Sunnyvale

Images of America: California

by Ben Koning, Anneke Metz, Michael S. Malone

Sunnyvale has been a place for forward thinking and innovation since its founding in 1861, when Irish immigrant Martin Murphy Jr. allowed a new railroad to pass through his land. By linking San Jose's farms to San Francisco's docks, he did more than help overcome the muddy misery of travel on the El Camino Real. The whistle stop first known as "Encinal" quickly grew into a center for agriculture, followed by defense, novel suburban development, and high technology. Sunnyvale is a place where names like Del Monte, Hendy, Lockheed, Atari, and Yahoo have each carried their day. Yet the city's relentless drive forward has made a sense of identity elusive. The downtown core has been rebuilt numerous times without much success, and examples abound of historic structures torn down for something new. But lately, the town has gotten its groove back. The restored city center now draws a crowd, and, thanks to a 50-year effort, the rebuilt Murphy house shimmers in the sun once again.

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2011

Reviews

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Images of America books. They're so interesting and you can get lost down so many rabbit holes.

Turns out Sunnyvale had a lot of cherry orchards back in the day. Good to know. I also learned some new things about canneries: that men typically operated the machinery and women handled the fruit, and that for men the work was usually permanent whereas for women it was seasonal.

I was hoping to learn more about the Korean Americans who worked in Sunnyvale during the 1920s, but alas, no ethnic minorities were featured in this book (apart from the forensic likeness of an Ohlone woman's face recreated from a skull found at the Santa Clara mission - which I feel is kind of a disservice to not go into the history there).

I wonder if the Strand movie theater was segregated.