Maria Holt

From Palo Alto Wiki

Maria Holt is a professional photographer who moved to Palo Alto from New York City in 1941 to work in the studio of her friend, Hans Roth. She was joined two years later by her husband, Henry, who was serving in the U.S. Army. They had emigrated from Vienna, Austria, in 1937, where Henry played with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini. The couple established West Bay Opera in Palo Alto 52 years ago.

[edit] Memories

Holt's various memories were printed during the Palo Alto Centennial in 1994.

"When I came to Palo Alto it was a cozy, tiny little town with no restaurants or coffee shops downtown. There was a single cafeteria, Bennington's Cafeteria, and Wilson's restaurant at the corner of High and University. The only other restaurant was the Peninsula Creamery at Hamilton and Emerson. There was practically no traffic and no people in the street after 7 o'clock.

We walked through pastures to get to work in downtown. There was no Stanford Shopping Center and no Children's Hospital. Penney's was downtown, and Palo Alto Hardware. It was very rural really.

"I lived in Hans Roth's studio upstairs of the bike shop (Palo Alto Bicycles) on University Avenue, but it wasn't there then. I lived there about a year and a half, then we bought a house in Palo Alto." She lives in the same house today.