Goodbye to the Grant Road Farm (for now)

Add the Grant Road Farm to the list of places that once made growing up in Los Altos but now no longer exist. According to Daniel Debolt's story in this week's Mountain View Voice:

In a surprise move, the owners of the city's beloved Grant Road farm told the Schmitz family that it is time to leave the property — in all likelihood to pave the way for a housing tract proposed by SummerHill Homes last year.

I don't quite get the part about this being a surprise. Potential buyers had been making offers on the property for years before the owners finally closed the deal with Summerhill. David Schmitz himself told Debolt last summer that he realized the farm could be sold at any time. And when I wrote about the sale a year ago, the headline began with the word "finally." Schmitz seems at least somewhat hopeful about the future, but its not clear whether he's talking about the efforts of the Mountain View Farmlands group.

Meanwhile, the friends of the Rengstorff House (now out at Shoreline Park), are planning to save the farm's windmill. I can't decide if this is touchingly appropriate or just pathetic, like NASA's plan to mark the historical significance of Hangar One by drawing a chalk outline around its base.