Brief History of Fremont Older Estate
Fremont Older House in Fremont Older Open Space Preserve
Fremont Older, a crusading San Francisco newspaper editor and his wife, Cora, built the Fremont
Older house, Woodhills, in 1914. The District purchased the property in 1975, and the house is
leased to a private party, newspaper publisher Mort Levine and wife, Elaine. The house, on 2.6
acres in the Fremont Open space Preserve off Prospect Road in Cupertino, has been restored to
near original design and is listed on the national Register of Historic Places. Docent led tours
of the house and gardens are offered annually, usually in late spring. For tour information
call the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District at 650-691-1200.
Historic Home Saved From Ruin by Unusual Deal
In 1979 the Levines made an unusual deal with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space Preserve
District to save this old, badly neglected house on some newly acquired district property in
Cupertino. The house was condemned because it was considered to be beyond repair. The Levines
had a romantic interest to restore this historic structure and preserve
the associations it had with journalism at the turn of the century. The deal gave the Levines a
25-year lease at payments of $1 dollar a year rent in exchange for paying for restoration costs.
The restoration took 12 years of hard labor and $350,000. The gardens surrounding the house are
on three levels and have been tastefully restored by Elaine. The interior of the house
has been painstakingly furnished and decorated by the Levines with original furniture pieces,
photographs and artifacts. The house is in many ways the perfect home for the Levines, not the least
of which is the link to publishing.
Adobe House on Property
Besides the main house, the property includes an adobe building that originally was a pool house
surrounded by Cora Older's famous rose garden. The flat-roofed structure is subleased. Originally,
the property was 200 acres, which Older bought for $10,000 in 1912. Cora lived in the main house
until her death in 1968 at the age of 93. |
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