Before it was Silicon Valley, Sunnyvale was ranch land and orchards. The Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum, at 570 E. Remington Drive, tells that story. The building itself is a reproduction of the house where the city began.

The house that was shipped around Cape Horn

Martin Murphy Jr. was an Irish-born settler whose family came to California on the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada, according to Wikipedia. He bought land in the Santa Clara Valley in 1849 and had his house milled and pre-assembled in Maine. It was shipped around Cape Horn and put back together with leather straps and wooden pegs, because nails were scarce, the museum says. Wikipedia says Murphy allowed the railroad to add a stop on his property in 1861, and the town that grew up around it became Sunnyvale, which incorporated in 1912.

The museum says the original house, called "Bay View," was sold to the city for preservation and named a historical landmark in 1960. It was demolished anyway in 1961 to make way for Central Expressway, despite protests from residents. The Sunnyvale Historical Society had formed in 1956 to save it.

What's inside

The current building opened in 2008. Three rooms are set up as they might have looked around 1860, filled with Murphy family artifacts. Other displays cover cannery tools, the Naval Air Station that became Moffett Field, and Hendy Iron Works. A mural traces the valley's history from the Ohlone to the 1950s. Upstairs, a rotating exhibit changes every two or three months, and a "Tech Wall" traces the development of technologies in Silicon Valley.

Plan your visit

  • Hours: Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, noon to 4 p.m. The museum is open year-round, but check its calendar for holiday closures.
  • Cost: Admission and parking are free. The museum is wheelchair accessible.
  • Orchard: The outdoor Orchard Heritage Park exhibit is open daily from dawn to dusk, and a sidewalk loops the apricot orchard. Stay out of the trees themselves, because it's a working orchard with farm equipment.
  • Food: No food is sold and none is allowed inside, but there's an outdoor picnic area.