebuilding firm Ditz-Crane. The utilities were buried underground instead of hanging from poles outside the homes, a first for Santa Clara, and five homes were being equipped with solar panels that would provide energy to heat the homes \u2014 and their swimming pools, naturally. It was reported at the time that these were the first homes in the nation to have solar power provided by a municipal utility.<\/p>\n
The houses originally sold in the $76,000 range depending on floor plan. Some of them are worth nearly 50 times that now.<\/p>\n
Former Santa Clara Mayor Judy Nadler and her husband, retired Superior Court Judge Jerry Nadler, moved into Laurel Park East in 1992, making them relative newcomers compared to some of their neighbors. Judy Nadler said the neighborhood originally was filled with employees from nearby Lockheed as well as other companies in the bourgeoning Silicon Valley looking for bigger homes to accommodate their families.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s the one who came up for the idea of an anniversary party \u2014 and there are already requests to make it an annual event. She also led a team of neighbors who interviewed the original owners to preserve their memories in a scrapbook.\u00a0Among those memories were Bob Byrd\u2019s recollection that when he and his wife, Shirley, moved in to their house on Gamblin Drive in 1976, there were sidewalks and gutters but the street was still a dirt road.<\/p>\n
Nadler said when they moved to Santa Clara, the city seemed to lack the tight-knit sense of community she knew growing up in Medford, Ore., but that changed for her when they moved to Laurel Park East.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never really imagined I could feel so at home,\u201d she said, \u201cand, boy, that\u2019s really how we felt when we were fortunate enough to find this house.\u201d<\/p>\n
SUMMER AT THE STANFORD: The Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto has released the rest of its summer schedule, and it includes more Marilyn Monroe movies, a weekend of silent comedies July 10-12 accompanied by Dennis James at the Wurlitzer and more than a few classics worth a rewatch. That includes this weekend\u2019s double-feature of \u201cCasablanca\u201d and \u201cThe Maltese Falcon,\u201d as well as \u201cAll About Eve\u201d (July 3-5), \u201cSingin\u2019 in the Rain\u201d (July 17-19), \u201cThe Apartment\u201d (Aug. 12-13) and \u201cTo Kill a Mockingbird\u201d (Aug. 28-30). And it looks like \u201cBreakfast at Tiffany\u2019s\u201d is coming off the shelf, paired with another Audrey Hepburn movie, the art-heist comedy \u201cHow to Steal a Million,\u201d Aug. 14-16.<\/p>\n