Finding History

Santa Clara County was one of the original counties of California, formed in 1850 at the time of statehood.

In the early 20th Century, the area was promoted as the “Valley of the Heart’s Delight” due to its natural beauty, including a significant number of orchards.

The first major technology company to be based in the area was Hewlett-Packard, founded in a garage in Palo Alto in 1939. IBM selected San Jose as its West Coast headquarters in 1943. The U.S. Navy had a large presence in the area and began giving large contracts to Silicon Valley electronics companies.

Today, Santa Clara County is the headquarters for approximately 6500 high technology companies, including many of the largest tech companies in the world, among them: AMD, Cisco Systems and Intel, Apple Inc. and Hewlett-Packard, eBay, Facebook, Google and Yahoo!.

#249: Old Adobe Woman’s Club
#250: Old Site of Mission Santa Clara de Asis and Old Spanish Bridge
#259: Vasquez Tree and Site of 21 Mile House
#260: Santa Clara Campaign Treaty Site
#338: Mission Santa Clara
#339: New Almaden Mine
#339.1: New Almaden Mine
#416: Edwin Markham Home
#417: First Normal School in California (San Jose State College)
#433: First Site of El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe
#434: Site of City Gardens – Nursery of Louis Pellier
#435: Saratoga
#447: Gubserville
#448: Patchen
#458: Forbes Flour Mill
#461: Site of California’s First State Capitol
#489: Moreland School
#505: Almaden Vineyards
#524: Site of Juana Briones de Miranda Home on Rancho La Purisima Concepcion
#644: Martin Murphy Home and Estate (Site)
#733: Paul Masson Mountain Winery
#800: Arroyo de San Joseph Cupertino

#813: Montgomery Hill
#834: Eadweard Muybridge and The Development of Motion Pictures
#836: Pioneer Electronics Research Laboratory
#854: Old Post Office
#857: John Adams Squire House
#866: Luis Maria Peralta Adobe
#868: Winchester House
#888: Hayes Mansion
#895: Hostess House
#898: Roberto-Sunol Adobe
#902: First Unitarian Church of San Jose
#903: Kotani-En
#904: Charles Copeland Morse Residence
#910: St. Joseph’s Catholic Church
#913: Lou Henry Hoover House
#945: First Successful Introduction of the Honeybee to California
#952: Site of World’s First Broadcasting Station
#969: Home Site of Sarah Wallis
#976: Birthplace of Silicon Valley
#1000: Site of Invention of the First Commercially Practicable Integrated Circuit
#1017: Gilroy Yamato Hot Spring Resort
#1049: Guadalupe Mission of San Jose