Mountain View's very own haunted mansion, the Rengstorff House

Welcome.

I thought that it'd be fun to finally publish the stories of two of Mountain View's spookiest places, The Rengstorff Mansion and Pioneer Park. No better time to do this then October!

The tombstone of  Lucas Kifer found by SJSU students during construction of Mountain View Library in Nov. 1995

We'll start with the completely true and factual story of Mountain View's Pioneer Park. While I don't know of any ghost stories that deal with Pioneer Park, its strange and eerie history seem to belong in one. 

First for those that don't know, Pioneer Park is the beautiful patch of green space located between the library and the civic center in Downtown Mountain View. It's shaded by giant valley oak trees and covered with rolling lawns. It's a quiet, peaceful and serene place. Just like a cemetery...in fact....dum dee dum dum.....it is a cemetery. 

Buried beneath the parks current landscape are the remains of Mountain View's early pioneers. On March 19, 1861 Maria Trinidad Peralta de Castro donated this patch of land to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. From that point on it was used as Mountain View's fist cemetery, for people of all religious backgrounds. Looking at the plots of who was buried in this cemetery is like seeing a graveyard of dead street names. The prominent pioneers that many of the city's streets are named after were buried here. 

While I'm not sure why or exactly when, the Mountain View Cemetery was closed. Between the 1950s and 1960s, the cemetery was donated to the city. In 1966 Pioneer Park was dedicated. It was named after the pioneers that were still buried there. The remaining tombstones were put on their sides, and then buried. You'd think that alone would get the spirits of those pioneers upset.

To make things worse, the park has been dug up numerous times to build parking garages and expand the civic center. The largest project was the construction of the new Mountain View Library. Archeological students from San Jose State uncovered remains and tombstones from the site. They were then blessed and reburied in a portion of the park close to Church Street. 

Grave Diggers

You would think there would be terrible ghost stories about this park. There aren't.

I have never heard of a ghost story related to Pioneer Park, or the buildings built around it. The park's spooky history seems to have little impact on its present. Perhaps the spirits of parks permanent residents are happy that the land has been put to such great use. Pioneer Park is one of the most tranquil and scenic parks in Mountain View and the library, city hall, and center of the performing arts are three of Mountain View's finest buildings. 

The fact that the park is a cemetery isn't a secret. Two signs on both sides of the park proclaim its history. However, many people don't read those signs.  Little do they know that they could be walking on top of someone's grave, or that when they are parking their cars in the library's underground garage they are in the same spot where people were once buried. Most people don't count cemeteries as a place to relax and have fun, but here in Mountain View, Pioneer Park is a strange exception. 

The Rengstorff Mansion (or the Rengstorff House) is the oldest building in Mountain View.   It was the home of early Mountain View pioneer Henry Rengstorff and his family. Mr. Rengstorff built this Italianate Victorian house in 1867. Compared to other local homes of the time, it was mansion. Like many old buildings, this house has many spooky tales associated with it.

Things seemed to have been fine until after the last descendents of the Rengstorff family left the house in the 1959. At that date, Perry Askam, a famous opera singer and descendent of the Rengstorff family, sold the house to a land development company. For 20 years the house went through a variety of owners and residents. The era between 1959 and 1979 is believed to be time period when the house was most well know for the strange things that occurred within it. Former residents of the house have often been willing to tell their stories, and I will mention the one's that I know of here.

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The following stories were taken from "You are Now Entering Mountain View," a collection of short writings about Mountain View done by students of Old Mountain View High in 1976. The Rengstorff Mansion chapter was written by Ann Tamaru and Pat Catolico. They interviewed the Crump family, the last residents of the mansion.  

~The Crumps said that the often heard the sound of a non existent baby crying at night and the sounds of something walking up and down the house's narrow staircase. This is a common story associated with the house.

~The family owned a large police dog that would hide under the bed at midnight as soon as the noises would start. 

~When the Crumps were out, there friends once dropped by, and when they knocked on the empty house's door, its doorknob turned by itself. 

~An old Mexican man used to walk by the house as a short cut to get to the nearby dumps. When the Crumps moved into the house he asked for permission to walk through the property. He also told Mr. Crump the story of a young woman with long dark hair that he often would see staring out of the houses large bay windows. 

~Most intriguing is the story of the secret attic room. One day Mr. Crump was putting a hook in a closet, the wall board slipped a bit and a previously covered up stairway was exposed. Mr. Crump removed the loose board and walked up the cobweb filled staircase. At the end of it he found a "secret room" that only had a hospital bed with leather restraint cuffs on it. 

Well, that brings me to an end to this Halloween section of A Guide to Mountain View. I hope you enjoyed these two stories of Mountain View's spooky spots. Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Have any ghost stories that took place in Mountain View? If so, send them to me and I'll put them here. My e-mail is Nap98@aol.com