The Cupertino Courier
Community
The Hoo Hoo House from the 1914 Fair
By Mary Lou Lyon
The hill west of the dip to Blackberry Farm Golf Course is known to many as "Hoo Hoo Hill."
When the San Francisco Exposition of 1915 closed, nearly everything was put up for sale. Hensley, the subdivider of the Monta Vista area, purchased the Lumberman's Building, called the "Hoo Hoo House," from Oregon, in 1917.
It seems there is still today, an "International Concatenated Order of Hoo-Hoo," which organized in 1892. Membership is by invitation to both men and women in all aspects of the forest-products industry.
The house was freighted in marked packages and erected on Inspiration Point, later known as Hoo-Hoo Hill. Logs weighed as much as eight to 10 tons. The house included a dance pavilion, balcony verandas and interior hardwood wall paneling from all over the world. Outside the house was covered in rustic tree bark. It even had a tall observation tower with a stairway. Hoo Hoo Hill was so steep many car owners used it to test their new cars.
The house stood on the crest of the hill to the left on Carmen Road and overlooked the bluff and the creek below. Its façade had eight log columns--26 feet high, 42 inches in diameter. The wood was representative of the eight commercial woods of the Pacific Coast: redwood, sugar pine, white pine, Douglas fir, Western hemlock, Western spruce, red cedar, Port Orford cedar from Oregon and Washington.
The interior of the house was Gothic in design. It was used by Monta Vista Estates Inc. for an assembly dance every Saturday night. The dance was not conducted for profit but to provide a safe, clean wholesome and beneficial recreation to a hopeful public. No liquor was permitted on the premises and no intoxicated person admitted. No girl under 18 was allowed without a chaperone because the intention of the management was to be like Caesar's wife: "above reproach."
One of the featured musicians was saxophonist Norman Nathanson. An ad proclaimed him to be the most effective saxophone player in America at that time. He had just finished an engagement in the Winter Garden in San Francisco. There were three reasons to attend the dances, according to the ads: the distinctive House of Hoo Hoo's beautiful surroundings; the best dance floor on the Pacific Coast; and the quality of the orchestra, especially with the addition of Norman Nathanson.
The rest of the orchestra featured many local musicians, including the Williams family and Joe Wolfe on drums.
On Aug. 16, 1928, the edifice burned completely in a huge conflagration. The interesting landmark was no more, but even today, the name lingers on with old-timers.
Mary Lou Lyon is a long-time Cupertino resident, retired Homestead High School teacher and chronicles local history.
