Santa Clara County, California Points of Interest

This church's architectural character is generally described as Richardsonian Romanesque, it is one of the few churches in America patterned after the... [click for more]

Founded nearby on the edge of the Guadalupe River on January 12, 1777, this is the first California mission to honor a woman-Clare of Assisi. The miss... [click for more]

The first mission in this valley, Mission Santa Clara de Thamien, was established at this site by Franciscan Padres Tomás de la Peña and Joseph... [click for more]

Established in 1803, St. Joseph's was the first non-mission church in a Spanish California settlement. The present edifice, designed in Italian baroqu... [click for more]

Originally founded as a private institution, 'Minns' Evening Normal School,' in 1857, the school became a public institution by act of the State Legis... [click for more]

Established in 1851 as a subscription school meeting in private homes, this is the oldest rural school district in California. Its first teacher, Char... [click for more]

Markham was born at Oregon City April 23, 1852 and later moved to a cattle ranch near Suisun. Later he and his mother moved to San Jose, and Markham e... [click for more]

Jay Orley and Everis A. Hayes built this Mission Revival style mansion, designed by George W. Page in 1904. The Hayes brothers were early San Jose Mer... [click for more]

Sarah Armstrong Wallis (1825-1905) was a pioneer in the campaign for women's voting rights. In 1870 she was elected president of California's first st... [click for more]

Designed by Julia Morgan for the YWCA, this building originally served Camp Fremont as a meeting place for servicemen and visitors, and was dedicated ... [click for more]

Designed by T. Paterson Ross and constructed in 1904 by builder George W. Mosher, this house is a notable example of California's interpretation of th... [click for more]

This 1919 residence, a unique blend of pueblo and international style elements, embodies Mrs. Herbert Hoover's innovative architectural concepts. It w... [click for more]

Martin Murphy, Jr. arrived in California with his family in 1844 in the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada. The founder of Sunnyvale, he con... [click for more]

This adobe, among the oldest in Santa Clara Valley, was one of several continuous rows of homes built in 1792-1800 as dwellings for the Indian familie... [click for more]

In 1843 Apolinario Miranda, husband of Juana Briones de Miranda, was sent before the subprefect for not living harmoniously with his wife and, shortly... [click for more]

This famous tavern and stage stop was located 21 miles from San Jose on the road to Monterey. The 21-Mile-House was built in 1852 by William Host bene... [click for more]

Built by Sarah Winchester, widow of rifle manufacturer William Winchester, this unique structure includes many outstanding elements of Victorian archi... [click for more]

On this site, in 1852, Charles LeFranc made the first commercial planting of fine European wine grapes in Santa Clara County to found Almaden Vineyard... [click for more]

This arroyo honoring San Joseph, patron saint of flight and students, was first discovered and traversed by Spanish explorers in 1769. On March 25-26,... [click for more]

This garage is the birthplace of the world's first high-technology region, Silicon Valley. The idea for such a region originated with Dr. Frederick Te... [click for more]

C. C. Morse of Ferry-Morse Seed Company fame built this mansion, claimed to be the largest remaining late Queen Anne-style Victorian residence in the ... [click for more]

In commemoration of the motion picture research conducted in 1878 and 1879 by Eadweard Muybridge at the Palo Alto Stock Farm, now the site of Stanford... [click for more]

Within a year after the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to Alta California, Governor Felipe de Neve authorized establishment of Califo... [click for more]

Here, on the 1,939-acre Rancho Potrero de Santa Clara, Christopher A. Shelton in early March 1853 introduced the honeybee to California. In Aspinwall,... [click for more]

This is all that remains of the four-story stone flour mill built in 1854 by James Alexander Forbes. The town that grew around this building was first... [click for more]

Under the guidance of the George Roop and William McDonald families during the years of 1865 of Francisco Cantua's discovery to the 1930s, Gilroy Hot ... [click for more]

Named after Frank Gubser, a German immigrant and barber, Gubserville was an important stage, mail, and teamster stop on the road between San Jose and ... [click for more]

Kotani-En is a classical Japanese residence in the formal style of a 13th-century estate with tile roofed walls surrounding a tea house, shrine, garde... [click for more]

The last vestige of El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe. This simple adobe was rehabilitated in the mid-19th century. It is believed to have bee... [click for more]

Three-quarters of a mile northeast is Montgomery Hill, site of the 55 successful flights of John Joseph Montgomery's 'aeroplane' that demonstrated aer... [click for more]

Here, along Arroyo de los Alamitos Creek, Luís Cabolla and Antonio Suñol did the first mining in California as they worked New Almaden ore in t... [click for more]

The Indians used pigment from this cinnabar hill for paint. Mercury was mined as early as 1845. The gold discovery made mercury indispensable, and the... [click for more]

Constructed by the United States government in 1892, this was the first federal building in San Jose. It served as U.S. Post Office from 1892 to 1933.... [click for more]

'Mountain Charley' McKiernan, one of the earliest residents of the Santa Cruz Mountains, settled near here in 1850, and John Martin Schultheis and his... [click for more]

Premium wines and champagne have flowed continuously since 1852 from the winery that bears the name of Paul Masson, even during Prohibition under a sp... [click for more]

This is the original site of the laboratory and factory of Federal Telegraph Company, founded in 1909 by Cyril F. Elwell. Here, Dr. Lee de Forest, inv... [click for more]

This historic adobe was built in 1836 by a native Californian, Roberto Balermino, on Rancho de los Coches, which was officially granted to him by Gove... [click for more]

After an armed confrontation on January 2 and a meeting the following day, Marine Captain Ward Marston, commander of the United States expeditionary f... [click for more]

The Anza exploring party passed through the Saratoga area March 25, 1776. Lumbering in the mountains, which began in 1847 and continued many years, br... [click for more]

Pellier, native of Saint-Hippolyte, France and founder of California's prune industry, came to California in 1849. In October 1850 he established a nu... [click for more]

At this site in 1959, Dr. Robert Noyce of Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation invented the first integrated circuit that could be produced commerciall... [click for more]

Directly opposite this tablet was located the first State Capitol Building, in which California's first Legislature assembled in December 1849. San Jo... [click for more]

On this corner stood the Garden City Bank Building, where Charles D. Herrold established Station FN, the first radio broadcasting station in the world... [click for more]