Rengstorff House is one of the first houses built in Mountain View. Henry Rengstorff, a local businessman who ran a ferry between San Francisco and Mountain View, built it around 1867, according to Wikipedia. It's an Italianate Victorian with a three-bay front and an entrance pavilion topped by a balustrade and pediment.
A family home
Rengstorff built the house near Rengstorff Landing, a key grain shipping point, to raise his six children. Wikipedia says it included a room just for his four daughters' dressmaker fittings. His descendants lived there until 1959. The ranch was later sold to a developer that had no use for the house.
Saved and moved
The house was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Mountain View bought the land in 1979 and moved the house into Shoreline Park in January 1980. In 1986 it was moved again, deeper into the park, to make room for the Marine World/Africa USA theme park. After a city-funded renovation of about $1 million, it opened to the public in April 1991. Today it's used as a museum and for weddings and events.
Visiting
The house is at 3070 N. Shoreline Blvd., inside Shoreline at Mountain View. The Friends of "R" House say the grounds are open during regular Shoreline hours, except during private rentals. You can explore the gardens on your own, with interpretive signs, a windmill and a tank house. For museum hours and free docent-led tours, the group points visitors to the City of Mountain View's website. A 3D virtual tour of the parlors is also available online.