The Cupertino Historical Society is still working on a plan to reveal history along the Stevens Creek trail. The nonprofit group wants to see a history walk implemented from McClellan Ranch to the Stocklmeir property near Stevens Creek Boulevard.
The plan would see the creation of a handful of decorative, informational historical markers that would describe the surprising amount of rich history and moments that occurred along the creek.
(courtesy Cupertino Historical Society)
This is a prototype of the kind of sign the Cupertino...
Possible historical events, people and places featured include the former John Doyle winery, an overview of Native American tribes in the area, agricultural history such as Louis Stocklmeir's foray into orange growing, the Anza party that camped in the area and Captain Elisha Stephens' 1840s settlement of what is now Blackberry Farm. Stephens is noted for growing blackberries and as the first man to lead a successful wagon train across the Sierra Nevada.
The idea was first pitched in February 2010 at a Cupertino Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. The topic was resurrected for discussion Oct. 6, with glowing support from the commissioners.
"I'm head over heels in favor for this idea," said commissioner David Greenstein.
The historical society would like to implement a walking tour, where residents can either get a tour with an on-duty docent, download audio to listen to during the walk or pick up packets to read along the way. The group has already produced some prototype signs, and members
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are working on graphic work and historical research.
Historical society member Mark McKenna told the Courier that the ultimate goal would be to have a city-wide walking tour. The society would publish a map with all the historical feature in Cupertino and its surrounding county-controlled land, including the Montebello ridge and its associated wineries.
McKenna said the nonprofit is "poor" and short on funds, so he would like to partner with the city and service clubs like the Rotary Club of Cupertino to finance the sign project.
McKenna plans to meet with the city architect to discuss the signs. He said the historical society plans to apply to be the beneficiary of golf tournament fundraisers this year.
Long before the semiconductor ruled Santa Clara Valley, chrysanthemum was
king. A new mini-exhibit at the Cupertino Historical Society and Museum
pays tribute to an era when the booming flower industry was a
multimillion-dollar business.
By the late 1950s, six Chinese
flower-growing families had purchased land in Cupertino. Fields of
asters, chrysanthemums and pompons grew in abundance.
Chrysanthemums
were the highest-earning crop in Santa Clara County in 1968, with a
value of more than $9.3 million, according to Julie DeVere, a local
historian and exhibit designer. Flowers as a major cash crop continued
until about the early 1980s, when South American imports drastically
undercut the American market.
The tiny exhibit also tells the
story of the Mok and Leong family, who had a 7-acre flower-growing
business on S. Stelling Road near McClellan Road from the late 1950s
until the mid 1980s. The display recounts the struggles of early Asian
immigration to California and the early days of the flower industry.
Chinese
and Japanese flower-growing operations first appeared in the San Mateo
and San Bruno area in the early 1900s. Flower fields spread south along
the peninsula, along with urban development, according to the exhibit.
The
display highlights some of the first flower- related businesses in
Cupertino, such as Ernest and Lillian Uenaka's Cupertino Nursery, which
opened in 1948, and Taro Yamagami's Nursery on De Anza Boulevard that started in the mid 1950s.
The
museum's current layout debuted Aug. 4, 2010, and features a series of
quick displays that give visitors a small taste of Cupertino's past.
Other exhibits highlight Cupertino's original one-room school houses,
the Crossroads, the Cupertino General Store, Doyle Winery and early
explorers and settlers such as Captain Elisha Stephens.
The Cupertino Historical Society & Museum stands near the crossroads
May 16, 2011
Just
inside the entrance of the Robert Quinlan Community Center on Stelling
Road stands a one-room museum, opened by the Cupertino Historical
Society in 1990.
A one-room museum?
At first glance you might think, "Why visit a one-room museum? Isn’t that like borrowing a book from a one-shelf library?"
But oh, how thoughtfully that one room is laid out. Like the one-room
Cupertino schoolhouses pi;) ctured on the walls there, it’s not about the
size of the place, it’s about what you can learn once you’re inside.
Unlike larger museums, in which you can’t possibly do each exhibit
justice, at Cupertino’s history museum you have time to linger over
every display. And from the original Ohlone inhabitants, through de
Anza’s 1776 expedition that founded Cupertino, to the cannery years and
onward, each display is set up as well as those of larger museums in the
valley.
A roomful of news
You’ll see a counter and shelves filled with stock representing The
Cupertino Store, circa early 20th Century. The store was at the center
of Cupertino back then, at the spot where Stevens Creek Road (in its
pre-“Boulevard” days) crossed what was then called Saratoga-Sunnyvale
Road—a vital intersection known as “the crossroads.”
The crossroads consisted of a house, Billy Baer’s blacksmith shop,
and The Cupertino Store, along with a pair of churches, the telephone
office, post office, and the town hall. Displaying perhaps more
foresight than today, although there were only about 400 families in the
area at the time, Cupertino already had public transportation in the
form of the Peninsula Interurban Railroad that ran along the street.
You can see tools from Baer’s blacksmith shop, items from the
valley’s canneries, along with a desk and books, toys, and other things
you’d have found in one of those aforementioned one-room schoolhouses,
including an honest-to-goodness schoolmarm’s dress.
It must be pointed out however, I did not see any note that de Anza’s
cartographer named the town after Joseph of Cupertino, the patron saint
of air travelers and dumb people. Such oversights happen, I suppose.
O Captain! My Captain!
On the other hand, there’s a deal of information on Captain Elisha Stephens, whom I wrote about previously here,
and after whom Stevens Creek and Stevens Creek Boulevard are misnamed.
An early settler, in the mid-1800s Stephens was the rip-snortinest,
rattlesnake-stew-eatinest, quirkiest hombre this side of the pecos. He
lead the first settlers safely through the Sierras by wagon—though
nowadays you can buy a BMW or get a nice cup of vegan frozen yogurt on
the street that bears his mispelled name.
So I tell you what, when you finish shopping at the parthenon
dedicated to the god of trendy consumption that is the Cupertino Whole
Foods, walk across Stelling Road and stop in at the museum.
You’ve filled the trunk of your car, now fill your head.
Sip Of History Was A Great Party
Posted by Donna on 6/27/11 • Categorized as History,Local News,People
Reno DeBono on accordian with Helene Davis and Judy Wilson
By Ruby Elbogen
Last evening, a full house celebrated Cupertino’s Historical Society
by turning up at Picchetti Winery for the organization’s annual
fundraising BBQ, and it was a delightful and successful event.
Getting the crowd revved up to raise an over-the-top amount of
donations at the live auction, Jim Walker managed to joke and pull top
dollar amounts for every item up for bid. Since these funds will keep
the organization up and running for the year, guests jumped in and
bumped up the bidding.
Brian Allen, GM of Outback was on hand to make sure all went well
with the food service—and the program featured a personal and amusing
and nostalgic talk by Michael Picchetti about what family life was like
for children during the many years his family lived at the ranch on
Montebello Road.
The peacock came out to share in the fun!
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