Mountain View Historical Association

The Mountain View Historical Association was established over 50 years ago and currently has 299 members. The Association is dedicated to preserving the rich heritage of Mountain View by gathering data and cooperating with other organizations to promote and publish the history of this area. Currently, we are involved in fundraising to build a Mountain View Museum at Cuesta Annex to preserve and celebrate the history of Mountain View.

The Association meets four times a year on the first Sundays in February, May, August and November at 2:00 PM. Our meetings are held in the Historic Adobe Building located at 157 Moffett Boulevard in Mountain View and are free and open to the public.

The first Sunday in August is our annual BBQ and raffle. The other quarterly meetings are a mixture of Historical Association business and guest speakers who often augment their presentations with Visuals (videos, slideshows, etc.) on a variety of topics pertaining to local history.

Mark your Calendars!

MVHA Winter Membership Meeting - Sunday February 5, 2012 - Doors open 12:30 pm meeting starts 1:00 PM. Please note our start time is an hour earlier than usual to accommodate members who wish to watch the Super Bowl. At the Old Adobe Building - Moffett Blvd. & Central Expressway (Parking in the rear of Central Expressway).

Featuring: The History of Moffett Field with John Mascali.

Museum Update
Summer 2011

*UPDATE*

At its October 18, closed session meeting, the Mountain View City Council voted to discontinue any further discussion and negotiation with the Mountain View Pioneer and Historical Association regarding relocating the Pearson House to Cuesta Annex. A special Board meeting has been called to review the Council's decision. An update will be presented at our November meeting.

The Museum Project Team has been extremely busy with the final details of the Pearson House proposal that would add a history house to our museum site at Cuesta Park. The Pearson House dates from 1888 and will be a grand first step toward the establishment of our History Museum.

The feeling of “a sense of place” is challenging in an urbanized area and especially difficult if one has no knowledge of the area’s evolution. The inclusion of the Pearson House with our History Museum would preserve a rich layer of local history, a snapshot in time. Like the Gilbert Smith House at the Los Altos Museum, it is a window into the past.

This is an exciting opportunity and our project team members have put in hundreds of hours of their time and talent to make it a reality. It would be very encouraging to us, if members of this association would publicly support our efforts by writing letters of support for the Pearson House and the History Museum, and send them to the Mountain View Voice & the Town Crier for publication. Use your voice to keep the dream moving forward.

Mountain View Voice
450 Cambridge Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94306
editor@mv-voice.com

Los Altos Town Crier
138 Main Street
Los Altos, CA 94022
info@latc.com

Robert H. Weaver
Museum Project Team Chair

President's Message - By Patricia Figueroa - MVHA President

Happy New Year! Mark your Calendars now for our membership meetings and annual BBQ. We've listed all the important dates for the year in our newsletter on page 6; including dates of our Board Meetings, to which anyone is welcome to attend. All Board Meetings are scheduled to be held at Fire Station #4, Training Room, 229 North Whisman Road. Please call (650) 965-4783 or email patfig@ix.netcom.com to confirm the date if you plan on attending since dates of Board Meetings can be changed because of scheduling problems. Also, don't forget that it is time to renew your Membership! Page 7 includes our membership renewal form.

With the start of the new year, we have an important update regarding our Associations Museum project. One of the purposes listed in the Articles of Incorporation of the Historical Association is "to carry out a program of preserving objects of local historical interest and to establish a local museum for the preservation and display of such objects". We felt we were on the road to achieving that goal when in December 2009 the Mountain View City Council granted us a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a history museum in the Cuesta Annex and recognized that this MOU required our Association to raise $750,000 by April 2012.

In August 2010 the Historical Association was offered the Pearson House, currently located on Villa Street, which would be moved to the Cuesta Annex site approved by the City Council for the Museum. The Historical Association Steering Committee began working with the Developer with the goal that the value of the house along with the pledge from the developer would allow us to achieve the financial goal of $750,000 by April 2012.

On October 18, 2011 the City Council met and decided that they did not want to have the Pearson House moved to Cuesta Park. In November the Historical Association Board of Directors met and voted to advise the City Council that our only purpose in acquiring the Pearson House was to have it relocated to the Cuesta Park Annex Museum site. We will also be informing the City Council of our desire to terminate the Memorandum of Understanding.

On a brighter note, we continue to search for new ways to increase awareness of the Association and share Mountain View's rich history with the community. So now besides being able to find us on our web page you can now find the Mountain View Historical Association on facebook at www.facebook.com/MVHistory . The comments we have been receiving on facebook are fun to read and will take us down memory lane. Maybe you will see the names of someone commenting that you know.

One final update: For those of you at our November Membership Meeting there was such a great interest in the Wunderman House that we will be finding a date when we can have a Membership event at the House. Stay tuned for more info!

Wishing all of you a healthy and happy year!

- Pat Figueroa, MVHA President