On a quiet residential block of Palo Alto, a small garage at 367 Addison Ave. carries a state plaque calling it the birthplace of the world's first high-tech region. The idea started with Stanford professor Frederick Terman, who urged his students to start electronics companies near campus instead of heading east. The state landmark listing says Bill Hewlett and David Packard were the first two to take his advice.

The timeline

  • About 1905: The house and shed are built. Dr. John Spencer, later Palo Alto's first mayor under its charter, lives there with his family.
  • 1918: The house is split into two apartments, numbered 367 and 369.
  • 1924: A 12-by-18-foot garage shows up on Sanborn insurance maps.
  • 1937: Packard visits Hewlett in Palo Alto, and the two hold their first official business meeting.
  • 1938: Hewlett picks the apartment because of the garage. In September, Dave and Lucile Packard move into the first-floor unit and Hewlett moves into the shed out back. They start part-time with $538 in working capital, cash plus a used Sears Craftsman drill press, and build an audio oscillator, HP's first product.
  • Jan. 1, 1939: The partnership is formalized. A coin toss decides the order of the names.
  • 1940: The company outgrows the garage and moves to 481 Page Mill Road.

Disney was an early customer

Wikipedia says one of HP's first customers was Walt Disney Studios. It bought eight oscillators to test theater sound systems for Fantasia, one of the first major films released in stereophonic sound.

Becoming a landmark

HP began pursuing landmark status in 1984. Palo Alto named the garage a city landmark in 1985. The state registered it as California Landmark No. 976 in August 1987, and it was dedicated as the "Birthplace of Silicon Valley" on May 19, 1989. HP bought the property in 2000, restored the house, shed and garage, and rededicated the site on Dec. 6, 2005. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

Seeing it

The garage is a private museum and isn't open for public tours. You can see it from the sidewalk and driveway. It's in a residential neighborhood, so be considerate of the neighbors.