President’ s Message
News & Notes
National Archives
This newsletter is published four times a year by the
MOUNTAIN VIEW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION P. O. Box 252, Mountain View, CA 94042 www. mountainviewhistorical. org
MVHA Board of Directors President: Pamela Baird Vice-President: Robert Cox Secretary: Jamil Shaikh Treasurer: Anthea Chung Past President: Nicholas Perry
Historical Data: David Salinero Membership: Vacant Newsletter: Melanie Kaye Director-at-Large: Carol Donahue
Director-at-Large: IdaRose Sylvester Director-at-Large: Melanie Kaye
Newsletter Design & Layout by Melanie Kaye and Pamela Baird
MVHA Board of Directors Email: info @ mountainviewhistorical. org
The MVHA is looking for someone to lead the membership efforts! Reach out to new members, maintain membership rosters and encourage early renewals for existing members. Sound like your specialty? Email us! info @ mountainviewhistorical. org.
Pamela Baird
President’ s Message
By Pamela Baird MVHA President
Over the recent holidays my family and I stayed near the Fisherman’ s Wharf area. The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park is located nearby. A 50-acre park has grown around the Aquatic Park Cove, which hosts historic sailing vessels,( which currently are not on display because of renovations to the Hyde Street Pier) a visitor center and a museum.
The Visitor Center is in a large brick building https:// www. nps. gov / safr / planyourvisit / the-visitor-center. htm. We have walked by the entrance numerous times without noticing it. This time we saw the entrance and were rewarded with a wonderful exhibition covering the history of ship building, the growth of San Francisco and the many groups of people who have contributed to the story of San Francisco and the Bay area. A person could easily spend two – three hours exploring the exhibits.
This made me wonder— are there stories and history for local parks on the peninsula? The city of Los Altos has a page on their website listing the names of the parks and photos for each. A map is also available. None of the parks have any history noted. The website for Los Altos Hills is similar.
The city of Sunnyvale also has a a listing of the parks on their website, as well as a map. One listing has information about the history behind the name of the park.
Only Palo Alto has information about the history of the parks on their website. An
Looking for History— visit a park!
The San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park Visitor Center
interactive map contains a drop-down option for each park. https:// www. paloalto. gov / Departments / Community- Services / Parks-Open-Space-Golf-Division / Neighborhood-Parks. Another click explains the history of the park— who was the namesake, when the park was developed, etc. It’ s a great way to learn about the history of Palo Alto. The city of Mountain View has a listing of parks but no map https:// www. mountainview. gov / our- city / departments / community-services / parks-and-trails / parks / city-parks. No historical information is provided. Several Mountain View parks have historical panels( Heritage Park and Eagle Park), but many more could be enhanced by including historical information( Wyandotte, Varsity, Thaddeus and more).
The MVHA hopes that the city can be encouraged to include historical panels at city parks. This would be a wonderful way to give residents and visitors a better idea of the history of Mountain View.
The City of Palo Alto has a multi-layer website with information that covers the history of their city parks
2