1.
History of California
–
California was settled from the North by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years. It was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America, after contact with Spanish explorers, most of the Native Americans died out from European diseases. After the Portolà expedition of 1769–70, Spanish missionaries began setting up 21 California Missions on or near the coast of Alta California, during the same period, Spanish military forces built several forts and three small towns. Two of the pueblos would eventually grow into the cities of Los Angeles, after Mexican Independence was won in 1821, California fell under the jurisdiction of the First Mexican Empire. Fearing the influence of the Roman Catholic church over their newly independent nation and they left behind a small Californio population of several thousand families, with a few small military garrisons. After the Mexican–American War of 1846-48, Mexico was forced to relinquish any claim to California to the United States, the unexpected discovery of gold in 1849 produced a spectacular gold rush in Northern California, attracting hundreds of thousand of ambitious young men from around the world. Only a few struck it rich, and many returned home disappointed, most appreciated the other economic opportunities in California, especially in agriculture, and brought their families to join them. California became the 31st US state in 1850 and played a role in the American Civil War. Chinese immigrants increasingly came under attack from nativists, they were forced out of industry and agriculture, as gold petered out, California increasingly became a highly productive agricultural society. The coming of the railroads in 1869 linked its rich economy with the rest of the nation, in the late 19th century, Southern California, especially Los Angeles, started to grow rapidly. Different tribes of Native Americans lived in the area that is now California for an estimated 13,000 to 15,000 years, over 100 tribes and bands inhabited the area. Various estimates of the Native American population in California during the period range from 100,000 to 300,000. Californias population held about one-third of all Native Americans in what is now the United States and this popular Spanish fantasy was printed in several editions with the earliest surviving edition published about 1510. In exploring Baja California the earliest explorers thought the Baja California peninsula was an island, mapmakers started using the name California to label the unexplored territory on the North American west coast. European explorers flying the flags of Spain and of England explored the Pacific Coast of California beginning in the mid-16th century, the first European to explore the California coast was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, working for Spain. He died in California, and his expedition found no wealth, no advanced Indian civilization, no apparent agriculture, California was of little further interest. They depicted the Indians as living at a subsistence level. They had no apparent agriculture, no domesticated animals except dogs, no pottery, and their only tools were made out of wood, leather, woven baskets and netting, stones and horns
2.
History of California before 1900
–
Human history in California begins with indigenous Americans first arriving in California some 13, 000–15,000 years ago. Exploration and settlement by Europeans along the coasts and in the valleys began in the 16th century. California was acquired by the United States under the terms of the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo following the defeat of Mexico in the Mexican–American War, American westward expansion intensified with the California Gold Rush, beginning in 1849. California joined the Union as a state in 1850, due to the Compromise of 1850. By the end of the 19th century, California was still rural and agricultural. The most commonly accepted model of migration to the New World is that peoples from Asia crossed the Bering land bridge to the Americas some 16,500 years ago. The remains of Arlington Springs Man on Santa Rosa Island are among the traces of an early habitation. In all, some 30 tribes or culture groups lived in what is now California and these groups included the early-arriving Hokan family and the recently arrived Uto-Aztecan of the desert southeast. This cultural diversity was among the densest in North America, and was likely the result of a series of migrations and invasions during the last 10, 000–15,000 years. At the time of the first European contact, Native American tribes included the Chumash, Maidu, Miwok, Modoc, Mohave, Ohlone, Pomo, Serrano, Shasta, Tataviam, Tongva, Wintu, tribes adapted to Californias many climates. Coastal tribes were a source of trading beads, produced from mussel shells using stone tools. Tribes in Californias broad Central Valley and the surrounding foothills developed an early agriculture, burning the grasslands to encourage growth of wild plants. The acorns from these trees were pounded into a powder, tribes living in the mountains of the north and east relied heavily on salmon and game hunting, and used Californias volcanic legacy by collecting and shaping obsidian for themselves and for trade. The deserts of the southeast were home to tribes who learned to thrive in harsh environment by making careful use of local plants and living in oases. The indigenous people practiced various forms of forest gardening in the forests, grasslands, mixed woodlands, by burning underbrush and grass, the Native Americans revitalized patches of land whose regrowth provided fresh shoots to attract food animals. A form of farming was used to clear areas of old growth to encourage new in a repeated cycle. The relative strength of the tribes was dynamic, as the more successful expanded their territories, slave-trading and war among tribes alternated with periods of relative peace. The total population of Native California is estimated, by the time of extensive European contact in the 18th century, before Europeans landed in North America, about one-third of all natives in what is now the United States were living in the area that is now California
3.
California Gold Rush
–
The California Gold Rush began on January 24,1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States, the Gold Rush initiated the California Genocide, with 100,000 Native Californians dying between 1848 and 1868. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory to the state of the first nominee for the Republican Party. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial, whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-seekers, called forty-niners. The first to hear confirmed information of the rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and Latin America. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the state to meet the needs of the settlers. San Francisco grew from a settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California, in 1849 a state constitution was written. The new constitution was adopted by vote, and the future states interim first governor. In September,1850, California became a state, at the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of staking claims was developed. Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service, by 1869 railroads were built across the country from California to the eastern United States. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, Gold worth tens of billions of todays dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with more than they had started with. The Mexican–American War ended on February 3,1848, although California was firmly in American hands before that, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for, among other things, the formal transfer of Upper California to the United States. The California Gold Rush began at Sutters Mill, near Coloma, on January 24,1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the American River. Marshall brought what he found to John Sutter, and the two tested the metal. However, rumors started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher
4.
California in the American Civil War
–
The State of California did not send its units east, but many citizens traveled east and joined the Union Army there, some of whom became famous. Californias Volunteers also conducted operations against the native peoples within the state and in the other Western territories of the Departments of the Pacific. Following the Gold Rush, California was settled primarily by Midwestern and Southern farmers, miners, Democrats dominated the state from its foundation. In the beginning of 1861, as the crisis began, the secessionists in San Francisco made an attempt to separate the state and Oregon from the union. Patriotic fervor swept California after the attack on Fort Sumter, providing the manpower for Volunteer Regiments recruited mainly from the counties in the north of the State. When the Democratic party split over the war, Republican supporters of Lincoln took control of the state in the September elections, Volunteer Regiments were sent to occupy pro-secessionist Southern California and Tulare County, leaving them generally powerless during the war itself. However some Southerners traveled east to join the Confederate Army, evading Union patrols, others remaining in the state attempted to outfit a privateer to prey on coastal shipping, and late in the war two groups of partisan rangers were formed but none was successful. When California was admitted as a state under the Compromise of 1850, as a result, Southerners in Congress voted against admission in 1850 while Northerners pushed it through, pointing to its population of 93,000 and its vast wealth in gold. Northern California, which was dominated by mining, shipping, and commercial elites of San Francisco, in the 1856 presidential election, California gave its electoral votes to the winner, James Buchanan. The last attempt, the Pico Act of 1859, was passed by the California State Legislature, weller, approved overwhelmingly by voters in the proposed Territory of Colorado and sent to Washington, D. C. with a strong advocate in Senator Milton Latham. However the secession crisis following the election of Lincoln in 1860 led to the proposal never coming to a vote. In 1860 California gave a plurality of 38,733 votes to Abraham Lincoln, whose 32% of the total vote was enough to win all its electoral votes. During the secession crisis following Lincolns election, Federal troops were under the command of Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, in Benicia, General Johnston strongly believed in the Southern right to secede but regretted that it was occurring. A group of Southern sympathizers in the state plans to secede with Oregon to form a Pacific Republic. The success of their plans rested on the cooperation of General Johnston and he told them to tell this to their Southern friends. Deprived of his aid the plans for California and Oregon to secede from the United States never came to fruition, meanwhile, Union men feared Johnston would aid such a plot and communicated their fears to Washington asking for his replacement. Brig. Gen. Edwin Vose Sumner was soon sent west via Panama to replace Johnston in March 1861, Johnston resigned his commission on April 9, and after Sumner arrived on April 25 turned over his command and moved with his family to Los Angeles. He would soon travel with other Southerners across New Mexico Territory to Texas and he died at the Battle of Shiloh
5.
Maritime history of California
–
In the northwest coast of California near the redwood forests several Indian tribes developed large dugout canoes they used for fishing, trade and warfare. These canoes were constructed by taking a tree and shaping it with hand tools. A redwood log 4 metres long and 240 centimetres diameter weighs about 2,000 kilograms and this large weight meant that the logs were selected that required a minimum of movement—usually driftwood or dead fall trees that had been blown over by the wind. Sometimes logs were cut to length and rolled into water where they could be floated to a work area. The logs were cut to length by fire and stone age hand tools. The basic procedure was to start a fire on the tree where it needed shaping. This would leave one or more centimeters of charred wood where the fire was built that would be easier to remove. By successively using small fires to char the areas that needed to be worked the logs could be shaped by the crude scrapers and rock, shellfish, a finished 4 metres long dugout canoe with a nominal 5 centimetres thickness still weighed over 100 kilograms. Most larger dugouts weighed too much to move easily and were usually just pulled up on a far enough to get them above high tide. Constructing these types of dugout canoes took considerable time and skill with stone age tools, dugout canoes typically lasted several years. Tule have a diameter, rounded green stems that grows to 1 to 3 metres tall. They grow well in marshes, wetlands or at the edges of bodies of water, the tule stem has a pithy interior filled with spongy tissue packed with air cells—this makes it float well on water as well as a good insulator. Native Americans used tule for making and thatching huts, baskets, mats, boats, decoys, hats, clothing, Tule was typically cut using deer scapula saws that had rough saw like edges cut into them. Tule has to be handled with care when green to avoid breaking the stem, to make a tule boat, green tule was cut and then spread out in the sun to dry for several days. Tule canoes were constructed of cut stalks of tule plants bundled together around a core for extra strength. The bundle of tules could be pre-bent as they were being bundled to form a raised prow, the length of each bundle depends on the size of the boat that were then typically about 10 feet to 15 feet. The bundle that formed the bottom of the canoe on which the boatman or boatmen sat, Tule canoes typically accommodated one to four people. Tule boats can be built from dried tule, by experienced canoe builders
6.
History of rail transportation in California
–
In recent years, passenger rail transportation has undergone something of a renaissance, with the introduction of services such as Metrolink, Coaster, Caltrain, Amtrak California, and others. On November 4,2008, the People of California passed Proposition 1a, the early Forty-Niners of the California Gold Rush wishing to come to California were faced with limited options. From the East Coast, for example, a voyage around the tip of South America would take five to eight months. Eventually, most gold-seekers took the route across the continental United States. Each of these routes had its own deadly hazards, from shipwreck to typhoid fever to cholera or Indian attack, the very first inter-oceanic railroad which affected California was built in 1855 across the Isthmus of Panama, the Panama Railway. The Panama Railway reduced the time needed to cross the Isthmus from a week of difficult, the 1,600 mile trip from Omaha, Nebraska would now take mere days. The Wild West was quickly transformed from a lawless, agrarian frontier to what would become an urbanized, industrialized economic, of perhaps greater significance is the unbridled economic growth that was spurred on by the sheer diversity of opportunities available in the region. The four years following the Golden Spike ceremony saw the length of track in the U. S. double to over 70,000 miles, virtually the entire country was accessible by rail, making a national economy possible for the first time. As rail lines pushed further and further into the wilderness, they opened up huge areas which would have lain fallow. The railroads helped establish countless towns and settlements, paved the way to abundant mineral deposits and fertile tracts of pastures and farmland, and created new markets for eastern goods. It is estimated that by the end of World War II, rail companies nationwide remunerated to the government over $1 billion dollars, the railroads would, in time, provide equally important linkages to move the inhabitants throughout the state, interconnecting its blossoming communities. Transportation determines the flow of population, declared J. D. Spreckels, one of Californias early railroad entrepreneurs, just after the dawn of the twentieth century. Before you can hope to get people to live anywhere. you must first of all them that they can get there quickly, comfortably and, above all. Among Spreckels many accomplishments was the formation of the San Diego Electric Railway in 1892, which radiated out from downtown to north, south. Henry Huntington, the nephew of Central Pacific founder Collis P. Huntington, would develop his Pacific Electric Railway in Los Angeles, the Southern Pacific soon followed suit and the level of real estate speculation reached a new high, with boom towns springing up literally overnight. Free, daily railroad-sponsored excursions enticed overeager potential buyers to visit the many undeveloped properties firsthand, despite all of the shortcomings, in the end the State reaped innumerable and unprecedented benefits from its associations with the railroad companies, which helped put California on the map. Even today, California is well known for the abundance and many varieties of trees that are cultivated throughout the state. The only fruits indigenous to the region, however, consisted of berries or grew on small bushes
7.
History of California's state highway system
–
The state highway system in the U. S. state of California dates back to 1896, when the state took over maintenance of the Lake Tahoe Wagon Road. Construction of a connected system began in 1912, after the states voters approved an $18 million bond issue for over 3000 miles of highways. The last large addition was made by the California State Assembly in 1959, the 58 mile road had been operated as a toll road until 1886, when El Dorado County bought it, the county deeded the road to the state on February 28,1896. Funding was only enough for minimal improvements, including a bridge over the South Fork American River in 1901. Also in 1895, on March 27, the created the three-person Bureau of Highways to coordinate efforts by the counties to build good roads. The bureau traveled to every county of the state in 1895 and 1896 and prepared a map of a system of state roads. Several more state highways were legislated in the decade. This new department, in addition to duties, was to maintain all state highways. On March 22,1909 the State Highways Act was passed and this law authorized the Department of Engineering to issue $18 million in bonds for a continuous and connected state highway system that would connect all county seats. To this end, the department created the three-member California Highway Commission on August 8,1911 to take charge of the construction. As with the 1896 plan by the Bureau of Highways, the Highway Commission traveled the state to determine the best routes, construction began in mid-1912, with groundbreaking on Contract One - now part of SR82 in San Mateo County - on August 7. Noteworthy portions of the built by the commission included the Ridge Route in southern California. This gave the Department of Engineering an additional $12 million to complete the original system, at this time, each route was assigned a number from 1 to 34, this system of labeling routes, although never marked with signs, remained until the 1964 renumbering. Where not serving as extensions of existing routes, these -, the three bond issues together totaled 5560 miles, of which just over 40% was completed or under construction in mid-1920. The Department of Engineering became part of the new Department of Public Works in 1921, in order to pay for the roads, a 2-cent per gallon gasoline tax was approved in 1923. The legislature continued to add highways to the system, including the Mother Lode Highway in 1921 and the Arrowhead Trail in 1925. In January 1928, the California State Automobile Association and Automobile Club of Southern California, Highways along several of the most major state highways. The California Toll Bridge Authority was created in 1929 to acquire and operate all toll bridges on highways, including the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge
8.
History of Chico, California
–
The history of Chico, California, begins with the original inhabitants, the Mechoopda Maidu. The city of Chico was founded in 1860 by General John Bidwell, the city became incorporated January 8,1872. Old Hutch Hutchinson identified five events as the most seminal in Chico history, since then, several seminal events have unfolded in Chico. Chico was founded by General John Bidwell, a member of one of the first wagon trains to reach California in 1843, Bidwell first came to the area in that same year as an employee of John Sutter. In 1844, William Dickey was granted Rancho Arroyo Chico by Mexican Governor Manuel Micheltorena, in two separate purchases in 1849 and 1851, Bidwell acquired the Rancho Arroyo Chico. He filed a claim for the land with the Public Land Commission in 1852, after a subsequent legal challenge, the claim was confirmed by the US District Court for the Northern District in 1855, and eventually by the US Supreme Court. The title patent was signed by President James Buchanan in 1860, United States Indian Agent O. M. Wozencraft represented the U. S. government at Bidwells Ranch. The city of Chico was founded in 1860 by General John Bidwell and that year, Bidwell requested the county send a surveyor to lay out the city street grid. Chico was the point of the Koncow Trail of Tears also called the Nome Cult Trail. On August 28,1863, all Konkow Maidu were to be at the Bidwell Ranch to be taken to the Round Valley Reservation at Covelo in Mendocino County, any Indians remaining in the area were to be shot. 435 Maidu were rounded up and marched under guard west out of the Sacramento Valley,461 Indians started the trek,277 finished. They reached Round Valley on September 18,1863, the city became incorporated January 8,1872. In that year the first Chico Board of Trustees was established and this body was the predecessor of the modern Chico City Council. The first municipal election was February 5,1872 with 217 votes cast, the first City Board of Trustees comprised G. W. Dorn was named as the first President of the Board of Trustees, Municipal elections were annual and the term for a trustee was two years. However, the first trustees had to draw lots to determine who would serve for a one- and this was to provide that there would only be either two or three seats up for election in any given year henceforth. The Butte Flume and Lumber Company built a flume from Butte Meadows down Big Chico Creek in 1872 and this flume would supply the Diamond Match Company with lumber for its operations. In 1887, the California legislature established the Northern Branch of the State Normal School of California, Chico was chosen as its site, and Bidwell donated land from his cherry orchard for this purpose
9.
History of Los Angeles
–
The written history of Los Angeles city and county began with a small Mexican town that changed little in the three decades after 1848, when California became part of the United States. Much greater changes came from the completion of the Santa Fe railroad line from Chicago to Los Angeles in 1885, immigrants flooded in, especially white Protestants from the Midwest. Los Angeles had an economic base in farming, oil, tourism, real estate. It grew rapidly with many suburban areas inside and outside the city limits, Hollywood made the city world famous, and World War II brought new industry, especially high-tech aircraft construction. Politically the city was moderately conservative, with a labor union sector. Since the 1960s growth has slowed—and traffic delays have become famous, LA was a pioneer in freeway development as the public transit system deteriorated. New arrivals, especially from Mexico and Asia, have transformed the demographic base since the 1960s, old industries have declined, including farming, oil, military and aircraft, but tourism, entertainment and high tech remain strong. By 3000 B. C. the area was occupied by the Hokan-speaking people of the Milling Stone Period who fished, hunted sea mammals and they were later replaced by migrants — possibly fleeing drought in the Great Basin — who spoke a Uto-Aztecan language called Tongva. The Tongva people called the Los Angeles region Yaa in Tongva, by the time of the arrival of the Spanish in the 18th century A. D. there were 250,000 to 300,000 native people in California and 5,000 in the Los Angeles basin. Since contact with Europeans, the people in what became Los Angeles were known as Gabrielinos and Fernandeños, the land occupied and used by the Gabrielinos covered about four thousand square miles. They were part of a group of trading partners that included the Chumash to the west, the Cahuilla and Mojave to the east. Their trade extended to the Colorado River and included slavery, the lives of the Gabrielinos were governed by a set of religious and cultural practices that included belief in creative supernatural forces. They worshipped a god, Chinigchinix, and a female virgin god. Their Great Morning Ceremony was based on a belief in the afterlife, in a purification ritual similar to the Eucharist, they drank tolguache, a hallucinogenic made from jimson weed and salt water. Their language was called Kizh or Kij, and they practiced cremation, generations before the arrival of the Europeans, the Gabrielinos had identified and lived in the best sites for human occupation. The survival and success of Los Angeles would depend greatly on the presence of a nearby and its residents would provide the colonists with seafood, fish, bowls, pelts, and baskets. For pay, they would dig ditches, haul water, and they often intermarried with the Mexican colonists. In 1542 and 1602 the first Europeans to visit the region were Captain Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and it would be another 166 years before another European would visit the region
10.
History of Pasadena, California
–
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Famous for its history and the hosting of the Tournament of Roses Parade since 1890. Pasadena was founded in 1874 and incorporated in 1886, the original inhabitants of Pasadena and surrounding areas were members of the Native American Indians Hahamog-na tribe, a branch of the Tongva Nation. They spoke the Tongva language that lived in the Los Angeles Basin for thousands of years, Tongva dwellings lined the Arroyo Seco in present-day Pasadena and south to where it joins the Los Angeles River and along other natural waterways in the city. They lived in thatched, dome-shape lodges, for food, they lived on a diet of acorn meal, seeds and herbs, venison, and other small animals. They traded for fish with the coastal Tongva. They made cooking vessels from steatite soapstone from Catalina Island and that trail has been in continuous use for thousands of years. An arm of the trail is still in use up what is now called Salvia Canyon. When the Spanish occupied the Los Angeles Basin they built the San Gabriel Mission and renamed the local Tongva people Gabrielino Indians, today, several bands of Tongva people live in the Los Angeles area. The Rancho comprised the lands of todays communities of Pasadena, Altadena, prior to the annexation of California in 1848, the last of the Mexican owners was Manuel Garfias who retained title to the property after statehood in 1850. Garfias sold sections of the property to the first Anglo settlers to come into the area, Benjamin Eaton, the father of Fred Eaton, much of the property was purchased by Benjamin Wilson who established his Lake Vineyard property in the vicinity. Wilson, known as Don Benito to the local Indians, was owner of the Rancho Jurupa. He is the grandfather of WWII General George S. Patton, Jr. and had Mount Wilson named for him. In 1873, Wilson was visited by one Dr. Daniel M. Berry of Indiana who was looking for a place in the country that could offer better climate to his patients, most of whom suffered from tuberculosis. Berry was an asthmatic and claimed that he had his best three nights sleep at Rancho San Pascual, to keep the find a secret, Berry code-named the area Muscat after the grape that Wilson grew. To raise funds to bring the company of people to San Pascual, Berry formed the Southern California Orange, the newcomers were able to purchase a large portion of the property along the Arroyo Seco and on January 31,1874, they incorporated the Indiana Colony. As a gesture of good will, Wilson added 2,000 acres of then useless highland property, at the time, the Indiana Colony was a narrow strip of land between the Arroyo Seco and Fair Oaks Avenue. On the other side of the street was Wilsons Lake Vineyard development, after more than a decade of parallel development on both sides, the two settlements merged into the City of Pasadena
11.
History of Piedmont, California
–
The history of Piedmont, California, covers the history of the area in Californias San Francisco Bay Area that is now known as Piedmont, up to and beyond the legal establishment of a city. In 1850, what is now Piedmont was part of Rancho San Antonio and this area, owned by the Peralta family, covered much of the northeastern shore of San Francisco Bay, now northern Alameda County. Rancho San Antonio was sparsely populated except for cattle and the vaqueros who tended them, in 1860, retired South Carolinian Congressman Isaac Holmes bought a piece of land from his neighbor Reed. The area included Bushy Dell Creek, a creek runs through the dog-walking trail of modern-day Piedmont. Holmes bathed in the foul-smelling pink water of a spring, believing the water beneficial for his rheumatism. In 1870, Walter Blair bought over 800 acres of land in the foothills of East Bay, where the spring was located he built the Piedmont Springs Hotel, of 20 bedrooms and five dining rooms. The water of the spring was thought to have curative powers, wealthy San Franciscans retired to the hotel during trips to the country. In addition to the hotel, Blair built a farm on what is now Highland Avenue. In April 1877, James Gamble bought a 350-acre tract of land from Blair, and formed the Piedmont Land Company, along with James deFremery, George W. Beaver, L. A. Booth, and T. L. Barker. The Piedmont Land Company hired landscape engineer William Hammond Hall to plan the avenues, the first auction of land took place on April 10,1877. In January 1891, the women of Piedmont led a movement to block the sale of liquor at the Piedmont Springs Hotel. They petitioned the Alameda County Board of Supervisors to withdraw the license granted to the owner of the hotel. Prominent signers included Annie Barton, Anna Richardson, N. Randall, Florence Wing, Inez Craig, M. Laurence, Ethyl Robert, the liquor controversy ended quickly with the Piedmont Springs Hotel fire. On November 17,1892, sparks from the chimney of the set the roof on fire. Newspapers reported that Firefighters had to arrive from Oakland, two later, at 11,30 a. m. to contain the flames. Jack London never actually lived in Piedmont, because in 1900, after marrying Bess Maddern, the newlywed couple settled in a redwood bungalow in the eastern hills of unincorporated Oakland, later to become part of the present-day city of Piedmont. At the time, this area was growing into a community for artists and it was here that London wrote his novel Call of the Wild. Londons two daughters, including Joan London, were born during this time, in 1902, London moved to 206 Scenic Avenue, and tried to create a childhood he never had, Piedmont historian Ann Swift wrote
12.
History of Riverside, California
–
Riverside, California, was founded in 1870, and named for its location beside the Santa Ana River. It became the county seat when Riverside County, California, was established in 1893, prior to the colonization of Mexico and Alta California by Spain, the land that would become Riverside, California, was frequented by various Native American people. No permanent settlements are known to have existed, but occasional villages close to the river were documented by later explorers, artifacts found at White Sulphur Springs, as well as grain grinding holes in rocks south of Mount Rubidoux, provide evidence of the Native American activity. On March 20,1774, Juan Bautista De Anza, leading an expedition to find a good land route from southern Mexico to Alta California. He, and others in his contingent, described the area as a beautiful place fragrent with rosemary and other herbs and he named the area Valle de Paraiso, or Valley of Paradise. This was the first official record made of what was to become the city of Riverside, De Anza lead a second expedition through the area on December 31,1775. This expedition was an expedition headed for Monterey. They spent New Years Eve on the banks of the Santa Ana River, a marker in the park was dedicated to recognize the point where the group crossed the Santa Ana River. To commemorate De Anzas expeditions, the city of Riverside, through private donations, the dedication took place in May,1942, at the corner of Market and 14th streets. Riverside was founded in November 1869 as a colony by the California Silk Center Association, in 1873 Eliza Tibbets convinced William Saunders, Superintendent of the fledgling Bureau of Agriculture, to make her a test grower for his new seedless oranges from Bahia, Brazil. By planting and nurturing the orange trees that Saunders sent her, for the next 60 years and more, a great industry was built up from the two small trees planted in Riverside by Eliza Tibbets. The citrus industry in California had begun before Tibbets introduction of the Washington navel orange, however, there was no outstanding early and midseason variety of sweet orange generally adapted to the climate. Extant citrus was mostly seedling trees grown from seeds obtained locally or from the Spanish missions, Growers experimented, but there was a lack of standardization in quality. Eliza Tibbets planted the two trees in her garden in 1873 and it is widely accepted that she took care of the two remaining trees using dishwater to keep them alive because the Tibbets lot was not connected to canal water. Agriculture officials attribute the success of the two trees that did flourish to Eliza Tibbets care, the first fruits borne by these trees were produced in the season of 1875–76. Tibbets orange was ideally suited to Riversides semiarid weather. The contrast between this new fruit and that of seedling trees was so striking that most new grove plantings were of Washington navel oranges, Tibbets sold budwood from her trees to local nurserymen, which led to extensive plantings of nursery trees cloned from hers. Since then Washington navel orange budwood and trees have taken from California across the seas to Japan, Australia, South Africa
13.
History of Sacramento, California
–
The city was named after the Sacramento River, which forms its western border. The river was named by Spanish cavalry officer Gabriel Moraga for the Santisimo Sacramento, before the arrival of Europeans, the Nisenan branch of the Native American Maidu inhabited the Sacramento Valley area. The California Gold Rush started when gold was discovered at Sutters Mill, one of Sutter, however, its location caused the city to periodically fill with water. Fires would also sweep through the city, to resolve the problems, the city worked to raise the sidewalks and buildings and began to replace wooden structures with more resilient materials, like brick and stone. The city was selected as the capital in 1854 after Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo failed to convince the state government to remain in the city of his namesake. Indigenous people such as the Miwok and Maidu Indians were the inhabitants of the north Californian Central Valley. However, no explorer had yet discovered the Sacramento Valley region nor the Golden Gate strait, neither did Gabriel Moraga, who was the first European to enter the Sierra in 1808 and was responsible for naming the Sacramento River, although he incorrectly placed the rivers in the region. The Mexicans, who had declared independence in 1821, shared Spanish sentiments, as a result, he granted Sutters request on the condition that Sutter would become a Mexican citizen. Sutter commenced to build a fort of his namesake, Sutters Fort, in 1840, John Sutter employed both white people and Native Americans for many mundane and military tasks regarding New Helvetia. As New Helvetia continued to develop economically, Sutter constructed a ranch at the Nisenan village of Hok and named it Hock Farm, New Helvetia was considered a stable colony by 1844, and was the only foreigner-friendly locale in Alta California at the time. Among other foreigners, the Donner Party had designated Sutters Fort their destination during a journey that placed them across the Sierra mountains in the wintertime. Sutters empire began to disintegrate when he decided to back the unpopular Alta Californian governor Manuel Micheltorena, Sutter was jailed as a result, but not before Micheltorena issued the Sobrante Grant, which added 88,000 acres of land to New Helvetian territory. In 1845, Castro arrived at Sutters Fort and offered a deal to purchase New Helvetia, Sutter declined, agreeing reluctantly, Sutter raised the Bear Flag over his fortification. However, he treated the Vallejos, whom he considered friends, as guests, while the Bear Flaggers under William B. The United States initiated the Mexican-American War in 1846 against Mexico in the wake of the U. S. annexation of the Republic of Texas, whose independence Mexico had not recognized. California, along with Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, most of Arizona and Colorado, and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, thus, Sutters New Helvetia fell under U. S. control. Continuing business as normal, John Sutter dispatched associate James W. Marshall, in January 1848, Marshall detected a flake of gold on the ground at the site of Sutters new mill, and after conducting tests, determined the minerals authenticity. Word leaked about the discovery nearly immediately, disappointed with what had become of his holdings, Sutter placed his son as head of fort business operations and retired to Hock Farm
14.
History of San Bernardino, California
–
San Bernardino, California, was named in 1810. San Bernardinos earliest known inhabitants were Serrano Indians who spent their winters in the valley and they were known as the Yuhaviatam or People of the Pines. They have lived in the valley since approximately 1000 B. C and they lived in small brush covered structures. At the time the Spanish first visited the valley, approximately 1500 Serranos inhabited the area and they lived in villages of ten to thirty structures that the Spanish named rancherías. The Tongva Indians also called the San Bernardino area Waaach in their language, Spanish Military Commander of California Pedro Fages probably entered San Bernardino valley in 1772. Missionary priest Father Francisco Garcés entered the valley in 1774, as did the de Anza Expedition, a group of adobe buildings were constructed around 1830. The Mill Creek zanja, a ditch from Mill Creek to the site, was dug by local Indians for the Franciscans. The site was closed when Governor Figueroa closed down the system in 1834. The site would later be known as Old San Bernardino, today, the site is known as the San Bernardino Asistencia. The expedition of Antonio Armijo first established the trade of the Old Spanish Trail between Nuevo Mexico and Mission San Gabriel in Alta California in 1829-1830. Their route entered the San Bernardino Valley by a route Armijo called Cañon de San Bernardino from the upper Mojave River west through Cajon Pass and down Crowder Canyon and then Cajon Canyon. This route was known to the vaqueros of the San Bernardino de Sena Estancia who had come to the aid of Armijos party with food. This route ran along the course of Crowder Canyon to its mouth at Cajon Canyon, kit Carson and a group of trappers went through the Cajon Pass in 1830. The Cajon Pass was used by early explorers, settlers. After the Mission system was dismantled by the Mexican government in 1833, in 1837, Antonia Pico and Andres Pico made an application for the land, but it was rejected. Ygnacio Palomares, applied for the right to graze cattle in the eastern San Bernardino Valley, Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado rejected the application. Instead, the governor approved a settlement plan by Antonio Maria Lugo, Lugos proposal was to colonize the San Bernardino area, listing 27 prospective settlers. In 1839, the Lugos colonization permit was granted for 18 leagues of land, in the same year, the Lugo Family built an adobe house where the current county courthouse sits today
15.
History of San Diego
–
The recorded history of the San Diego, California, region began in the present state of California when San Diego Bay was first discovered by Europeans. San Diego was the first part of California that Europeans settled in, Native Americans such as the Kumeyaay people had been living in the area for as long as 12,000 years. Explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovered San Diego Bay in 1542, a fort and mission were established in 1769, which gradually expanded into a settlement under first Spanish and then Mexican rule. San Diego became part of the U. S. in 1848, and it remained a very small town for several decades, but grew rapidly after 1880 due to development and the establishment of multiple military facilities. Growth was especially rapid during and immediately after World War II, entrepreneurs and boosters laid the basis for an economy based today on the military, defense industries, tourism, international trade, and manufacturing. San Diego is now the eighth largest city in the country, the area has long been inhabited by the Kumeyaay Native American people. The first European to visit the region was Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542 and his landing is re-enacted every year at the Cabrillo Festival sponsored by Cabrillo National Monument, but it did not lead to settlement. The bay and the area of present-day San Diego were given their current name sixty years later by Sebastián Vizcaíno when he was mapping the coastline of Alta California for Spain in 1602, vizcaino was a merchant who hoped to establish prosperous colonies. After holding the first Catholic service conducted on California soil on the feast day of San Diego de Alcala and he left after 10 days and was enthusiastic about its safe harbor, friendly natives, and promising potential as a successful colony. Despite his enthusiasm, the Spanish were unconvinced, it would be another 167 years before colonization began, in the following year the Kumeyaay indigenous people rebelled against the Spanish. They killed the priest and two others, and burned the mission, Serra organized the rebuilding, and a fire-proof adobe and tile-roofed structure was completed in 1780. By 1797 the mission had become the largest in California, with a population of more than 1,400 presumably converted Native American Mission Indians relocated to, the tile-roofed adobe structure was destroyed by an 1803 earthquake but replaced by a third church in 1813. In 1821 Mexico ousted the Spanish in the Mexican War of Independence, the San Diego Mission was secularized and shut down in 1834 and the land was sold off. 432 residents petitioned the governor to form a pueblo, and Juan María Osuna was elected the first alcalde, beyond town Mexican land grants expanded the number of California ranchos that modestly added to the local economy. The original town of San Diego was located at the foot of Presidio Hill, the location was not ideal, being several miles away from navigable water. Imported goods and exports had to be carried over the La Playa Trail to the anchorages in Point Loma and this arrangement was suitable only for a very small town. In 1830 the population was about 600, in 1834 the presidio was described as in a most ruinous state, apart from one side, in which the commandant lived, with his family. There were only two guns, one of which was spiked, and the other had no carriage, twelve half-clothed and half-starved-looking fellows composed the garrison, and they, it was said, had not a musket apiece
16.
History of the San Fernando Valley
–
In winter, torrential downpours over the western-draining watershed of the San Gabriel Mountains entered the northeast Valley through Big Tujunga Canyon, Little Tujunga Canyon, and Pacoima Canyon. By the time the Spanish conquest of Mexico reached Alta California in 1769, successive groups of indigenous peoples and these peoples tended to settle on well-watered and wooded areas at the Valleys margins. The Tongva, who spoke the Tongva language, a Uto-Aztecan or Shoshonean language, had a series of villages in the southern Valley along or near the river, including Totongna, Siutcanga and Kawengna. In the north-central Valley was a permanent village called Pasakngna, in the lower foothills of the mountains near natural springs. Other characteristic place-names of Tongva origin in the Valley include Tujunga and Topanga, the Tataviam were established in the valleys to the north, Pacoima is believed to be of Tataviam-Fernandeño peoples Tataviam language origin. The Hokan-speaking Chumash people inhabited Malibu, the Santa Monica Mountains, and the Simi Hills in the area of the Valley. In the Simi Hills the Burro Flats Painted Cave pictographs are located on Rocketdynes Santa Susana Field Laboratory property, inaccessible, the Tataviam-Fernandeño people inhabited the foothills of the Santa Susana Mountains in the Valley. The Tongva-Fernandeño inhabited the Valley, along the tributaries to the Los Angeles River, in 1769 the expedition led by explorer Gaspar de Portolà reached the Los Angeles area of California overland from Baja California. We saw a very pleasant and spacious valley and we descended to it and stopped close to a watering place, which is a large pool. Near it we found a village of heathen, very friendly and we gave to this plain the name of Santa Catalina de Bononia de Los Encinos. It has on its hills and its valleys many live oak, - Father Juan Crespi, August,1769 The watering place was a pool fed by a perennial spring at what is now Encino, near the village of Siutangna. The name El Valle de Santa Catalina de Bononia de los Encinos refers to the encinos or evergreen Coast Live Oaks that studded the area, the expedition proceeded northward, camping at a site in the northern Valley before crossing over the mountains into the Santa Clarita Valley. By royal edict, all of the waters of the river and its tributaries were reserved for the Pueblo de Los Angeles, a condition which would have a profound impact on development of the Valley. By the end of the century, Spain had issued two grazing concessions north of the pueblo that included the southeastern corner of the Valley, Rancho San Rafael and Rancho Portesuelo. Francisco Reyes, alcalde or mayor of Los Angeles from 1793–1795, had set up an operation which he called Rancho Encino located in what is now Mission Hills near the village of Pasakngna. Reyess property had a water supply from artesian wells and limestone for building. This property he also called Rancho Encino, Mission San Fernando Rey de España was founded at Reyess original rancho site on September 8,1797 by Father Fermín Lasuén. The missions grazing lands extended over the flatlands of the valley, from this time the valley began to be called after the mission
17.
History of San Francisco
–
The history of the city of San Francisco, California, and its development as a center of maritime trade, were shaped by its location at the entrance to a large natural harbor. San Francisco is the name of both the city and the county, which share the same boundaries. Starting overnight as the base for the rush of 1849, the city quickly became the largest and most important population, commercial, naval. It was devastated by an earthquake and fire in 1906 but was quickly rebuilt. The San Francisco Federal Reserve Branch opened in 1914, and San Francisco is ranked sixth on the Global Financial Centres Index and has grown wealthier by its proximity to Silicon Valley. The earliest evidence of habitation in what is now the city of San Francisco dates to 3000 BC. Native Americans who settled in this region found the bay to be a resource for hunting and gathering, leading to the establishment of small villages. Collectively, these early Native Americans are now known as the Ohlone, and their trade patterns included places as far away as Baja California, the Mojave Desert and Yosemite. The earliest Europeans to reach the site of San Francisco were a Spanish exploratory party in 1769, led overland from Mexico by Don Gaspar de Portolà, the Spanish recognized the location, with its large natural harbor, to be of great strategic significance. A subsequent expedition, led by Juan Bautista de Anza, selected sites for military, the Presidio of San Francisco was established for the military, while Mission San Francisco de Asís began the cultural and religious conversion of some 10,000 Ohlone who lived in the area. The mission became known as Mission Dolores, because of its nearness to a named after Our Lady of Sorrows. The original plaza of the Spanish settlement remains as Portsmouth Square, todays city took its name from the mission, and Yerba Buena became the name of a San Francisco neighborhood now known as South of Market. The Moscone Center and Yerba Buena Gardens are in the Yerba Buena area, in addition, the name Yerba Buena was applied to the former Goat Island in the middle of San Francisco Bay, adjacent to Treasure Island. San Francisco became part of the United States with the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848, European visitors to the San Francisco Bay Area were preceded at least 8,000 years earlier by Native Americans. According to one anthropologist, the name for San Francisco was awaste, meaning. When the Spanish arrived, they found the area inhabited by the Yelamu tribe, the Ohlone speakers are distinct from Pomo speakers north of the San Francisco Bay, and are part of the Miwok group of languages. Their traditional territory stretched from Big Sur to the San Francisco Bay, miwok-speaking Indians also lived in Yosemite, and Ohlone-speakers intermarried with Chumash and Pomo speakers as well. The Spanish conquest of the San Francisco Bay area came later than to Southern California, a Spanish exploration party, led by Portolà and arriving on November 2,1769, was the first documented European sighting of San Francisco Bay
18.
History of San Jose, California
–
For thousands of years before the arrival of European settlers, the area now known as San Jose was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. Don Pedro Fages, the governor at Monterey, passed through the area on his 1770 and 1772 expeditions to explore the East Bay. Late in 1775, Juan Bautista de Anza led the first overland expedition to bring colonists from New Spain to California and he left the colonists at Monterey in 1776, and explored north with a small group. Anza returned to Mexico City before any of the settlements were actually founded, el Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe was founded by José Joaquín Moraga on November 29,1777, the first pueblo-town not associated with a mission or a military post in upper Las Californias. The town was founded by the colonists led to California by Anza, as a community to provide food for the presidios of San Francisco. In 1778, the pueblo had a population of 68, in the ensuing years a number of Mexican Rancho Land Grants Land Grants were confirmed within the lands now considered San Jose. During the Bear Flag Revolt, Captain Thomas Fallon led a force from Santa Cruz. Fallon would later become the mayor of San Jose. Its unclear whether or not Fallon ordered all townspeople of Spanish/Mexican origin out of San Jose, during the California Gold Rush period, the New Almaden Quicksilver Mines just south of the city were the largest mercury mines in North America. Mining operations began in 1847 at what was the first operating mine in the province, the importance of the mercury industry at the time explains why the local newspaper is named the Mercury News. On March 27,1850, San Jose became the first incorporated city in the U. S. state of California, the first mayor was Josiah Belden. It also served as the states first capital with the first and second sessions of the California Legislature, known as the Legislature of a Thousand Drinks, from 1858 to 1861, San Jose was a stop on the Butterfield Overland Mail stage line. In 1881, because of a campaign by editor J. J. It didnt provide sufficient illumination, and by 1884 was used only for ceremonial purposes and it collapsed during the great gale of 1915. In 1989, an informal Court of Historical Inquiry looked into the issue of whether the Eiffel Tower was an infringement of the Electric Light Tower. Before the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the Winchester Mystery House reached a height of 7 stories, many visitors to the house claim to have felt the presence of ghosts, while others claim there is no detectable presence. In 1909, Dr. Charles Herrold began experimental broadcasts in downtown San Jose. His station was licensed in 1921 as KQW, then moved to San Francisco
19.
History of Santa Barbara, California
–
The history of Santa Barbara, California, begins approximately 13,000 years ago with the arrival of the first Native Americans. The Spanish came in the 18th century to occupy and Christianize the area, in 1848, the expanding United States acquired the town along with the rest of California as a result of defeating Mexico in the Mexican-American War. Twice destroyed by earthquakes, in 1812 and 1925, it most recently has rebuilt itself in a Spanish Colonial style, the oldest human skeleton yet found in North America, Arlington Springs Man, was unearthed on Santa Rosa Island, approximately 30 miles from downtown Santa Barbara. They were peaceful hunter-gatherers, living from the abundant natural resources. Their rock art work can be seen in nearby Chumash Painted Cave, the Santa Barbara bands spoke the Barbareño language dialect of the Chumashan languages group. As Europeans settled in their homelands the Chumash population declined, later, on the return voyage, Cabrillo injured his leg during a fight with natives on Santa Catalina Island and died from gangrene. He was buried either on San Miguel Island or Mescalitan Island – the exact place of Cabrilho has long been a mystery. A land expedition led by Gaspar de Portolà passed through in 1769, and spent the night of August 18 in the area of todays lower Laguna Street, where at that time there was a freshwater pond. There was a native town nearby, which Franciscan missionary Juan Crespi. Vizcaínos earlier name, however, is the one that has survived, the next night, August 19, the expedition moved a short way to a camp by a creek, probably Mission Creek, but not as far up as where the mission was later established. Portolas expedition encountered large numbers of friendly natives, many of whom lived in Syuxtun. In addition, missions established by Franciscans under Junípero Serra were intended to convert the natives to Christianity, the Presidio was not completed until 1792, and Father Fermín Lasuén dedicated the nearby Mission Santa Barbara on the feast day of Santa Barbara. He chose for his building site the location of a Chumash village on Mission Creek named Tay-nay-án, many of the soldiers who came to build and garrison the Presidio had brought their families with them, and after their terms of service ended settled in Santa Barbara. They built their adobes near the Presidio, arranged haphazardly, a Boston journalist described the scatter of these buildings as though fired from a blunderbuss. The burial register shows that 3,997 Indians died between 1787 and 1841, the majority from diseases such as smallpox, to which the natives had no natural immunity. By 1803 the Missions chapel was finished, and by 1807 a complete village for the Indians had been completed, the site of this village is on the Mission grounds along modern-day Constance Street. On December 21,1812, one of the largest earthquakes in California history completely destroyed the first Mission along with most of Santa Barbara, with an estimated magnitude of 7. Following the devastating earthquake, the Mission padres decided to build a larger and more elaborate Mission complex, while the church was ready in 1820, the bell towers were not finished until 1833
20.
History of Santa Monica, California
–
The history of Santa Monica, California, covers the significant events and movements in Santa Monicas past. Santa Monica was called Kecheek in the Tongva language, the first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3,1769. There are two different versions of the naming of the city, one says that it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica, but her feast day is actually May 4. Another version says that it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, regarding the latter, Crespi did note in his diary that the group found a Tongva village at the springs. However, as is recorded in his diary, Crespí actually named the place San Gregorio. The Santa Monica name for the springs came later, the springs were probably commonly called by the name Santa Monica by the turn of the 19th century, as they did indeed remind incoming settlers of the weeping eyes of the saint. It remains slightly curious that the City of Santa Monica is named for a feature not actually within its borders. The name for the springs has since reverted to Kuruvungna, which is what the Tongva People have called all along. The springs remain sacred to the Tongva People, the Californios valiantly defended their territories against the Manifest Destiny expansion of the United States westward during the Mexican–American War. In Los Angeles, several battles were fought by the Californios, however, in the end, the US came out victorious. Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans, US government sovereignty in California began on February 2,1848. The northern sections of the city of Santa Monica once belonged to Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica and Rancho Boca de Santa Monica. The Sepulveda family sold 38,409 acres of Rancho San Vicente y Santa Monica for $54,000 in 1872 to Colonel Robert S. Baker and his wife, Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker. Bandini was the daughter of Juan Bandini, a prominent and wealthy early Californian, Baker also bought a half interest in Rancho Boca de Santa Monica. Nevada Senator John P. Jones bought a half interest in Bakers property in 1874, Jones and Baker subdivided part of their joint holdings in 1875 and created the town of Santa Monica. The town site fronted on the ocean and was bounded on the northwest by Montana Avenue, on the southeast by Colorado Avenue, the avenues were all named after the states of the West, the streets being simply numbered. The first lots in Santa Monica were sold on July 15,1875, Jones built the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, which connected Santa Monica and Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was a modest 1873 brick building, later a beer hall and it is Santa Monicas oldest extant structure
21.
San Jose, California
–
San Jose, officially the City of San José, is the economic, cultural, and political center of Silicon Valley and the largest city in Northern California. With an estimated 2015 population of 1,026,908, it is the third most populous city in California and the tenth most populous in United States. Located in the center of the Santa Clara Valley, on the shore of San Francisco Bay. San Jose is the county seat of Santa Clara County, the most affluent county in California. San Jose is the largest city in both the San Francisco Bay Area and the San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland Combined Statistical Area, which contain 7.7 million and 8.7 million people respectively. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the area around San Jose was inhabited by the Ohlone people, San Jose was founded on November 29,1777, as the Pueblo of San José de Guadalupe, the first civilian town founded in Spanish Alta California. When California gained statehood in 1850, San Jose became the states first capital, following World War II, San Jose experienced an economic boom, with a rapid population growth and aggressive annexation of nearby cities and communities carried out in the 1950s and 60s. The rapid growth of the high-technology and electronics industries further accelerated the transition from a center to an urbanized metropolitan area. Results of the 1990 U. S. Census indicated that San Jose had officially surpassed San Francisco as the most populous city in Northern California, by the 1990s, San Jose and the rest of Silicon Valley had become the global center for the high tech and internet industries. San Jose is considered to be a city, notable for its affluence. San Joses location within the high tech industry, as a cultural, political. San Jose is one of the wealthiest major cities in the United States and the world, and has the third highest GDP per capita in the world, according to the Brookings Institute. Major global tech companies including Cisco Systems, eBay, Adobe Systems, PayPal, Brocade, Samsung, Acer, Prior to European settlement, the area was inhabited by several groups of Ohlone Native Americans. The first lasting European presence began with a series of Franciscan missions established from 1769 by Junípero Serra, San Jose came under Mexican rule in 1821 after Mexico broke with the Spanish crown. It then became part of the United States, after it capitulated in 1846, on March 27,1850, San Jose became the second incorporated city in the state, with Josiah Belden its first mayor. San Jose was Californias first state capital, and hosted the first, today the Circle of Palms Plaza in downtown is the historical marker for the first state capital. The city was a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail route, in the period 1900 through 1910, San Jose served as a center for pioneering invention, innovation, and impact in both lighter-than-air and heavier-than-air flight. These activities were led principally by John Montgomery and his peers, the City of San Jose has established Montgomery Park, a Monument at San Felipe and Yerba Buena Roads, and John J. Montgomery Elementary School in his honor
22.
Great Seal of California
–
The word Eureka, meaning I have found it, is the California state motto. The original design of the seal was by U. S. Army Major Robert S. Garnett, Garnett later became the first general to be killed in the Civil War, where he served as a Confederate general. The legal definition of the Great Seal of the State of California is found in the California Government Code, Sections 399-405. In 1928, due to the number of details that had crept into the seal over the years, state printer Carroll H. Smith was authorized to prepare a new. His design was not adopted as the seal, although it was used by the State Printing Office. Both features remain to this day, the 1937 standardization came about when state employees, wishing to print the seal on blotters for the State Fair, could not find any official design of the seal. Also in the 1937 standardized seal there is a building on the far left rear hill that has interpreted in a variety of ways. The building, along with the break in the mountains, may have added to give San Francisco Bay a stronger claim on its location being the landscape portrayed in the seal. This building first appeared in versions of the seal in the mid-1880s, and in most of these. Fort Point has no dome, and it is unknown what building the 1895 artist was attempting to portray, two years later, Harold F. Wilson, in his interpretation created for the old State Building in Los Angeles, retained the dome. In 1952, the structure, again with dome, was cast in bronze in the seal at the west steps of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The rumor states it was added as a signature of the inmates who cast it. The unsanctioned addition, so the story goes, was not noticed until it was too late to do anything about it and that places the building on the wrong side of the Gate to be San Quentin. No building in form, including the chapel, has ever existed at San Quentin. The building first appeared in artistic renditions of the seal as early as 1886, decades before this seal was cast in 1952, and was officially added in 1937. The configuration of the building on this seal is similar to its appearance in the 1937 standardization. Four detailed, post-1952 accounts of the seal make no mention of the rumor and this seal features what appears to be two structures combined into one. The right half, with imagination, resembles the front gates of San Quentin State Prison
23.
San Jose Museum of Art
–
The San Jose Museum of Art is an art museum in Downtown San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1969, the hosts a large permanent collection of West Coast artists of the 20th. It is located next to the Circle of Palms Plaza and Plaza de César Chávez park, the museums historic wing was originally designed by architect Willoughby J. Edbrooke and built as the San Jose post office in 1892, then served as the citys library from 1937 to 1969. The building was converted by The Fine Arts Gallery Association. In 1972 the building was named a California Historical Landmark, the New Wing, comprising the majority of the current exhibition space, opened in 1991. Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, past exhibitions include Beta Space, Diana Thater, Jose Clemente, Figure Studies, City Limits, City Life, Whats Your Angle. and Mark My Word. William Wegman exhibited October 2015 through February 2016 with an exhibition titled, Artists Including Me, the permanent collection focuses on 20th- and 21st-century art, with a focus on US West Coast artists and a growing emphasis on art of the Pacific Rim. McMillen, Manuel Neri, Long Nguyen, Manuel Ocampo, Nathan Oliveira, Deborah Oropallo, Alan Rath, Raymond Saunders, Richard Shaw, Wayne Thiebaud, Bill Viola, and William T. Wiley. In 2007 the San Jose Museum of Art won the prestigious MUSE award from the American Alliance of Museums Technology Committee, the award was for SJMAs Artist of the Week podcast and won in the category Extended Experience. The museum also won a MUSE award in 2009, the gold award for Public Relations and Development was given to the San Jose Museum of Art for its in-house produced Road Trip video. The Giant Artichoke Video features a wild shoe-wearing traveler on a trip to Castroville, CA who visits a quirky landmark. The Tech Museum of Innovation Childrens Discovery Museum of San Jose Frederick Spratt San Jose Museum of Art Web Site
24.
San Jose Chinatown
–
The initial Chinatowns in San Jose were frequently burned down by arson, with artifacts from May 1887 discovered during initial excavations in the construction of the Fairmont Hotel. Many of these artifacts were installed at the San Jose Institute of Contemporary Art, another Chinatown was excavated during an urban renewal project to build the Fairmont Hotel and Silicon Valley Financial Center on Market and San Fernando Streets. According to another article, this Chinatown was also known as the Plaza Street Chinatown, according to this article, the area at the time was subject to controversy as many whites often complained to the city council about the area as bothersome. By 1870, the area was burned to the ground with many Chinese evicted from the area as the public sentiment grew. The area was known as Heinlenville and contained a variety of merchants, barbers, traditional doctors. And the Ng Shing Gung temple, some artifacts from this Chinatown are now located in Kelley Park. At the time, an existing Japantown nearby was evacuated due to the war, Chinese enclaves in Silicon Valley History of the Chinese Americans in San Francisco Japantown, San Jose Connie Young Yu
25.
Geographic coordinate system
–
A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
26.
Arizona Cactus Garden
–
The Arizona Cactus Garden, or, officially, Arizona Garden, also known as the Cactus Garden, is a botanical garden specializing in cactus and succulents. It is located on the campus of Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA, the garden was first planted between 1880 and 1883 for Jane and Leland Stanford to a design by landscape architect Rudolph Ulrich. It was planned to be adjacent to their new residence, however, the home was never built. The garden was maintained until the 1920s after which it fell into great disrepair. Volunteer restoration work began in 1997 and is ongoing, notwithstanding decades of neglect, some of the original plants remain. The garden now contains approximately 500 cacti and succulents in 58 beds, the Eastern Hemisphere section is planted with aloes, jade plants and other succulents from Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the Western Hemisphere section holds cacti native to the Americas. Historic plants, comprising some 10-15% of the plantings, have left in their original locations. As of August 2016, the plants were not labeled
27.
Chinese Cultural Garden
–
The Chinese Cultural Garden occupies 6 acres of Overfelt Gardens park in San Jose, California. The addition of the Chinese Cultural Garden to Overfelt is primarily the work of Chinese immigrant Frank Lowe, his wife Pauline, and Dr. Chen Li-Fu of Taiwan. The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is constructed from marble, bronze and it features a ceramic tile roof weighing almost twenty tons. The large black stone is a gift from Tainan and is at least one years old. It was placed in Overfelt Gardens on 10 October 1980, marking the Chinese day of independence from Imperial rule, the large red carved characters on the rock are Chinese, 忠孝, pinyin, Zhōng Xiào, meaning loyalty. On the third Sunday of September, the park celebrates the Chinese Moon Festival, city of San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Overfelt Gardens brochure, March 2001 revision Overfelt Gardens Park. City of San Jose, Parks and Recreation, Chinese Cultural Garden / Overfelt Park - San Jose, CA on YouTube Overfelt Gardens San Jose CA HD on YouTube Laws, David
28.
Emma Prusch Farm Park
–
Emma Prusch Farm Park is a 43.5 acre park in East San Jose, California. The park is host to an annual Harvest Festival and is operated cooperatively by the San Jose Parks and Recreation Department and the non-profit Emma Prusch Farm Park Foundation. The land for this 42-acre farm park was donated by Emma Prusch to the City of San Jose in 1962 to keep for agricultural purposes, the park is operated as a small farm by the City of San Jose, Department of Parks, Recreation, and Neighborhood Services. Barn space is provided to city kids in the 4-H and Future Farmers of America so they can experience farming practices in an urban environment. The farm also has a fruit orchard, a deciduous fruit orchard. In the spring, the park offers guided tours for K–3 school groups and these tours provide a sensory education emphasis while students learn about gardens, fruit orchard, poultry and livestock. Preserved Prusch farmhouse San Joses largest free standing barn is run by City of San Jose staff, livestock varies by season with kids in 4-H and the Future Farmers of America raising animals in the middle of the city. Small animal yard where children can see farm animals up close, new signage will allow visitors to identify each tree while on a self-guided tour. Several acres of open grass perfect for picnicking, kite flying, games and relaxing 5 reservable group picnic areas, outdoor Wedding Barn, and a rental Meeting Hall community room with kitchen. Veggielution Community Farm, On a little over 6-acre Veggielution empowers youth, Emma Prusch Farm Park website California Rare Fruit Growers Association National 4-H Club of America Future Farmers of America Veggielution Community Farm
29.
Hakone Gardens
–
Hakone Gardens is a traditional Japanese garden in Saratoga, California, United States. In 1915, two San Francisco arts patrons, Oliver and Isabel Stine, intending to build a summer retreat, inspired by her trips to Japan, Isabel Stine modeled the gardens upon Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park. She hired Japanese landscape artists and architects to design the gardens, in 1932, ownership passed to financier Major C. L. Tilden who added the main gate to the gardens. When he died, Hakone was inherited by his sister, Mrs. Walter Gregory, after her death in 1959, Hakone was left untended, and the property was put up for sale. This partnership restored Hakone to its splendor, keeping its traditional Japanese authenticity while using it as a private retreat. In 1966, the partners offered a beautifully maintained Hakone for sale to the City of Saratoga, today Hakone is administered by The Hakone Foundation, a non-profit organization, which was established in 2000 to restore and enhance the gardens independently of public funding. The gardens are open to the public and the community facilities are often used for cultural events. Hakone Gardens was a location for the movie Memoirs of a Geisha. List of botanical gardens in the United States Hakone Gardens official web site
30.
Overfelt Gardens
–
Overfelt Gardens is a 33-acre park in San Jose, California, United States. The land for the park was donated by Mildred Overfelt in 1959, in memory of her parents, William and Mary Overfelt, early San Jose pioneers that started grain and dairy farms in the 1860s. Early features added to the park include picnic areas, restrooms, a dedicated to Mildred. Later paths were added around the rest of the park and its three lakes, with a designated as a California Native plant and Wildlife Sanctuary. Three large, interconnected percolation ponds rise and shrink throughout the year, providing habitat for birds, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, a large statue of the famous Chinese philosopher Confucius overlooks a shallow reflection pond that, when full, spills into a narrow streambed. Also, the California Wild area is a 1.6 acre wildlife sanctuary composed of a dirt trail winding around a hill covered in trees, brush, wildflowers. The current park map shows these trails as thick white lines, Overfelt Gardens is located in Mabury, on McKee Road between East San Jose and the North Valley. Independence High School lies just to its north, Overfelt Gardens, City of San Jose Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services, March 2001
31.
San Jose Municipal Rose Garden
–
The San Jose Municipal Rose Garden is a rose garden located at the intersection of Naglee and Dana Avenues, San Jose, California, in the Rose Garden neighborhood. The garden,5.5 acres in size, was once a prune orchard and it features more than 3,500 shrubs representing 189 rose varieties. As an official Display Garden for the All-America Rose Selections, the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden receives AARS award-winning roses in advance of public release, in the early 2000s, city budget cuts impacted the garden, which led to the AARS placing it on probation. In 2007 Friends of the San Jose Rose Garden was established, in 2008 the AARS lifted the garden from probation and restored full accreditation, and the following year over 800 new roses were planted as part of the restoration project. On May 2,2009 it was rededicated as an official AARS test garden, one of 23 in the US, on December 15,2009 the restoration of the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden was nationally recognized on the Corporation for National and Community Service website. On August 12,2010 the AARS named it Americas Best Rose Garden, the winning garden was selected based on beauty, creativity and community involvement. The Municipal Rose Garden is a City of San Jose historic landmark, list of botanical gardens in the United States San Jose Municipal Rose Garden Friends of the San Jose Rose Garden
32.
Stanford University Arboretum
–
The Stanford University Arboretum is an arboretum located on the grounds of Stanford University in Stanford, California. It is open to the public daily without charge, the arboretum began with the indigenous live oaks on Leland Stanfords estate, which later became the university campus, augmented by a variety of trees that he collected. In 1885 Stanford contracted with noted landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted to plan the grounds, as Jane Stanford said in her 1903 address to the Stanford trustees, No buildings of any kind whatever should ever be erected within the grounds of the original Arboretum. It should always be retained in its present condition as a Park for drives and this Park was a favorite project of my husband and carried into effect twenty-eight years ago. There are many miles of drive within, or connected with shaded avenues and it should, accordingly, always be sacredly preserved from mutilation. However, these plans for a major tree collection within the grounds did not materialize. A report by the Olmsted Brothers states, The so-called Arboretum extends on either side of the approach from the County Road. At present the name Arboretum is a misnomer as the name implies that a variety of trees in botanical order are to be found there. It consists, as a matter of fact, mostly of a plantation of Blue Gums. Subsequently, the Department of Botany was given control of the arboretum in order to utilize it more fully for scientific purposes. During the twentieth century the arboretum was sometimes under development, at present the arboretum contains over 350 species representing 150 genera and sixty families. The most common tree is the coast live oak, although valley, blue, for some years the arboretum was neglected, though in recent years there has been greater interest in its care. There has been loss of diversity from the original tree and shrub plantings of the 1880s and 1890s. Although the eucalyptus collection is still prominent, over the past quarter century there has been a significant loss of Eucalypt species, the Arizona Cactus Garden and Stanford Mausoleum are located within the arboretum. List of botanical gardens in the United States Trees of Stanford and Environs, Ronald N. Bracewell, Trees of Stanford, Stanford Historical Society
33.
Montalvo Arts Center
–
The Montalvo Arts Center is a non-profit center for the arts in Saratoga, California, United States. The mansion and estate were constructed from 1912–14 by California statesman and businessman James Duval Phelan, after Phelans death, the entire estate was donated to California as a park and then a cultural and arts center as it exists today. The arts center maintains the estate in partnership with Santa Clara County, the mansion is a historic landmark, and in 1978 it was awarded inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places. The grounds of the villa now encompass 175 acres, more than the original 160 acres purchased by Phelan, the estate boasts several large structures as well as gardens and untouched natural areas. Montalvo includes two theaters, an art gallery, the historic Villa Montalvo, an artist residency complex, hiking trails, the mansion itself boasts 19 rooms and two stories. The first floor of the used to host art exhibits. The grounds include several gardens embellished with sculptures and garden structures. The Front Lawn is sometimes used as a theater for some of Montalvos dramatic presentations, since its bequest to the people of California, hiking trails through the surrounding Redwood-speckled hills have been added. In 1911, James D. Phelan, a mayor of San Francisco who would go on to be Californias first popularly elected US Senator, purchased 160 acres in the Saratoga countryside. Phelan began construction of the mansion in 1912, the initial supervising architect was William Curlett. When he died in 1914, his son, Alex Curlett, the construction of the building was completed that same year. During his lifetime, Phelan hosted many celebrities and notables of the era as guests at Montalvo, jack London, Ethel Barrymore, Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, and Edwin Markham were among Phelans many guests. Though not his home, Villa Montalvo was one of Phelans favorites and is where he died. The San Francisco Art Association assumed trusteeship of the estate in 1930, within a year the association announced the intention to launch an artist residency program, the third program of its kind in the United States. The program began in 1939 with ten artists in residence, after World War II, a shift in priorities for the SFAA left many people concerned about the future of Villa Montalvo. These citizens together formed the Montalvo Association, trusteeship was transferred to the organization in October 1953 where it remains today. On April 11,1971, serial killer Karl F, warner murdered his third and final victim, Kathy Bilek,18, on the grounds of Villa Montalvo. It was the investigation into the Bilek slaying which led to his arrest, today, the Montalvo Arts Center is a private non-profit cultural center maintained by the Montalvo Association through a partnership with Santa Clara County
34.
American Musical Theatre of San Jose
–
The American Musical Theatre of San Jose, previously known as the San Jose Civic Light Opera, was a major professional nonprofit musical theatre company in San Jose, California. The company performed at the 2, 677-seat San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, the organization incurred debts after a 2002 agreement to become a receiving house for touring Broadway productions. The first production was The Mikado, held at the Victory Theatre on North First Street near Santa Clara Avenue in downtown San Jose, shows were later held at Theodore Roosevelt Junior High School Auditorium, the Montgomery Theatre downtown, and then the Santa Clara University Theatre. For the 1957/1958 season, SJLOA shifted from opera to musical theatre. Also, performances were moved to the San Jose Civic Auditorium, the first productions in the new venue were Carousel and Guys and Dolls. In 1972, as the continued to grow in popularity and success, SJLOA changed its name to San Jose Music Theatre. To mark the occasion, SJMT hired its first Equity actor, Enzo Stuarti, unfortunately, the move to the new venue was delayed when the interior ceiling of the Community Theatre collapsed, closing the building for three years for repairs. In 1975, SJMT finally debuted at the Center for Performing Arts with Guys and that same year, SJMT began to contract much more Equity talent, including stars like Michele Lee, Tommy Tune, JoAnne Worley, Theodore Bikel, and Tyne Daly. The influx of Equity actors forced SJMT to begin a costume shop, before that, by 1979 SJMT was providing costumes for the entire cast. The 1979/1980 season saw a downturn in the companys fortunes, the premiere of City of Broken Promises, based on the book of the same name by Austin Coates, ran so far over budget that SJMT faced bankruptcy. The President of the resigned, and newly installed President Anthony J. Mercant demanded that each board member donate $500 or resign. The members complied, and this, coupled with a grant from Chevron, after the 1979/1980 season the board hired Stewart Slater as General Manager, ushering in a new era and another new name, the San Jose Civic Light Opera. In Slater, who had been manager of American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, the board chose someone from outside the organization. Within two years of Slaters hiring, SJCLO once again had a budget and began a streak of eight profitable seasons. When Slater took over, the company relied heavily on power to draw audiences. The big names were paid for at the expense of production quality, one of Slaters first acts was to end this practice, avoiding costly stars to bolster the quality of the entire production. In 1984, thanks to a season ticket renewal campaign. He hired a Chicago arts publicist, Danny Newman, to organize the largest direct mailing campaign ever done by an arts organization, the gamble paid off, with the number of season ticket subscribers increasing by 10,000 within two years
35.
Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph (San Jose)
–
The Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph is a large Roman Catholic church located in Downtown San Jose. The minor basilica is the cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose in California, the basilica is named for Saint Joseph, patron saint of the universal church. The Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe was connected with Mission Santa Clara by the The Alameda which was part of the historic El Camino Real, the original adobe structure was damaged by earthquakes in 1818 and 1822, and a new adobe church was built from 1835 to 1846. The second church was damaged by the 1868 Hayward earthquake. The third church was destroyed by fire in 1875, and a fourth church was built a few blocks away while the fifth. The fifth church was dedicated by Joseph Alemany, Archbishop of San Francisco, the current portico was completed in 1884, and the large dome was finished in 1885. In 1981, a renovation project was begun at the church. In 1985, the church was elevated to a cathedral, pending completion of the restoration in 1990 and it replaced Saint Patrick Proto-Cathedral Parish, located a few blocks away, as the cathedral of the diocese. The cathedral was made a basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1997. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph is listed as a California Historical Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the cathedral is open to visitors seven days a week from 7,30 am to 3 pm and 5pm on Saturday. Guided tours are available Tuesday through Friday between 1 pm and 3 pm. H. and C. S. Odell Company in Yonkers and it is the only such Odell instrument surviving in its original condition in the United States. It has 27 ranks of 60 pipes each, Official Cathedral Site Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose Official Site Cathedrals of California
36.
De Saisset Museum
–
The de Saisset Museum at Santa Clara University opened in the early 1950s after Isabel de Saisset, the last member of a French pioneer family bequeathed her estate to the University of Santa Clara. The de Saisset recently completed a renovation of its storage facilities and is open to the public free of charge. The 19, 210-square-foot building is located in front of Mission Santa Clara de Asís and has been a part of the University campus since 1955 and it is one of only two museums in the San Jose area accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The museum is housed in a three level building that conforms with the Mission Style prevalent on the Santa Clara campus and bears the de Saisset family crest above the foyer door. The ground floor holds a foyer, several rooms for visiting exhibits, pedro de Saisset, the father of Isabel and Ernest, emigrated from France near the time of the gold rush intending to capitalize on the newfound wealth in the region. While in the area, he served as a representative in San Jose. While in San Jose, de Saisset married Maria Palomares and together had four children, Henrietta, Ernest, Pierre, of these, Henrietta was the only one to marry, and none of the siblings had any children of their own. Ernest was the oldest of the children and began his education at Santa Clara College when he was sixteen and he continued as a student for three years, showing potential in French and drawing. During the final year of his studies, Ernest studied painting with Fr, tortone, who highly approved of his work. Since art instructors were in supply in pioneer California, the de Saisset family sent Ernest to Paris for further study in art. In 1895, he returned to California, however, he died four years later, many of her personal items — jewels, silver, and tapestries — were also donated. Since that time, the museum has expanded its collections to include objects from the United States. Highlights of the de Saisset’s permanent collection include Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and 19th century prints by such as Albrecht Dürer, William Hogarth. Modernist prints in the de Saisset Collection include works by Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, the Museum also houses important collections of contemporary prints and photographs
37.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library
–
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library is a 136-foot tall public library in downtown San Jose, California, the King Library is a collaboration between the City of San José and San José State University, it is the main library for both San José State University and the San José Public Library system. In 2004 it was honored as Library of the Year by Library Journal and Thompson Gale, on its tenth anniversary in 2013 it was still the largest joint university-municipal library in the United States. The Library building can accommodate over 2000 visitors, Special collections within the library include, all on the 5th floor, the Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies, the Martha Heasley Cox Center for Steinbeck Studies, a California History Room, there is also the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Civil Rights Collection on the 3rd floor. The lower level provides public computers, magazines and government documents, the reference collections are on floor 2. The volumes of the City Library system are shelved on floor 3, there, the non-fiction are indexed via the Dewey Decimal Classification and the fiction are sorted alphabetically by authors last name. The volumes of the University Library are shelved in floor 6 to 8 and are indexed via the Library of Congress Classification, some duplicate volumes exist in both systems. The center of the building is known as the Koret Atrium, on floor 1, in the atrium, a large LED display shows in real time the number of item loans that the entire City Library System has made since 2000. As of May 2016, that showed a figure of over 177 million. The lower level, second and third floors are where the majority of the computers are located. The fourth floor is dedicated to visitors with their laptops, all floors except floor 1 provide individual alcoves for students or members of the public who are engaged in research for their studies. Floors 6 and 8 are quiet study floors and floor 7 is a silent study floor, the library provides public computers and an online reservation system to reserve time on them. Students can also reserve study rooms through an online system. The computers are configured with Traditional Chinese input methods and input methods for some European languages, some public computers are configured to access the library card catalog and other services only. In the Koret Atrium on floor 1, there is a kiosk of eight computers with Internet access for which a library card is not required. These are configured so that use is limited to 15 minutes at a time, the lower level has about 20 public computers, and floors 2 and 3 about 50 public computers each. Login to these computers requires a San Jose city library card number, login sessions of public computer users are automatically terminated when the library closes to the public
38.
Gurdwara Sahib of San Jose
–
The Sikh Gurdwara or Sikh Gurdwara - San Jose was founded in San Jose, California, USA in 1985 by leaders of the then-rapidly growing Santa Clara Valley Sikh community. Initially the community met in a community center, but soon bought a small building in east San Jose. After buying nearby land in 1995, they decided it would be too expensive to build in the city limits, so they sold that land, the first phase of the project of almost 20,000 square feet was completed in 2004. The second phase was completed in April 2011, making it the largest gurdwara in North America at 90,000 square feet, the chief architect and designer of the project is the late Malkiat Singh Sidhu. The largest audience at the San Jose Gurdwara was on opening day when some 20,000 people were thought to have come, gurdwaras in the United States Other Sources
39.
Ira F. Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies
–
Brilliant Center for Beethoven Studies serves as a museum, research center, and host of lectures and performances devoted solely to the life and works of Ludwig van Beethoven. It is the institution of its kind in North America and holds the largest collection of Beethoven works. The center is operated by San Jose State University and the American Beethoven Society and it is located on the fifth floor of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, which is located on the San Jose State campus in downtown San Jose, California. The center was established in 1983 when Ira F, including 75 first editions, Brilliants was considered the finest private collection of Beethoven memorabilia in the United States. The center opened to the public in 1985, San Jose State University and the American Beethoven Society share the duties of running the center. San Jose State runs the center as a collection of its library, providing space. The American Beethoven Society funds many of the activities, such as the publication of the semiannual Beethoven Journal. There is also a large collection, including microfiche of all Beethoven manuscripts held by the Berlin State Library. The centers collection of Beethoven first editions has grown to 300 and this includes first editions of all of the string quartets and most of the piano sonatas. There are also over 2,200 early editions, published during Beethovens lifetime or in the 19th century, there is also a listening/viewing area to sample the centers library of audio recordings and performance videos. The center also holds various items in his handwriting, and a copy of his death mask, of the holdings of the center, the most well-known is probably a lock of Beethovens hair known as the Guevara Lock. The lock was cut on March 27,1827, one day after Beethovens death, by Ferdinand Hiller, Hiller later made the lock a gift to his son Paul, who explained its history on the back of a locket containing the hair. After that, the ownership of the lock is uncertain, until it resurfaced in 1943 as payment to a Danish doctor named Kay Alexander Fremming for medical treatment given to Jews escaping Nazism. The lock was named in honor of Dr. Guevara, the principal investor, the remaining investors donated their entire portions to the center. The original lock consisted of 582 brown, white and grey hairs, the Center for Beethoven Studies has 422 of those hairs, along with the original locket used by Hiller. In 1996, Brilliant and Guevara contacted the Health Research Institute - Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Naperville, the history of the lock and the clues it yielded on Beethovens health have been chronicled in the nonfiction book Beethoven’s Hair, by Russell Martin. There was also a documentary of the name made for Canadian television. In 2005, the documentary won several Gemini Awards, including Best Writing in a Documentary Program or Series, the center has several musical instruments on display, an original 1827 Viennese fortepiano, a reproduction of a 1795 Dulcken fortepiano, a clavichord, and a harpsichord
California portal
