Street Talk
BAILEY
Shoreline
AVE
100
BLVD .
By Nick Perry MVHA Past President
You won ’ t �ind Bailey Avenue on a map of Mountain View today , but for about a century , it was the name of one of Mountain View ’ s most prominent residential streets .
In 1887 , Doctor Bowling Bailey ( Doctor was his �irst name ) expanded the town of New Mountain View by subdividing 200 acres of his land holdings immediately west of the town . Known as the “ Bailey Subdivision ” this new neighborhood ’ s eastern-most street was bestowed Bailey ’ s surname . The road extended from El Camino Real on the south to the railroad tracks on the north .
Doctor Bailey was born near the Kentucky / Tennessee border on April 1 , 1831 . On February 12 , 1850 , he left for California as part of the Gold Rush and had good success in the mines . He came to Santa Clara County in June 1853 , and became a farmer in the Mountain View area . He married Margaret Hamon , a native of New Jersey , in 1858 and together they had two children , Mary B ., born August 22 , 1859 and John S ., born August 26 , 1860 . In 1859 , Bailey was elected to the State Assembly as a Democrat . He died in September 1888 .
Around 1904 , Bailey Avenue was extended across the railroad and into the new Mockbee and Weilheimer Addition ; the �irst neighborhood north of the tracks . As Mountain View grew , Bailey Avenue ’ s status as one of the only streets crossing the tracks turned it into an increasingly important vehicular route . This led to its complete reconstruction in the late 1960s . What was once a narrow two-lane road lined by trees and bungalows became a six lane thoroughfare . A new overpass carrying traf�ic over the railroad and Central Expressway , plus a new curved segment that connected Bailey Avenue with Mountain View ’ s historic main north-south street , Stierlin Road , turned the formerly quiet residential street into one of the city ’ s busiest traf�ic corridors . In 1973 , the contractor who built the new Bailey Avenue received a landscape architecture award at the White House from President Richard Nixon .
Bailey Avenue ’ s widening required the removal of dozens of homes via eminent domain , displacing 115 families , most of whom were Hispanic ( including this writer ’ s grandparents and great-grandparents ). The former-backyards of homes that once stood on Bailey Avenue between El Camino Real and Villa Street are still visible today . The fate of these now city-owned parcels spurred neighbors to organize as the Shoreline West Association of Neighbors in the 1990s ( a story we ’ ll cover at our webinar on April 30 !).
Bailey Ave . during its widening and reconstruction c . 1969 , looking south from the railroad .
Bailey Avenue prior to its widening in the 1960s .
1889 map of Mountain View showing the “ Bailey Subdivision ” and “ Snow-Pettis Subdivision ” with an overlay showing the modern-day boundaries of the Shoreline West neighborhood , bounded by Shoreline Boulevard ( formerly Bailey Avenue ), Villa Street , Escuela Avenue , and El Camino Real . Image Source : Library of Congress
In 1988 , the City Council bestowed the combined Bailey Avenue- Stierlin Road corridor with a new name : Shoreline Boulevard . The logic being that the road led to Mountain View ’ s then-new Shoreline park and amphitheater . And hence , Bailey Avenue faded into the history books , and a historic residential street nowhere near the waters of the San Francisco Bay became Mountain View ’ s “ Shoreline ” boulevard .
5