LAHHS offers programs free and open to the public, featuring
guest speakers on topics of local history. They are held Sundays
from 3-5 p.m. at the Los Altos Hills Town Hall, except special
events.
Los Altos Hills Town Hall
26379 Fremont Road
Los Altos Hills, California.
The Rengstorff House, Mountain View's oldest historic house,
is one of the finest examples of Victorian Italianate architecture
on the west coast.
Now a museum, it displays in grand style elaborate Victorian antiques
furnishings and wall and ceiling treatments by Bradbury &
Bradbury.
At our holiday meeting, a docent dressed in elegant period costume
will greet the guests. You are invited to stroll through the house
and its English gardens.
The final general meeting marks the time to renew your membership
for 2012.
You may bring a check to the event, or mail to:
Los Altos Hills Historical Society
P.O. Box 427
Los Altos Hills, California 94023
Take S San Antonio Rd for 1.9 miles.
Turn Right onto El Camino Real for 1.7 miles.
Turn Left onto S Shoreline Blvd for 4 miles.
Go past the Gatehouse and follow the map below.
A little known legacy involves Rengstorff's north forty, a quarter
mile north of his 164 acres. Becoming part of a prominent golf
course, Shoreline Golf Links, it opened for play in 1983. Henry's
40-acre parcel comprises the first nine holes of the 200-acre
course, part of the 750-acre Shoreline at Mountain View. (See
map below) When you proceed past the entrance to Shoreline, glance
to your left and see a foursome driving off the second tee, and
a twosome putting for birdie on the par 5 first hole. Farther
on, the present site of the Rengstorff House is just a chip shot
from the tenth fairway.
We have no information about Mr. Rengstorff's interest in golf.
We assume that any driving he did on the north forty was done
with a plow and a team of horses. However, his grandson Earl Askam,
an avid golfer and movie actor who played in at least 40 movies,
including the serial Flash Gordon, was stricken with a fatal heart
attack in 1940 while playing golf with a fellow actor on a Southern
California course.
