In 1979, Perry Askam, grandson of Henry Rengstorff, sold the family home to a land development company. A succession of owners held the property for twenty years.

In 1979, the house was purchased by the City of Mountain View for $1.00 and moved from 1737 Stierlin Road to unused property at Shoreline. The next move was to its present site, but it was not until February 1990 that the contract for its restoration was awarded. On March 2, 1991, Mountain View's oldest house, a fine example of Victorian Italianate architecture, was officially dedicated and opened to the public.

Source: Interpretive materials at the Rengstorff House.

Buildings that Moved

It's not just that the people of the American West are restless, the buildings themselves sometimes pack up and move when - for one reason or another - the neighborhood no longer suits them or the neighbors no longer want them or opportunity waits down the road.

And when buildings remain in place, they are often searching for their identities.

Of the buildings and structures we have visited, the original Reno Arch holds the record for number of moves. It has been moved five times since it was built in 1926.

Jax Truckee Diner holds the distance title. The building moved from New Jersry to Pennsylvanis in 1948, then from Pennsylvania to Califonia in 1992.

Probably the most ambitious relocation occurred on July 4th 1904, when the Southern Pacific Railroad loaded most of the town of Wadsworth, Nevada, onto rail cars and transported the town thirty miles west to create a new town which became known as Sparks.