District Blog

Join us on a virtual tour of Campbell's historic homes! Each month, we'll feature a different house that reveals an interesting slice of the Orchard City's character and history.

May is National Historic Preservation Month, and the Historic Preservation Board is doing a series of short stories highlighting Campbell’s Landmark homes. This month’s featured home is the Galindo-Queraz-Leigh House located at 140 Peter Drive.

One of the most significant and possibly the oldest home in Campbell, this magnificent house started out as a primitive board and batten cottage in the 1830s’. Originally part of Santa Clara Mission’s grazing land prior to 1848, it was deeded to Juan C. Galindo when Mexico ceded California to the United States. Mr. Galindo enlarged the cottage using Ohlone Indian labor, buying lumber from the Mission, as his family grew to include eleven children.

John D. Gueraz bought the house in the late 1850’s and his additions reflect his Swiss heritage and Louisiana French background. Mr. Gueraz continued to enlarge it, creating a salt box style with inward swinging iron pinned shutters on all the windows.

High A. Leigh an English sailor, settled in the area in 1874. Mr. Leigh and his mother Delicia Leigh purchased the house and 180 acres of land from Mr. Gueraz for $16,300, in cash. It remained in the Leigh family until 1971. Leigh Avenue is named after the family. This house has a National Historic Register Listing. The present owners are to be commended for the outstanding care they have taken of the house. They have done much needed updating and renovation, while preserving the architectural integrity and uniqueness of this local treasure.

“When we lose a Historic Place, we lose part of who we are.”
~National Trust for Historic Preservation~

by Susan Blake Historic Preservation Board

Well, we have some sad news. Rockie Arambula, the owner of the recently closed Moonfyre Metaphysical in Downtown Campbell has lost her fight with cancer.

In 2003 when she started Moonfyre, it was the start of the perpetual slog that we now know as the Great Recession. You couldn't pick a much worse time to start a business and those early years for Moonfyre were also deeply unstable times in Downtown Campbell too. Especially when you're a small business, location matters and Downtown Campbell in 2003 wasn't one that mattered very much.

It was pretty bleak in Downtown Campbell, but in difficult years our "culture of doing stuff" started taking shape, eventually transforming Downtown Campbell into one of the most admired small downtowns in the Bay Area. Rockie and the Moonfyre gang were there at the start. They were one of the founding members of the band and one the few original members still on stage when they closed after 16 years this January. They helped start the turnaround and endured to see it grow roots and blossom.

Some legacies are written by specific deeds. Those legacies run their course when there's nobody left who remembers your name. Other legacies have no shape. They're composed of thousands of little things too small to record, but too large to define as a whole. These are the legacies of being a part of something bigger than yourself and it will be the legacy of Rockie and Moonfyre. Long after nobody can recall the name of the shop that used to be at 401 E. Campbell Ave, the presence of Rockie and the many friends she's brought into the Downtown Campbell fold, will still be felt.

You will be missed, Rockie.

If you'd like to show some love to Rockie's family, there's a Meal Train page and a GoFundMe page to help the family cover final costs for Rockie.

Meal Train: https://www.mealtrain.com/trains/ze9mod
GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/medical-fund-and-financial-assistance-for-rockie