Mountain View Memories
By Robert Cox
Imagine being a live model in a store front window of a building at 278 Castro Street- trying to hold that perfect pose for ten minutes without moving! Doing this is a fond memory of
Robin Faxon
Robin Faxon, a former member of the Palo Alto Assembly of Rainbow Girls.
The building, which was owned by Marjorie Minton and her sister Grace Brunhofer, was the location of the JC Penney department store. The store closed in 1966 when JC Penney relocated to the Mayfield Mall.
At the time, Rainbow Girls was a service organization for girls and young women, aged 11 to 20 years. Their fathers were members of the local Masonic Lodge, or their mothers were members of Eastern Star.
The organization taught leadership training through community service. Mrs. Minton and Mrs. Brunhofer offered the use of the building for the Rainbow Girls to hold a rummage sale. Proceeds from the sale were used to donate money to a local charity. In addition to the five young ladies acting as models, furniture, toys and household items were sold in the fundraiser.
Robin as a young lady
The photo below shows the 200 block of Castro Street on an early evening in 1953. Just beyond the Knight’ s Drug Store sign on the left was the J. C. Penney department store, which occupied this location for over 25 years.
The building was eventually acquired by Meyer Appliance in 1972. In 2012, they relocated to El Camino Real. Since then, the building has been the home of several hi-tech startups, including the current tenant, GMI Cloud. This company helps its customers architect, deploy, optimize and scale their Artificial Intelligence strategies.
Robin later married James Yurash. The couple moved to the North Whisman Mountain View neighborhood in 1996. They are still living there today!
More MVHA Photos Online
MVHA is now a contributing partner to California Revealed, a statewide program to digitize and provide online access to thousands of objects from museums, libraries, and historical societies. Items contributed to California Revealed are also available on the Internet Archive. We are on a long-term mission to provide better accessibility to the MVHA collection, and contributing to California Revealed is part of that strategy. Our first contribution consists of 77 photos and postcards depicting: n The Pacific Press Buildings circa 1948. n The 1949 Centennial Festival— which shows men dressed in 1849 western wear, a children’ s parade, and parade floats traveling down California Street. n The 1950 Harvest Festival— of parade floats traveling along
Castro Street. These new MVHA items are now online via: California Revealed— https:// californiarevealed. orgchallenge? destination =/ partner / mountainviewhistoricalassociation Internet Archive— https:// archive. org / details / mountain-view-historical-association Other MVHA items are available on the Mountain View Public Library website— https:// californiarevealed. org / partner / mountain-view-public-library We will continue to pursue ways to make more items available online.
If you have an interest in helping, contact the MVHA to volunteer.
David Salinero, Historical Data Chair
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