Sam Halsted is the last surviving member of the first Town Council. The Palmer Lane house on ten acres that the Halsteads bought in 1961 cost $55.000. Although family members thought they were making a mistake to move so far in the country, they loved the quiet and openness. Their six boys grew up here. As a civil engineer, his expertise was very valuable in those formative years of the town. It was he who proposed the concept of Portola Valley as an “urban open space preserve.”