Adobe Creek Lodge - Thumbnail History Notes
1955 The property that would eventualy become known as Adobe Creek Lodge, was sold by The Haas Family to Frank Martinelli who set up a "Day Resort" facility.
Picnicking with restaurant ambience.
Fine outdoor dining without the bother of packing food, driving, and finding parking. .
Five swimming pools, hiking trails, horseshoe pits, sunbathing lawns, basketball court, and baseball diamonds.
1965 Incorporation of Los Altos Hills happens – zoning residential only and no commerce
Time-limit to phase out on Adobe Creek Lodge's commercial existence.
Conditional use permit to continue as a day resort for only for 20 more years.
By the deadline of 1976, it would have to revert to Los Altos Hills “single family residence” zoning.
Martinelli put the property up for sale - the use restriction was public knowledge.
Nonetheless there was a buyer…,
1961 Six years after LAH was incorporated, and with only 14 years left of the 20-year grace period, David Bellucci, a hotelier from Marin County, paid $1 million for Adobe Creek Lodge.
Road Sign on Moody Road
˜1970 Some 10 years later, approximately 8,000 people came to Adobe Creek Lodge each Saturday and Sunday for 15 weeks out of the year.
1973 With the expiration of the use permit less than three years away, Bellucci proposed converting the Country Club into a major tennis establishment. The lodge would become a nonprofit, private membership operation that (he claimed) would conform to Los Altos Hills zoning.
There would be up to 12 tennis courts, plus an amphitheater for 3,000 spectators, a pro shop, locker rooms, and dining facilities. Major tournaments would be staged in Los Altos Hills, using the model of Forest Hills, New York.1972 Law Suit filed by Confederación De La Raza Unida
San Jose Mercury News, Oct. 1972
Palo Alto Times Oct. 1972
1973 The lawsuit by Confederación De La Raza Unida failed at the District Court level. 1974 Appealed to the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and failed again at that level. 1976 The 20 year Clock on Conditional Use Permit expires.
Belluci continues to negotiate and wrangle, offering different models (e.g Non-profit membership-owned club, or a “Supper Club”, or a …) but encountered financial difficulties.1979 Adobe Creek Lodge ceased commercial operation, Belluci continues to live on the property. 1980 In September of 1980, the lodge's movable property was sold at auction.
“…A throng of restaurant owners and barkeeps, bid on the collection of restaurant furnishings, kitchen equipment, garden furniture, tennis nets, and other relics of the club's heyday." Los Altos Hills administrator Karen Jost recalls Bellucci from this period, or possibly afterwards. He would come to the town on a motor scooter, in a terry bathrobe, saying that he didn't have money because the town had taken it all…” (Town Crier)
1993
Newsclip from unknown newspaper, June 15, 1993
