The Rengstorff House was one of the first houses to be built in

Mountain View, California Mountain View is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, part of the San Francisco Bay Area. Named for its views of the Santa Cruz Mountains, the population was 82,376 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mountain V ...

. It was built c. 1867 by Henry Rengstorff, a prominent local businessman who operated a ferry between

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

and Mountain View. It is built in the

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style combined its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century It ...

Victorian architecture Victorian architecture is a series of Revivalism (architecture), architectural revival styles in the mid-to-late 19th century. ''Victorian'' refers to the reign of Queen Victoria (1837–1901), called the Victorian era, during which period the st ...

style. The house's three-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

front facade features an entrance pavilion topped by a

balustrade A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...

and a pediment on the middle bay.

History

Henry Rengstorff built the house near Rengstorff Landing, an important grain shipping point. The house was built to demonstrate his prosperity, and to raise his six children in comfort, including a room built solely for his four girls, to accommodate their regular appointment with a dressmaker to try on the latest fashions. When Rengstorff died in 1906, his daughter Elise Haag and grandson

Perry Askam Perry Askam (1898–1961) was a 20th-century American actor and baritone singer, most active in musical theatre and opera around the San Francisco area. Askam was born in 1898 to Oliver and Helena Askam. Helena was the daughter of ferryman and ...

moved into the house. Descendants of Rengstorff would live in the house until 1959. The ranch on which the house was located was purchased by the Newhall Development Company, which had no use for the house; a 1972 plan to move it was aborted. In 1976, Frederick Woods, and James and Richard Schoenfeld launched their plan to preserve the mansion and make it their private residence at the intersection of Middlefield Road and Independence Street, to realize a dream of living in a grand, fully restored and modernized Victorian mansion. Needing $60,000 () to realize the plan, they hatched the plan later known as the infamous Chowchilla kidnapping. When all the children and their bus driver were able to escape, they were arrested and sentenced to life in prison, ending this plan for the house. After the house was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1978, Mountain View mayor Richard Wilmuth wanted to restore it in place. Construction encroached and in January 1979 a company planning to construct an industrial park on the house's land suggested it be moved north to Shoreline Park. The land was purchased by the city in 1979 and the house was moved onto Shoreline Park land in January 1980. To make way for the

Marine World/Africa USA Marine World/Africa USA was an animal theme park located in the Redwood Shores area of Redwood City, California. The park was named Marine World when it first opened in 1968, before merging with a land-animal park called Africa USA in 1972. In ...

theme park the house was moved again in 1986, further into Shoreline Park, to its current location. After a major renovation costing about $1,000,000 (), funded by the city, the house was opened to the public in April 1991. It has since been used as a museum and to host weddings and miscellaneous events; it is open to the public on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays or Online 24/7 via 3D tour .

References

External links

Official Website

A trip to the Haunted Mansion

Docent-Led Tours

3D tour
{{National Register of Historic Places in California Houses in Santa Clara County, California Buildings and structures in Mountain View, California Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California National Register of Historic Places in Santa Clara County, California Museums in Santa Clara County, California Historic house museums in California Italianate architecture in California Victorian architecture in California

History

See also

References

External links