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When he looks out the window of his ground level office at Alpine Hills Tennis and Swimming Club, General Manager and COO Garth Walker can see people strolling along the foot trail on Alpine Road with their horses in tow.
The visual instantly takes him back in time. “I can imagine a hitching post outside the roadhouse, where people riding from a ranch nearby would tie their horses up and go inside to have a beer,” he said, glancing out his office window. “I can picture the history.”
In the context of this property, history indeed is the operative word.
The club stands on land that was originally part of a grant dating back to 1832; it belonged to Maximo Martinez and was subsequently passed along to Eugene Kelly, who ran a roadhouse there. In the 1920s, Andrew and Ida Mangini bought 10 acres of the Kelly property, where they ran a popular picnic park — with dance pavilions, barbecue pits and baseball fields — and also built a stone structure in the 1930s that still stands.
In the 1950s, the Manginis sold the property to tennis pro and building contractor Sandy MacKay, who turned it into a club.
In the 1970s, members of the club purchased it from MacKay. Presently, Alpine Hills Tennis and Swimming Club is a private, member-owned, nonprofit organization.
In January this year, Walker, on behalf of the membership — which comprises around 750 families — accepted an award from the Portola Valley Town Council, for the restoration of the clubhouse.
“I’m not the one that drove this renovation,” said Walker, who has been working for the club for the last two and a half years. “It was the membership that did.”
Around 2018-19, the members voted to rebuild the property. “They wanted to preserve that building — it has a lot of sentimental and emotional value to the town of Portola Valley,” he said.
“Part of that re-building of the clubhouse was the renovation of the roadhouse,” he said about the adjacent structure, which, between 1977 and 2017 was rented by Windmill Preschool, which now operates out of a different facility in Portola Valley.
A large part of the restoration work was about strengthening and stabilizing the structure. “The club spent a significant amount of money getting it up to code for earthquake standards,” Walker said, about the newly reinforced, thickened walls, due to which the structure is now a foot smaller in all directions on the inside. “It’s a solid building now.”
Other additions include a restroom, a “modest” food preparation area and some changes to the bar.
“The desire was to restore the bar to its original look and use,” he said. “The floors, walls and ceilings all look like they probably did 80-90 years ago.”
While some aspects were remodeled, others, like the main door and wood-framed windows with old-style latches, have not been replaced.
“Just walking up to it sets the mood before you even enter. It’s got that old, kind of beat up, look to it but it’s pretty cool,” he said. “It has a renovated yet antique feel to it — you’re not worried about falling through the floor but you still feel like you’re in something that has a historic value to it.”
And a lot of this value is found in living memory, reflected in the stories told by some of the long-standing members of the club who have seen the space evolve over the decades.
“There’s a gentleman in his 80s, who used to attend Stanford in 1954 and remembers coming to the roadhouse and getting a couple of beers in-between classes,” Walker said. This was around the time the roadhouse — briefly known as Rudy’s Alpine Inn — was operated by Bavarian couple Rudy and Elisabeth Hubner, famous for serving German Rhine wines.
For the most part, though, it was known as Mangini Roadhouse, thanks to the eponymous Italians who ran it with gusto for years, turning it into a landmark for the people of Portola Valley and others, who would come from as far as San Francisco to escape the hustle of the city and hang out with friends and family.
Many of the younger families who visit the club today are children of older members. It’s common to see kids walk down to the club after school, from Corte Madera and Woodside Priory, to sit in the Alpine Room — which is designated for kids — and do their homework before going to swim practice, junior tennis courses or martial arts classes.
“This tradition goes back to the ’70s; a lot of their parents did the same thing when they were kids!” Walker said, marveling at the generational legacy these children have inherited along with their club memberships. “Some day they will recognize the value and community that Alpine Hills represents,” he said.
Other than sporting activities, members also use the club to host parties, business meetings and events. The room where Mrs. Mangini famously served spaghetti to her guests back in the day is now a “multi-use, general purpose” area.
Though the place has gone through different iterations of use over the years, it has the same spirit.
“It has gone from being a bar to a Town Hall (1964-76) to a preschool and now a club — it was built to host families and be a social hub for the valley and that’s what it still is,” Walker said.
Walker, who is relatively new to the Bay Area, is very taken by the laidback, friendly vibe of Portola Valley.
“Though it’s a tech hub, the place still has that rural remoteness,” he said. As a self-confessed history buff, having this property as his place of work is an experience that “touches my soul,” he said.
“It feels like the building and the redwood trees around it have grown up together,” Walker said.
Originally from Ohio, he spent the last eight years in Denver before moving to California. “I’m from the Midwest and I sense a lot of Midwest values here. It’s nice to see how unpretentious the people are,” he said.
To him, the club is an extension of the community. “That carries over to why they chose to preserve the roadhouse the way they did, instead of tearing it down and building some gleaming, fancy structure.”
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