Written By Elizabeth Barrett

Briefly, Gilroy’ s stature as an auto crossroads came under question when Hollister tried to grab away the glory. It began with one highway project that soon morphed into several more. Before long, Gilroy won out, becoming an easy convergence for the hundreds of new autos taking to the roads.

In 1923, with the completion of a new Pacheco Pass Highway, the modern road system set a fresh course for Gilroy’ s place on the road map. The new highway was designed to be a far cry from its days as a once bandit-infested stage route between Visalia and Gilroy. The highway was the start of a newly conceived“ Yosemite-to-the Sea” road project, a design enthusiastically supported by local Chambers of Commerce along the proposed route. When completed, the streamlined road would take travelers from Merced County all the way to Santa Cruz in one simple connection.

Before Pacheco Pass Highway was finished, getting over to the coast from the Central Valley was a hard day’ s drive. Motorists heading north from the San Joaquin Valley had to take Altamont Pass through Livermore to get into the Santa Clara Valley. Those heading south took the Cholame Pass to Paso Robles before turning toward the Salinas Valley and finally reaching Gilroy. Either way, it was a long trip. The new Pacheco Pass Highway would enable motorists coming directly from Modesto or Fresno to follow a redesigned route, saving about 88 miles of travel distance.

By the 1920s, highway construction had heralded the start of a new popular fad: auto tourism. Cars by the thousands were expected to flock westward from the Central Valley. The hitch, for awhile, was, which direction to head from there?

During the final construction phases of the last highway segment from Pacheco Pass, Gilroy boosters cheered for the westbound traffic to head their way, while those in Hollister thought it should be directed through their town instead.

Until the final linkup was completed, travelers passing outside of Hollister were greeted by large billboard announcements set up by local promoters. Motorists were encouraged to divert their route and head

through San Juan Bautista, or better yet, head straight for Hollister. From there, some ads claimed, they could head to the Pinnacles. Neither proposal brought motorists to their planned coastal destination.

Gilroy was not only closer to the coast, an added plus was its position in a direct line south from San Jose, where another highway system was in the early planning stages. Accordingly, Gilroy won its place as the main connector of the Yosemite-tothe Sea route and course connections were planned. By May 1923, an 18-foot-wide concrete road between Monterey Street and Old Gilroy Road was poured to link with the coming Pacheco Pass highway. The importance of diverting state traffic through Gilroy was addressed by a member of the Coast Highway Association at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in early June of 1925. He noted that if a minimum expenditure of $ 10 per day could be expected from each carload of tourists passing through town, then 500 cars per day would bring in revenues of $ 5,000 per day when folks stopped for lunch and gas. Therefore, he said, it was time to get on with constructing the rest of the link-up to the coast.

Until then, to reach Watsonville, motorists had to head south from Gilroy,

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GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN MARCH / APRIL 2017 gmhtoday. com