Alum Rock, San Jose, CA

Alum Rock is the gateway to the East Side foothills, strung along the avenue of the same name that once carried streetcars up to the canyon. Its signature draw is Alum Rock Park, set aside by the state legislature in 1872 and long promoted as California's oldest municipal park, a 720-acre wild canyon of trails in the Diablo foothills. The name is actually a geologic mix-up: settlers thought a whitish crust on a rock near the entrance was alum, when it is really a sodium-sulfate mineral, and the label stuck to the rock, the canyon and eventually the neighborhood. From roughly 1890 to the 1930s the canyon was a nationally known mineral-springs health resort nicknamed 'Little Yosemite,' with sulfur and soda springs, an indoor mineral-water plunge, a tea garden and a small zoo, all reached by trolley up from downtown. That era left the stone spring-grottos that still line Penitencia Creek and the graceful stone bridges built by New Deal work crews in the 1930s, so the trails here weave past history rather than ordinary playground equipment. The park's original Alum Rock Avenue entrance has been closed since 2000, so you reach it now via Penitencia Creek Road. The neighborhood itself is a historically Chicano district of mid-century homes on the flats grading up into the foothills, with the retail and bus service concentrated on the lower Alum Rock corridor. The honest tradeoffs are that busy, workaday corridor and the fact that the upper hillside blocks are car-dependent. But the regional open space nearby is a genuine asset, and the neighborhood carries real history and identity. For buyers who want foothill access and an affordable East Side address with deep roots, Alum Rock is the front door to the hills.