City of Santa Clara history

In Santa Clara at 3356 Santa Clara Drive stands a pioneer-era home built in 1862 by Mormon craftsmen for area settler, Jacob Hamblin.

Popular local attractions include the Triton Museum of Art, with an extensive American Indian and American art collection, and the Harris-Lass Historic Museum, originally built in 1865, considered the last farm site in Santa Clara.

When horse-drawn cars were introduced on a narrow-gauge railroad line in 1868, The Alameda became the West's first interurban horse car line.

Established in 1874, it became the largest wood products supplier on the Pacific Coast.

J. M. Kimberlin and Co. was the first seed company to establish in Santa Clara in 1875, and it eventually became the largest seed grower on the Pacific Coast.

Block Fruit Packing Company, established in 1878 on Gould's orchard land, became renown for the pears and cherries it packed and shipped to the east coast.

The California Cured Fruit Association was formed in 1900 to handle distribution of the dried fruit.

In 1901, the Association built a large dried fruit warehouse near Santa Clara's railroad station.

A new product, the semiconductor chip, was developed in the 1950's.

There was a brief article on the unveiling in the Santa Clara Journal newspaper, October 18, 1967, with a black and white photograph showing City dignitaries holding the new flag.

Santa Clara suffered moderate damage in an earthquake that struck central California on October 17, 1989.

Established in the 1990’s, Heritage Square features plaques of the original Swiss families that came to Santa Clara.

The company was founded in 1993 by three American computer scientists, Jen-Hsun Huang, Curtis Priem, and Christopher Malachowsky.

NVIDIA became a major force in the computer gaming industry with the launch of the RIVA series of graphics processors in 1997.

The City’s population has grown nearly 100% since the 2000 census.