Merging the Past, Present and Future in Silicon Valley

"FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST SCIENTIST" 

(St. James Street, between First and Second streets, Downtown San Jose)

1st Church Christ Scientist

"The First Church of Christ Scientist was designed by Willis Polk and built in 1905. The plan of the building is a Greek cross. Four Ionic columns dominate the entry portico. Since the construction of a new church in 1946, the building has been used for a variety of purposes. Its scale and dignity make it an important contributor to the city’s architectural heritage. High-rise housing is now planned around the vacant building."...from the Downtown History Walk webpage.

This beautiful building has been part of the downtown San Jose landscape for 110 years.

The Church's  Majestic Profile

Since 1946, the 1st Church of Christ Scientist building has been used as a theater, a child care center and a rehearsal hall for the Children's Musical Theater. 
In the late 1960's and early 1970's, it was known as the "Garden of Allah Theater" and showed underground and independent films.

Though the building is currently in major disrepair, it's

Rendering of Church From
the Fountain at St. James park

historic designation ensures it will be not be torn down. Barry Swenson Builders has plans to make the historic church the centerpiece of a beautifully designed luxury condominium complex. Part of the new plan calls for the building to be moved to another location on the current lot.

We are currently negotiating with the contractor to digitally document the building before the construction process begins for historic purposes. Digitally documenting the building prior to construction will preserve the building in it's original location for History San Jose's archives.

There are also several benefits to the larger project, should the construction professionals choose to utilize the data we collect. For example, documenting the building and property prior to construction will give the contractor(s) a precise "as-exist" point cloud of the area that can be imported to AutoCad, Revit, Point Tools or other appropriate software packages.

Rendering of Park View Towers Complex w/
the Christian Scientist Church as the Centerpiece

With a point cloud, the relocation of the building can be done to millimeter accuracy, virtually and 

prior to the actual physical move; saving time and money for the contractor. To take this a step further, the entire construction project, including the high-rise condominiums can be designed by and built virtually.  

Once the data is collected, there literally dozens of things that it could be used for, both in the immediate and long term future for the complex. Everything from green building design and planning to facility maintenance and operations.

Park View Towers Consist of Two Buildings
of a 12 Story and 18 Story 

Once again, our tool of choice for this unique project is the FARO 3D Focus Laser Scanner. For this  particular project, we plan to use the FARO 330 Long Range Scanner. It's extended range is ideal for capturing the the building and surrounding property, providing us with the essential data required by the architects, general contractor, surveyors and most importantly for us, the preservationist. 

FARO 3D Focus
Laser Scanner

We've enjoyed tremendous success with FARO products...Lightweight, sturdy, easy to operate with superior quality; FARO Technologies

http://www.faro.com/en-us/home

Local Preservation Efforts Continue

The Reality Capture Technology Training Center at History Park.

2015 Summer Technology Camp Project:

The Historic Zanker House; Home of The African American Heritage House 

This fly-through video of the Historic Zanker House at History Park in San Jose developed and completed by Minh Chau Doan, an 11th grade student at San Jose's Notre Dame High School.
 The point cloud contains more than 400,000,000 data points and was developed using a FARO Technologies 3D Focus Laser scanner.

FARO 3D Focus

Built in 1868, the Zanker House was moved to History Park
in 1987 and restored in 1988

Arch Diocese of San Jose- The Historic Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph

The Beautiful Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph
Downtown San Jose, California.

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph, located in Downtown San Jose, is the cathedral for the Roman Catholic Diocese in San Jose. The Basilica is named for Saint Joseph, patron saint of the universal church.
The first non-parish church built in California, the original church was called San Jose de Guadalupe. The adobe structure was built at the current site of the basilica in 1803.

...Following the Renovation in 1990

The first church was damaged by earthquakes in 1818 and 1822. A new adobe church was built from 1835 to 1846. The second church was severely damaged by the 1868 Hayward quake and work began in 1869. The third church was destroyed by fire in 1875. A temporary fourth church was built a few blocks away while construction began on the fifth church.

Interior Stain Glass Ceiling is 48' Above
the Cathedral Floor

The fifth church was dedicated by the Archbishop of San Francisco, Joseph Alemany, in 1877 while still under construction. The current portico was completed in 1884 and the large dome was completed in 1885. A major renovation project began in 1981 and in 1985 the basilica was elevated to a cathedral pending the completion of the renovation in 1990.

Amazing Technology.

These cables were extended around the interior of the dome to provide support and prevent the dome from expanding outward. The large bolts were used to tighten or loosen the tension as needed. Amazingly, these domes survived the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. Seismic support systems were added to the ceilings and domes following the '89 quake.

Seismic Retrofits To Ceiling Added
Post 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake

The Beautiful Interior of the
Cathedral Basilica

The cathedral survive the 1989 Loma Prieta quake and subsequent seismic bracing was added to support the ceilings and domes of the building.

The cathedral was made a minor basilica by Pope John Paul II in 1997.
The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Joseph is listed as a California Historical Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Among the Rubble in Downtown San Jose
following the 1906 Earthquake, the Domes of the
Cathedral of Saint Joseph stand in the background.

       

View of the Dome From the Roof

The Portico Completed
in 1884

Sources:
www.stjosephcathedral.org
www.historysanjose.org

The Original Dome
Still Exist

The familiar large dome on top of the cathedral hides a great secret. Rather than destroy the original smaller dome, the architects simply built the larger dome on top of it. The original dome can still be seen and accessed by people working in the ceilings and on the roofs.

Seismic Bracing to the Interior Dome
Added Post 1989 Loma Preita Earthquake

Dome on top of Dome

Mission Santa Clara de Asis

The Digital Documentation of the Historic El Camino Real

El Camino Real (Spanish for the Royal Road also known as the Kings Highway) refers to the 600 mile (966 km) California Mission Trail, connecting the former Alta California's 21 Missions and a number of submissions, 4 Presidios, 3 Pueblos stretching from Mission San Diego de Alcala' in the South to Mission San Francisco Solano in Sonoma, Northern California.
CyArk  and their partners are currently working to digitally document all of the buildings along the historic California Mission Trail.

Early History
Mission Santa Clara de Asis  Founded in 1777

Oldest University in California

1769- First European Explorer, Gaspar de Portola’- traveled from Monterey up coast to SF.

1770’s Juan Bautista de Anza describes Santa Clara Valley as a broad grassy plain covered with oaks, well watered with marshy creeks and rivers, whose courses could be traced from a distance by trees growing along their banks.

1773 Spanish Viceroy Antonio Bucareli called for the exploration and occupation of the SF Bay Region to secure the valuable port of SF from Russian and British expansion.

1774 Viceroy Bucareli to select sites for future missions. Original site was on San Francisquito Creek near the Palo Alto redwood tree. Two years later, the site was changed to a place on a river to the southeast called Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe (Our Lady of Guadalupe)

1776 Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Delores) founded

1776 Governor Rivera left Monterey with Fray Tomas’ de la Pena to make one last survey of Palo Alto site

1777, January 12th-  Fray de la Pena held the first Mass at the new Mission Santa Clara de Asis, the eighth mission in California

1777, December- Padres and assistants complete the church and priests’ residents. Another house was under construction. Original buildings were upright logs with dirt roofs. There were two corrals and a wooden bridge across the Guadalupe.

1779, January-  the Guadalupe River overflowed its’ banks, destroying the mission

1779, November- temporary church opened further from the banks of the river. Search for permanent location is ongoing

1781, November 19th- cornerstone for the third Mission Church was laid.

1784, May- construction on the third church with 4’ thick adobe walls completed. Dimensions: 100’ long x 22’ wide x 20’ high

Mission Santa Clara circa. 1785

1818, Mission Church suffers severe earthquake damage. A temporary adobe site was built on the present site of Kenna Hall (1819-1825) Building was raised in 1867

1822, Mexico gained independence from Spain

1830’s,1840’s Mission operated as a parish serving the religious needs of the town of San Jose.

1836, Mission Santa Clara secularized

1849, San Jose’s population grows due to gold rush

1850, Bishop f California, Joseph Sadoc Alemany offered buildings at  Mission Santa Clara to John Nobili of San Jose to open a school.

1851, March 4th- Bishop Alemany appoints John Nobili pastor of Mission Santa Clara

1851, May- Santa Clara College, the first in the State of California, began instructing students

1861, Mission Church remodeled

Mission Santa Clara
Post 1861 remodel

1885, Mission Church interior remodeled to increase seating capacity

1926, October 4th- Mission Church destroyed by fire, caused by faulty wiring. Students managed to save many statues and paintings

Mission Fire 1926

1926, Reconstruction of the church began almost immediately. Rather than a duplication of the church that just burned, the restoration attempted to recapture the appearance of the 1825 church.

Mission Santa Clara Today

Sources:
 History Of Mission Santa Clara de Asis ...by Teresa Pugh
Mission Santa Clara website

Unidentified Staples & Charles. San Francisco after the earthquake and f...

HISTORIC LOSSES: The Urgency of Preservation

Holy Cross Church

Built in 1919, The historic Holy Cross Church is a San Jose landmark

71 year-old Virginia Sacchi commutes from the Berryessa neighborhood of San Jose. The fire threw her off guard. “I could not believe it. I could not believe it. But God say this had to happen, but this church will be builded again. We just kind of pray and do for the best.”...KQED News

The historic Holy Cross Church was destroyed by fire in November 2014

Parishioners Witnessing 
the Destruction of this Historic Church 

The destruction of this historic building is the latest in a number of devastating losses.

The Kelley Mansion

The Kelley Mansion 

In 1861 Judge Lawrence Archer purchased 160 acres just outside of San José’s city limits. He named the property around Coyote Creek “Lone Oak.” Archer moved his family in 1869, from their downtown home to a two-story house surrounded by elaborate gardens and accessed by two avenues lined with pepper, cypress and eucalyptus trees. There he grew orchards of prunes, apricots, walnuts, and was especially proud of his cherries. A well respected resident and attorney, Archer came to California in 1852 and settled in San Jose in 1853. Active in community service, he was Mayor of San José in 1856 and 1878; a County Judge from 1867 – 71; and served at State Assemblyman from 1875 – 76. Archer left his “Lone Oak” property to his only daughter, Louise Archer Flavin Kelley. She inherited the land in 1910 and it became known as “Ar-Kel” an abbreviation of her maiden and married names...From HSJ webapage. www.historysanjoseorg

The Kelley Mansion
Fell Into Disrepair Over The Years

After sitting abandoned for many years, the Kelley Mansion fell into disrepair. In 1994,estimates to rebuild the historic home were in nearly $2 million

In February 2012, the Kelley House was destroyed by a two alarm fire. For the past 34 months, the home has sat abandoned and exposed to the elements. The damage to the

roof of the home was extensive; seventy percent of the roof was damaged by the fire. The remainder of the roof was damaged due to time and the elements. Like many of these local landmarks, there were no existing blueprints, floor plans or diagrams. The photo above is the only photo I could find of the Kelley House prior to the fire that devastated the home in 2012.

The Kelley House is scheduled for demolition in early February 2015.

NVentum's 2015 Resolution:

This year marks the beginning of our five year project to digitally document the history of San Jose through unique and iconic architecture.

We are currently collaborating with the Preservation Action Council to identify structures that are in jeopardy and in urgent need of documentation and preservation. Here's  a couple of buildings that are at the top of our list:

Built in 1905, the First Church of Christ Scientist Building was in use until a new church was built in 1946. Afterwards, the building was used for a variety of uses. It's been abandoned for decades.

1st Church of Christ Scientist

Century 21 Theater

 While the debate continues on whether or not these buildings are worthy of recognition as historically significant examples architecture, there is no doubt that the Century Theaters are a perfect example of the cultural history here in San Jose.

Opening in 1964, the Century Theater's unique "Dome" deign was considered "space age" and "futuristic". 
The Century 21 Theater closed in 2014.
The other domed theaters, Century 22-25 have all been

Century Theater's
Iconic Domed Theaters

raised, the Century 21 is the last of these iconic buildings.

1939- Santa Clara County
The largest canning/dried fruit packing center in the world

Silicon Valley's Rich History

Ohlone Indian Settlements in Santa Clara Valley date as far back as 8,000 BC

July 17, 1579- Sir Francis Drake lands in SF Bay Area and claims land for England

Mission Santa Clara 1849

1769- Jose Francisco Ortega scouts the land for Captain Gaspar de Portola. He calls Santa Clara, “Llano de los Robles”

1777- Father Junipero Serraconsecrated “Mission Santa Clara de Asis”. Mission Santa Clara was the 8^th of 21 Missions constructed throughout California.

Peralta Adobe

November 29, 1777- On orders from the Spanish viceroy of Mexico, Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe was named in honor of St. Joseph. (The first settlement in California)

1821- Mexico breaks with the Spanish Crown.

May 10, 1825- California recognizes Mexican rule

May 13, 1846- U.S. declares war on Mexico                 

Thomas Fallon House

July 14, 1846- Thomas Fallon raises US flag over town hall.

1848- Following U.S.Mexican war, California becomes a U.S. territory

December 15, 1849- First legislature convenes in San Jose

1850- California becomes a state

1851- Jesuits establish the first college in California on the sight of Mission Santa Clara. (Santa Clara University)

  

San Jose- California's First Capital

1852- City of Mountain View established

September 1855- the town of McCarthysville established. (Later changed to Saratoga)

Late 1870s- Establishment of seed farms paved the way for the agriculture boom. Santa Clara Valley farmers began producing carrots, almonds, tomatoes, prunes, apricots. Plums, walnuts, cherries and pears for the world markets

May 4, 1887- Fire destroys San Jose's downtown Chinatown (Woolen Mills)

1888- Palo Alto Township established                                      

SV Cherry Orchard

1888- Agnews Insane Asylum opens for the advanced and humane treatment of the mentally ill

1890- State Senator Leland Stanford establishes Leland Stanford Jr. University in Palo Alto

1906- SF Earthquake. Epicenter 2 miles off the coast of San Mateo. 300,000 of the city's 410,000 residents left homeless. Damages as far South as Monterey.

Stanford University Library-
1906 SF Earthquake

1908- Railroad service link towns along the peninsula

1912- San Jose becomes the first city to receive regularly scheduled radio broadcast. Charles "Doc" Herrold produced the first scheduled radio broadcast from 1912-1917 at 50 W. San Carlos Street in Downtown San Jose. (In 1917, the US Government ordered all non military broadcast to cease.)  

1913- Federal TelegraphCompany creates ocean spanning networks which supplied US Naval radio communications during WWI.

1915- SANTA CLARA VALLEY HAS

Largest endowed university in the world

Largest seed farms in the world

Largest quicksilver mines in the world

Largest brick plants in the West

Best equipped astronomical observatory in the world

The Largest convention hall in the State; seating capacity 6,000

Largest fruit canneries in the world

Largest fruit packing houses in the world

Largest fruit drying ground in the world

NUMBER OF FRUIT TREES and VINES

Apple- 50,410; apricot- 553,100; cherry- 159,500; fig- 2105; peach-631,700; pear- 141,100;

 plum- 293,800; prune- 5,549,280; quince- 2,740; other kinds- 426,500…Total: 7,829,677

Almond- 22,500; walnut- 13,750. Total: 36,250

Grapevines, all kinds, 8,260

(Stats From San Jose Chamber of Commerce Flyer for 1915 S.F. World Fair)

1932- Hangar #1 built atMoffett Field to house the USS Macon dirigible. One of the two largest structures in the United States built without internal support.

1934- David Packard and William Hewlett graduate Stanford University School of Engineering

Hanger #1
Moffett Field

1939- San Jose is thelargest canning and dried fruit packing center in the world. (18 canneries, 13 dried fruit packing houses and 12 fresh fruit and vegetable shipping firms)

Approximately 1950- In response to tough economic times, Stanford University leases parts of the university to high tech companies for 99 years.  (Generally considered the start of the computer revolution)

1955- Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel built at Ames Research Center, Moffett Field. (Formed foundation of US plan to land on the moon)

1957- Fairchild Semiconductor formed in Mtn. View. First company to manufacture exclusively in silicon.

1958- President Eisenhower establishes the Advanced Research Projects Agency in response to Soviet launch of Sputnik.. Silicon Valley benefits from collaboration between Stanford University professors and new Aerospace companies.

1960- More metro residents live in suburbs than central city

1960- National Aeronauticsand Space Administration conducts studies to determine how firm the soil was for moon landing at Moffett Field

1970- San Jose still classified as partly rural by US census

1971- Intel creates the first microprocessor- 4004 chip

March 1975- Homebrew Computer Club created in Menlo Park.  (Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs were two of the founding members)

1976- Cupertino: First personal computer- Apple 1 offered from Apple Computer

1989- Loma Prieta Earthquake strikes the Bay Area.
 Magnitude 6.9, 63 people killed, 3000-12,000 left homeless.

Loma Prieta Earthquake
Santa Cruz Mountains

December 1991- Physicist Paul Kunz sets up the first World Wide Web Server at Stanford University's Linear Accelerator

December 1992- ViolaWWW, the first major browser in the US completed by UC Berkeley student Pei-Yuan Wei.

1996- Stanford Grad Students Larry Page and Sergey Brin begin collaborating on a search engine called "BackRub". BackRub operates on Stanford servers for one year, eventually outgrowing the servers at the university

1997- BackRub becomes Google, a play on the word "Googol" which is the mathematical representation of the number 1 followed by 100 zeros.

2010- 4,000 IT relatedcompanies located on peninsula from San Francisco to San Jose. (Generating $200 Billion in IT-related revenue annually.)

Zepplin at Hanger #1- Moffett Field 1932

Silicon Valley Innovations:

Long distance high-voltage transmissions, the amplifying vacuum tube, First commercial radio broadcast, Long distance continuous-wave radio transmissions, mobile radio systems development, the klystron tube, microwave radar, electronic measuring devices, nuclear induction applications, X-ray microscope traveling-wave development, silicon crystal-growing, programmable handheld calculators, video tape and VCRs, junction transistors, linear accelerators for particle physics research and cancer treatments,  nuclear magnetic resonance, random access computer storage; disk drives, integrated circuits, personal computers, open heart surgery, ink-jet printing, gene splicing technology.

Stanford University

Silicon Valley is home to AMD, Adobe, Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, Apple, Google, Facebook, Intel, eBay, Yahoo!, Oracle, National Semiconductor, NVidia, LSI Logic, SanDisk, NetFlix, Maxim Integrated Products, Symantec, Marvell Semiconductors, NetApp, Western Digital just to name a few.

Santa Clara University

Sources: National register of Historic Places, www.nps.gov, Local Santa Clara County information: History San Jose.org, Phyllis Filiberti Butler’s “The Valley of Santa Clara Historic Buildings, 1792-1920” Menlo Park: Bay Research Press 2002, “California: A Guide to the Golden State”, New York: Hastings House 1939. “Encyclopedia of the American West”. New Haven: Yale University Press 1998. "A History of Silicon Valley" Piero Scaruffi copyright 2010
Harold Hal Burke- 1915 S.F World Fair Flyer
http://www.slac.stanford.edu/
http://www.scaruffi.com/bio.html

http://www.nps.gov
http://www.historysanjose.gov
http://web.bryant.edu/~ehu/h364proj/fall_97/hill/happle.html

Plum Orchard in "The Valley of Hearts Delight"

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Reality-Capture-Technology-Training-Center-at-History-Park/304789553009310