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Portola Valley, Past and Present Search Primary Menu Contacts Portola Valley History Portola Valley Vignettes Portola Valley People Portola Valley Places Portola Valley Events Video Search for: Historic Vignettes , Portola Valley Places , Uncategorized The Story of Windmill School November 26, 2016 Nancy Lund 1 Comment Everyone who travels on Portola Road in Portola Valley notices the whimsical windmill that has stood on the corner of Georgia Lane for ninety-nine years. Some probably know that it isn’t really a windmill; rather it’s a structure placed atop a well by William Fitzhugh, the owner of an estate called Catoctin, todays’ Grove and Stonegate. But few know that a Portola Valley institution had its beginnings right beside that windmill around sixty years ago. That institution is the Windmill Preschool. Ever wondered why it’s called Windmill? Now you know. Since the preschool is soon to begin a new chapter in its evolution, this seems a good time to tell its story. It was in the 1950s, most probably 1957, that Irma Scheller, a young mom who lived on Wyndham, decided to open a preschool in the little house that stood beside the windmill. The house wasn’t in very good shape, and It was a simple beginning for the school she called Windmill Day Nursery School. Among its features were a six-foot long green fiberglass dinosaur and a tan four-foot tall horse with a white mane. Mrs. Scheller probably didn’t know that the very site where she started her preschool had been the home of the Corte Madera Brewery in the 1870s. She ran the school until 1969 when the land with the house was purchased by Sharon and Dennis Reichardt. They ran the school for a few years and in 1974 hired Joan Barksdale from the renowned Bing Nursery School at Stanford to be the director. Learning through play continued to be the school’s philosophy. Since the house was small, and since our climate is what it is, much of the program was outside: walking through the nearby orchard, looking at the creek that was right there, playing with the goat, gathering eggs from the chickens and the watching the sheep being sheared every year. The garage was on a slab, and that’s where the easels were set up for art. There were ten or twelve families, who all became good friends. When the Reichardts decided to sell the property in the mid-1970s, the families of Windmill wanted the preschool to continue. By then about seventy children were enrolled. Possible sites were few, but the little stone building on the Alpine Hills Swim and Tennis Club property that had served as the Town Hall was empty. The group created a non-profit corporation with a volunteer board of directors. They raised money, came to an agreement with with Alpine Hills and the Town, donated hours of physical labor to get the building and grounds ready, and moved the Windmill Preschool into new quarters in 1977. The families probably didn’t know that before their preschool became the Town Hall, the building had been Eugene Kelly’s saloon in the teens and twenties and later the center of the Manginis’ Picnic Park until 1958, a spot where many a glass of beer had been quaffed. Their historic bar is featured in the swim and tennis club today. It turned out to be a good fit. At first a maximum of 21 children from ages 2 ½ to 6 were allowed at any one time, with up to three teachers. The youngsters could participate in a tennis camp and a swim program in addition to the regular learn-through-play curriculum. Now we come to the present. The little stone house is really too small for the kinds of programs the staff would like to offer today. And the swim and tennis club needs the building. So the search for new quarters has been on. Options aren’t much greater today than they were in the mid ‘70s. After a long, diligent search, the board of directors purchased the Al’s Nursery site, 900 Portola Road, in 2015. When the new buildings are ready, in the fall of 2017, they have plans to add to the program—morning classes for all preschool age groups, a ‘young fives’ class, and enrichment classes for both preschoolers and young elementary school students. They will establish also a Family Education Center. The tradition of play-based learning for all the community’s preschoolers will be enhanced, and the school will, for the first time in its sixty years of existence, have its own home. And those families that established the non-profit foundation in the 1970s? They established personal bonds as well, went on to play many leadership roles in the schools, and remain good friends today. …………Nancy Lund Irma Scheller Mangini’s Picnic Park Sharon Reichardt William Fitzhugh Portola Valley Events , Video Portola Valley Emergency Communication Services June 25, 2016 Virginia Leave a comment Communications are critical in all emergency situations. In a severe emergency such as major earthquake or wildfire, cell phones and landline telephones are not expected to work in Portola Valley. That means word of mouth, and radios will be the primary source of information. Portola Valley does have an AM radio station at 1680 kHz on your AM dial in your car or home. The PV Emergency Preparedness Committee, CERPP, Woodside Fire Protection District and interested citizens demonstrated radio communications in association with the American Radio Relay League Field Day. Continue reading Portola Valley Emergency Communication Services → AM 1680 Emergency Communications Portola Valley Events , Video Portola Valley Celebrates Summer Video July 21, 2015 Virginia Leave a comment Thanks to Paige Bishop and the Cultural Arts Committee, Portola Valley neighbors and friends enjoyed a concert at the Town Center on July 16, 2015. The concert followed the usual Farmer’s Market on a Thursday afternoon and there were food trucks who provided additional fare. It was a great time to meet and to greet old friends and new. "A Team" 2015 Bryant Mills CA CERPP Concert Cultural Ats Committee Emergency Preparedness Committee Ham Radios Joey Fabian July 16 Keith Hamey Paige Bishop POrtola Valley Stan Erhart Steve Kirby Tony Stead Town Center Virginia Bacon Historic Vignettes , Portola Valley History , Portola Valley People , Portola Valley Places The Hawthorns Image April 27, 2015 Nancy Lund 2 Comments The Hawthorns The almost 80-acres historically known as The Hawthorns lies along Alpine Road in Portola Valley from the border of Portola Valley Ranch to Los Trancos Road and up the hill toward Los Trancos Woods. It has been held in only two families’ ownership since rancho days, some one hundred twenty five years, an amazing statistic. In 2007, it entered the public domain as a bequest. It will remain in open space in perpetuity, an unbelievably wonderful gift. Here is its story. Of course it was Ohlone territory at first. Although no documented proof that they wandered this specific land has turned up, Ted and Rosie Luce discovered a pestle in the creek on their property, immediately across Los Trancos Road. And all early documents record that the Old Spanish Trail, on the other side of the property, was originally used by the Ohlone to walk to the coast for shellfish. So, surely the land between these two locations has born witness to an Ohlone presence. In 1834 Maximo Martinez and one Juan Peralta gained ownership of the 13,000 acre Rancho el Corte de Madera from the Mexican government, all of Portola Valley and more. Peralta shortly left for family land in the East Bay, but the Martinez family held on to large portions until Maximo’s death in 1863. Most likely the Martinezes used it for grazing. There is a large barn on the property that allegedly dated from 1867. Maximo’s son Antonio inherited what has come to be known as The Hawthorns. In time, Antonio put this portion of his inheritance up for sale. Louis Nissen bought it and immediately sold it to James and Ida Davis Allen in 1886. Perhaps Nissen was a realtor, or perhaps he was an agent of the Allen family....