Belmont kiosk a door to history

The building is the only remaining example of an “on-site residential subdivision sales promotion office from the 1920s building boom in Belmont,” according to the Belmont Historical Society.

Denny Lawhern of the society came up with several documents, including one showing that in 1924 developers Lee Monroe, Arthur Lyon and Lawrence Miller incorporated Belmont Country Club Properties, a venture dubbed Belle Monti that took in about 1,000 acres of what is now northwest Belmont. Country Club Estates was the first of 10 subdivisions to be started between 1924 and the corporation’s demise in 1929.

Promotional material, possibly handed out at the sales office during its heyday, lauded Belle Monti for being “between two of the finest highways in California — the State Highway and the Skyline Boulevard.” Other lures included “large home and cabin sites” along with “mountain trails and bridle paths to delight the hikers and the saddle devotees.” All this for $300.

“If you believe in the expansion of San Francisco down the Peninsula — Buy Now,” said the company literature, which was way off the mark when it predicted the Peninsula and San Mateo County would become “an integral part of the City and County of San Francisco. This consolidation is bound to come.”

The company overinvested in attractions that included the Belle Monti clubhouse, a swimming pool and a golf course designed by William Dunn. The land also held tennis, handball and croquet courts. The company failed, meantime, to develop adequate infrastructure such as sewage and roads.

According to the city’s Historical Resources Inventory, the clubhouse became an officer’s club in World War II and later served as a research facility for studying radiation. In 1950, it was part of Kaiser’s cancer research system. In 1954, the clubhouse became the Congregational Church of Belmont and serves in that role today.

The building retains several attractive features, including high ceilings, open beams, oak floors and a veranda. The bronze sconces on the walls still hold crossed golf clubs that symbolized Belle Monti’s original intent. The pool has been filled in and is now a parking lot. The nine-hole golf course became subdivision housing.

The kiosk located on a small triangular shaped median island was donated to the city in 1997 by Pantano Properties in memory of a family member. Ten years later, the site was dedicated as a mini-park with improved landscaping and dedication plaques, one informing the curious that the little building is an “historic landmark.” Over time, the Belle Monti area of Belmont was infilled as a major residential area, the historic inventory said, adding that Belle Monti “was an important factor leading to Belmont’s incorporation as a city.”

The Rear View Mirror by history columnist Jim Clifford appears in the Daily Journal every other Monday. Objects in The Mirror are closer than they appear.