Showing posts with label history san jose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history san jose. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 8, 2023

San Jose's Frontier Village Remnants

Did you know San Jose once had a Western-themed theme park that opened in the 1960s? A Palo Alto entrepreneur built Frontier Village for $2 million after being inspired at Disneyland. It was built on about 60 acres near Hayes Mansion.

Some of the highlights were staged gunfights, saloons, and several rides including a roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, railroad, canoe rides, and horse-drawn carriages. An expansion was planned in 1977, but neighbors complained and the San Jose City Council denied the plans. Unfortunately, due to this and further competition from Marriott's Great America the park closed in 1980.

However, you can find all sorts of remnants and tributes for the theme park at Edenvale Garden Park across from Hayes Mansion. This includes five scale buildings placed where their original structures were and a play structure that is themed after the park's railroad. Next time you are visiting Hayes Mansion, it's worth a detour to check out the park and see how many references you can find related to a shuttered theme park.

Source: SJtoday






Saturday, November 4, 2023

San Jose Roots: Celebrating our Heritage at the San Pedro Square Market today

Today there is a special event happening at the San Pedro Square Market today from 1-4pm with rare access to the Gonzales/Peralta Adobe and the Carmela & Thomas Fallon House. San Jose Roots is a celebration of our city's cultural diversity and is hosted by History San Jose, Mosaic, and The San Pedro Square Market.

The event will feature cultural performances, hands-on activities, and community booths from local and cultural organizations. There will also be free tours of the Gonzales/Peralta Adobe and the Carmela & Thomas Fallon House. This does not happen often, so it would be an ideal opportunity to see these two historic buildings.

The Gonzales/Peralta Adobe is situated in the middle of the San Pedro Square Market and is the oldest building in San Jose. The Carmela & Thomas Fallon House is across the street and represents an early Victorian home. Thomas Fallon was mayor of San Jose from 1859-1860.

In order to provide more space for the festivities, St. John Street will be closed in front of The San Pedro Square Market.



Wednesday, January 29, 2020

The 7 Wonders of the San Jose World

Searchlight San Jose has a great post about the most interesting "wonders" of San Jose. Number one is obvious and pictured below, I have yet to visit number two, there is a great movie about number three, number four is surrounded by delicious food stalls, number five is the only place in San Jose where you can find snow each year, number six is our most colorful park, number seven is a famous museum, and there is a bonus eight that will make you laugh (or cry).

Click here to find out what the 7 Wonders of the San Jose World are.


Thursday, September 12, 2019

San Jose Light Tower Blueprint

A historically accurate blueprint of the San Jose Light Tower is now available as a poster. This was commissioned to demonstrate the technical features of the tower for the documentary film "Light Between Two Towers."

The poster is available in a variety of sizes and is a great way the show off your San Jose historical cred. You can order it over here.


Wednesday, June 5, 2019

The Light Between Two Towers is getting recognized

The documentary film relating the San Jose Electric Light Tower and the Eiffel Tower has received its first two awards. It was recognized as an Official Selection for both the Rome Independent Prisma Awards and the Depth of Field International Film Festival. If you haven't seen the movie yet, we highly recommend doing so. You can watch The Light Between Two Towers over here. 


Thursday, May 9, 2019

Flicks and Grooves at History Park


History San José invites you to enjoy great movies and music under the stars during the Flicks & Grooves outdoor cinema and concert series in History Park. This year's outdoor cinema line up will showcase the quirky genius of director Wes Anderson the second Friday of each month. The Flicks & Grooves concert slate features an eclectic array of live bands to enliven your Friday nights on the Fire House Green. No movie or concert is complete without great food and beverage offerings. Each Flicks & Grooves event will feature a variety of local brews, wine, and food vendors. And of course, popcorn and local ice cream from O’Brien’s Ice Cream Parlor!

Cinema Dates
Friday, May 10th 7:30 pm (Moonrise Kingdom)Friday, June 14th 7:30 pm (Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) 
Friday, July 12th 7:30 pm (Rushmore)Friday, August 9th 7:30 pm (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Friday, September 13th 7:30 pm (The Royal Tenenbaums)
Friday, October 11th 7:30 pm (Fantastic Mr. Fox) 

Concert Dates
Friday, May 31st at 7:30 pm (Kiva Uhuru + Noop & Neens)
Friday, June 28th at 7:30 pm (Steely Nash + Q&A)
Friday, July 26th at 7:30 pm (Aki Kumar + DJs Albert Jenkins and Basura and Guests)
Friday, August 30 at 7:30 pm (Le Vice + Ian Santillano and the Housewarmers)
Friday, September 27 at 7:30 pm (Valley Wolf + Deseos Primitivos)
Friday, October 25 at 7:30 pm (Gene Washington and The Sweet Sounds + Rhythm  and Folk)

Outdoor Cinema
This year's outdoor cinema line up will showcase the quirky genius of director Wes Anderson the second Friday of each month. The beautiful and relaxing Fire House Green inside History Park serves as a perfect backdrop for the unorthodox filmmaker's cinematic gems including Rushmore, The Life Aquatic, and The Royal Tenenbaums to name just a few. Oscar-nominated Wes Anderson has created films that are bonafide cult classics resonating with audiences of all ages.

Outdoor Concerts

History Park will also be a destination for live music the last Friday of each month. The Flicks & Grooves concert slate features an eclectic array of live bands to enliven your Friday nights on the Fire House Green. The San Jose Jazz Boombox Stage will host hot acts curated by Needle to the Groove Records and Quynh Mai. Confirmed acts include Neo-Soul songstress Kiva Uhuru (May 31), Hip Pop outfit Steely Nash (June 28), the neo-Jazz stylings of Le Vice (Aug 30), Cumbia/Latin Rock crooner Valley Wolf (September 27) and many more acts to be announced.

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Souresseau News: When Artists Flew Like Birds

This week's history video is about historic drawings from bird's eye views. Artists had to get pretty creative before planes and drones were around, and many of these drawings are incredibly detailed. Ironically the newer maps featured in the video had a lot less detail and were not to scale.

To watch the two minute video, click here.


When Artists Flew Like Birds from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.

Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Souresseau News: Horse Power!

This week's history video is about early transportation in San Jose--namely horses. It's difficult to imagine a time when blacksmiths used to be the most important people in town and a limo was a wagon pulled by 6 horses. Kick back and journey 110-120 years back in time with this short documentary.

To watch the two minute video, click here.


Wednesday, January 30, 2019

Souresseau News: When Letterheads Told a Story

This week's history video is about historic San Jose letterheads. Many of these were printed over a century ago and the quality of the artwork that went into them is quite impressive.

To watch the two minute video, click here.


Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Souresseau News: Women at Work

This week's history video is about women in the workplace, starting with an 1860's photo of two San Jose female ranchers. While we still have inequalities in the workplace even today, it appears that there were more opportunities for women in San Jose many decades (or even a century) ago that I would have assumed.

To watch the two minute video, click here.


Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Souresseau News: Gateways and Arches

This week's history video is about San Jose's gateways and arches. Did you know that San Jose once had a welcome gateway for visitors near the Basset St. station on North First Street? Or that after the electric tower fell, the city built a gateway with an electrified San Jose sign?

To watch the two minute video, click here.


Wednesday, January 9, 2019

Souresseau News: Signs

This week's history video is about San Jose signs. As you'll see in the video, the mid-century trend was neon. It would be amazing to restore the few signs from the video that are still around to their original glory.

To watch the two minute video, click here.


Wednesday, January 2, 2019

Souresseau News: Waterways and Floods

This week's history video is about waterways and floods. Interestingly enough, in 1915 the Guadalupe River was briefly dammed to great a lake in Downtown San Jose (photo below). Another interesting tidbit is that Alviso has been flooded more often than any other part of San Jose (likely the reason why the region never took off).

To watch the two minute video, click here.




Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Sourisseau News: New Almaden

This week's history video is about New Almaden, one of San Jose's most hidden neighborhoods. The Quicksilver (mercury) mine in New Almaden produced an incredible amount of wealth, more than any gold mine in the state. If you go to the site of the old mine today, there is actually a neat little museum there.

To watch the two minute video on New Almaden, click here.


Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Souresseau News: Ethnic Communities

This week's history video is about ethnic communities that moved to San Jose. Even 100 years ago, San Jose was surprisingly diverse with French, German, Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Italian, and Filipino immigrants. At one point we even had the largest minority population in California.

To watch the two minute video, click here.


Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Sourisseau News: Early Banks

This week's history video is about banking. Below is a drawing of the Knocks and Beans bank, San Jose's first bank which opened in 1866 at 1st and Santa Clara. Eventually it was changed to the Bank of San Jose and moved across the street. Some of the most beautiful historic buildings in San Jose were once banks, and all of them are featured in this short 2 minute documentary.

To watch the video, click here.


Tuesday, December 4, 2018

Sourisseau News: Marching to a Different Beat

Over the next several weeks, I'll link to short San Jose historical videos commissioned by Linda L. Lester and published by WMS Media. The first video is a montage of eccentric San Jose personalities. The person photographed below is A. D. M. Cooper, who had a downtown studio filled with nude drawings, many of which were used as payments for bar tabs. It's only a two minute video with a lot of interesting facts.

To watch the video, click here.


Thursday, October 4, 2018

San Jose Railroad history and a teaser for new museum

In 1864, the San Jose and San Francisco Railroad was completed after a decade of planning. If you think your commute is rough today, before the railroad was built it would take 8 hours by stagecoach to travel between San Jose and San Francisco. The railroad cut it down to "only" 3 hours.

In the short 3 minute video below, you will get a glimpse at the past and a teaser for a future museum near the Play Garden on Coleman. To learn more about the San Jose Railroad Museum, just check out the video below.

Source: WMS Media

Railroad Video Final from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.


Friday, March 23, 2018

7th Annual Taco Festival of Innovation

San Jose's epic taco festival returns for its 7th season on Saturday, May 6th. History Park will once again host over 20 food trucks from all over the Bay Area serving their vest renditions of tacos. Expect everything from short rib tacos, nacho tacos, Vietnamese shrimp tacos, and a few surprises. While you're stuffing your face, wash everything down with local craft beers.

Like previous years, there will be plenty of entertainment programming. The popular Lucha Libre wrestling match will be back along with live music. San Jose Made will also be there with local arts & crafts vendors.

Ticket prices are only $8 ($10 at the gate) while craft beer tasting passes are $30 for five 7oz pours. ($35 at the gate). Kids aged 3-11 are free as part of the presale.

For tickets and additional info, head over here!


Thursday, August 24, 2017

Sourisseau News: The Lives of Automobiles

Last week we posted a Sourisseau News video about bicycles--this week we have a video about early cars in the San Jose area. The two minute video is embedded below for your enjoyment.

To see an archive of past videos, head over here.

Sourisseau News: The Lives of Automobiles February 2017 from WMS media Inc. on Vimeo.