A Historic Home with a Legacy of Innovation
In the early 1900s, Los Altos was in the early stages of becoming a city. Eventually, that city would command some of the most expensive real estate in the nation. Upon one of its hilly parcels, a retired U.S. sea captain built his summer home, a 5,152-square-foot Dutch Colonial on what was then a 3-acre lot — and thus the story of 25671 Chapin Road began. About 50 years later, the home was purchased by a physicist whose work would forever change the world. Now, after more than 70 years, this historic property has come to market for $5.5 million, and the competition to be its new owner was fierce.
The Origins of Los Altos
The city of Los Altos tells us that the history of modern Los Altos “dates back to 1906,” when Paul Shoup of the Southern Pacific Railroad formed the Altos Land Company. This company “purchased 140 acres of land between Palo Alto and Mountain View from Sarah Winchester” — the mastermind of San Jose’s iconic and mysterious Winchester Mystery House.
The Los Altos Land Company envisioned a town that would “serve the new Southern Pacific Railroad cutoff between Mayfield and Los Gatos and named it ‘Los Altos.’” The name, which in Spanish means “the heights,” was an homage to the land’s high placement.
A Unique Architectural Choice
Capt. Fred M. Munger acquired 25671 Chapin Road in the Los Altos hills circa 1902-1907, choosing a distinct Dutch Colonial style for his home, which was an unusual architectural choice for an area that at the time favored Spanish-style homes. Munger’s home was innovative inside, as well. In a memoir written by a family member of the home’s second owners, Munger’s home was constructed before municipal electricity but had power thanks to its own generator and modern (for the time) appliance outlets.
A Home of Scientific Influence
According to listing agent Patrice Horvath of Illuminate Properties, renowned Stanford physicist Wolfgang “Pief” Panofsky and his wife Adele Panofsky purchased the property in 1951. Wolfgang Panofsky, who became a professor at Stanford in 1951, served as a nuclear energy consultant during World War II, and later advised presidents on nuclear power and disarmament.
Wolfgang was also the founding director of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, or SLAC, in Menlo Park and worked there from 1961 to 1984. In 1969, he was awarded the National Medal of Science. A prolific physicist, his studies have been cited as formative in the work of multiple Nobel Prize-winning scientists.
Adele Panofsky was a world-changer in her own right, advancing research on the fossil of an ancient marine mammal unearthed during the construction of SLAC in the 1960s. Over the course of more than two decades, Adele worked with paleontologists to fill in the missing pieces and created a cast model of the fossilized skeleton that was displayed at SLAC for years before being transferred to the San Mateo County History Museum.
A Hub for Scientific Thought
For over 70 years, the Panofsky House gave shelter to this couple and their family. Inside of it, the Panofskys hosted science seminars — the plans for the 2-mile SLAC were drafted here, as well as plans for the Exploratorium museum in San Francisco. The home’s visitors were a roster of scientific luminaries, from Nobel laureates and international science innovators to cultural icons like Frank Oppenheimer (the brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer).
But it is also a family home, its preserved six bedrooms, office and three bathrooms still shrines to Munger’s Dutch Colonial vision.
Preservation and Modernization
The official listing page describes original hardwood floors that still gleam underfoot, and “period pendant and sconce lighting … crystal knobs and beveled glass French doors” that add vintage elegance. The Panofskys struck a balance between preserving the home and modernizing it. They never added fireplaces, which Capt. Munger had never installed himself. From a career on ships, Munger feared fire most of all and wouldn’t have fireplaces in the house. He also installed fire hoses downstairs and upstairs! These made excellent conversation pieces for visitors.
The Panofskys also chose never to add a washer/dryer. Having no clothes laundry was a real blessing for their mother, who with five children and a husband would have been doing laundry way too often. She took the clothes weekly to a laundry service in town. The family also reshingled the home to retain its original design, a project so expensive they were forced to sell off 1 acre of the property, leaving the 2 acres we see now.
A Home with Personal Touches
The Panofskys added their own mark to this home, as well. They replaced the original wooden front steps with the present-day blue concrete and added glass windows to the wrap-around porch. They also glassed in a small room upstairs, one that would become integral to Adele Panofsky’s work. That room and the large bedroom it comes off of were of great importance to their mother. She was an amateur naturalist who loved collecting minerals, gems, rocks, fossils, shells, and animal bones. She filled those spaces with her magnificent collections, everything meticulously labeled, and with reference books, maps, and records of many travels.
A Testament to Preservation
Today, the home is a testament to its preservation. Set over two levels, the home’s lower level features a wood-paneled living room and formal dining room enhanced by exposed wood beams, as well as a wrap-around porch on that level’s exterior. Climbing the original wooden staircase, we find the primary suite with its Italian tiles and claw-foot tub that Adele Panofsky hand-painted. A partially finished attic and basement add additional square footage, bringing the total square feet to 6,770.
The home is set back on its 2.17 acres, a long driveway separating the residence from the road, and its orientation on a hill affords spectacular views to the east and west.
A Highly Coveted Property
The property debuted on the market in early June and went pending in just 10 days after multiple offers, all of which were over asking. The offers came from long-time Silicon Valley residents who recognized how special this home was. Interestingly, the buyers weren’t even actively looking for a new home — but when they saw this one, they knew they would never find anything like it again.
