Journeys in Suburbia: Downtown San Jose--Part 5: St. James Park

Downtown San Jose
The R2-D2 building, the last hanging ground in California, and a statue that looks like feces.

Scale: ***** Must Visit
          ****   Worth Detouring
          ***     If in the Area
          **       May be Worth Visiting-Once
          *         Interest only


5. St. James Park **

 The center Victorian San Jose, and where the proud courthouse of Santa Clara County still resides, St. James' Park is now a sadly neglected part of San Jose, far from the new centers of activity along Cesar Chavez Plaza and San Pedro Square and bisected by 2nd Street in the 1960s. It has been overrun by hobos and druggies, and hypersensitive traffic police, who ignore the riff-raff but enthusiastically ticket parked cars even with just-expired meters. 

Not that I'm bitter or anything.

However beneath the grime is still the original seat of Clara Santa County, and all of the old buildings nearby hold traces of San Jose's colorful history. Park nowhere near the area, walk over past the panhandling and odd singing, and imagine a more lively place more than a century ago. As a note, St. James Park is a fairly dangerous location-DO NOT GO ALONE AT NIGHT!!

Starting at the center of the park near the fountain, work your way West past the hobos. 

St. James Park created with the planning of the new City of San Jose in 1848, but did not come to its prominence until the 1890s, when famed architect Fredrick Olmsted designed the park in a Union Jack pattern, with an ornate fountain in the center and lush vegetation planted all around. It would remain the center of San Jose society until the death of the old Downtown in the early 1960s, when people started fleeing to the suburbs, leaving the battered environment seen today.  Unlike neighboring regions, St. James has little improved from revitalization.

At the West end of St. James Park is:



A. The Old Santa Clara County Courthouse **

Built in 1868, this ornate building originally had a large dome that was created to try to persuade the state legislature to return the state capitol to San Jose (See Part 1). Here, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company (1886) would first lay the claim of corporations as "persons" under the United States Constitution-in my humble opinion, one of the worst legal decisions ever made in the history of the legal profession. Notorious outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez was hanged in 1875 after a trial here, while the Brooke Hart killers were put on trial in 1933. The trial would never conclude (See Brooke Harte Murder). The courthouse was badly damaged during a fire in 1931, which destroyed the dome. The building was restored (without the dome), then restored again in 1994 after damage from the Loma Prieta Earthquake.  Interestingly, while restoration was underway, workers found two old high-security holding cells deep in the basement.

Facing the courthouse is the President McKinley Monument.


B. President William McKinley Monument***

On May 13, 1901, President William McKinley addressed a large crowd gathered at St. James Park.  Four months later he was assassinated in Buffalo, New York. Like their counterparts in San Francisco, San Jose quickly erected a monument (1903) to commemorate the trip, complete with part of the speech he gave here.

"The Constitution is a sacred instrument; and a sacred trust is given to us to see to it that all its virtue and its victor is passed on to the generations yet to come".

Amid the public mourning of yet another presidential assassination (3 in 36 years), people conveniently forgot about McKinley's extremely pro-business and imperialistic administration.    

At the front of the monument is a small 12lb-er cannon, perhaps a reflection of McKinley's foreign policy. In 1918, one George Koetzer was tarred, feathered, and chained to the cannon by the shadowy "Knights of Liberty of San Jose and Oakland", supposedly for stating pro-German remarks. Then in 1932 someone added gunpowder to the same cannon and set it off, destroying windows of the Santa Clara Courthouse.  The individuals were revealed in 2007, 75 years later.

Near the monument was the site of the elm tree where John Holmes and Thomas Thurmond, kidnappers and murderers of Brooke Hart, were beaten, stripped naked, and hanged by car light before a mob of 5000.  Former child actor Jackie Coogan (of Charlie Chaplin and Addams Family fame) and close friend of Brooke, was rumored to be among the mob. Afterwards, the tree was torn to pieces as souvenirs.

To the left of the courthouse is a large, ornate building. 


C. San Jose Post Office*

Built in 1934 by the WPA to replace the former post office near Cesar Chavez Plaza, this Spanish Colonial Revival remains a regional post office.  During the Brooke Hart lynchings, the mob pelted the prison near the courthouse with Spanish tiles from the unfinished building, then used a drainage pipe as a ram to smash into the prison.

In St. James' Park, facing the post office at the Southwest corner, is an large concrete platform.

D. Robert Kennedy Forum*

On March 23, 1968, former US Attorney General Robert Kennedy and brother to assassinated President John Kennedy gave a speech here before 2000 people, just days after announcing his intent to run for president.  Evidently the speech was not particularly memorable, as no one seems to have bothered to write it down (though it was recorded).  Just days later, after winning the important California State Primary, Robert Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in Los Angeles.  In 1970, to honor the man and occasion, San Jose erected a large concrete speaker's forum as a monument. Inscribed on the walls were evidently a far better quote Kennedy made:

"Some men see things as they are and ask why. Others dream things that never were and ask why not."

Evidently what the forum sees these days are the homeless, who use the structure as a bed/kitchen table/bathroom.

From the Forum, continue along the Southern end of the Park. At the intersection of St. John's Street and 2nd Street is a large church.


E. Trinity Episcopal Cathedral**

Built in 1863 out of Santa Cruz redwood and consecrated in 1867, the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of El Camino, the oldest Episcopal Cathedral in California and the oldest continuously used church in San Jose. When the congregation expanded, the church was literally cut in half and pulled apart by teams of horses. It was then enlarged in a cross shape and a bell tower added.

Facing St. John's Street near 2nd Street is another monument.


F. Henry Naglee Monument **
The highest ranked officer from Santa Clara Valley,  Henry Naglee was a capable leader who unfortunately was involved in very public sexual scandals that shocked Gilded Age California.  A graduate of West Point, Henry Naglee participated in the occupation of California in 1846 as an officer during the Mexican American War, but left the military to become a banker and the leader of 1st California Guards, the eventual California National Guard. After touring Europe to study viticulture, Naglee opened a vineyard in San Jose to make brandy famed throughout the country, one of the earliest contributions to California's massive wine industry. In 1861 with the advent of the American Civil War,  Naglee rejoined the US Army fighting in the Peninsula Campaign, and was wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines while leading a brigade.  By 1863 Naglee was appointed to command the Union VII Corps garrisoned around Suffolk, Virginia but would soon be removed from active duty and mustered out a year later.

Before he left to join the war, Naglee had signaled his affections for one Mary Schell. During the conflict, Naglee wrote a continuous stream of lurid love letters to Schell as well as other observations. However after returning to California, Naglee rebuffed Schell, who furiously published his letters as "The Love Life of Brigadier General Henry M. Naglee, Consisting of a correspondence on Love, War and Politics".  His passionate prose, mixed with his dim views of comrades in arms, sent tongues wagging and drove Naglee into seclusion.

A second scandal erupted only five years later. In 1871, after the death of his wife in childbirth, Naglee employed Emily Hanks as a nursemaid for his children.  In 1877 however, Hanks filed a breach of promise suit, stating that Naglee had proposed marriage and then attempted to seduce her.  Two lurid trials occurred, and though the courts initially ruled in favor of Hanks they finally ruled in favor of Naglee.

Naglee's vineyard property was later sold by his daughters to form the San Jose residential district of Naglee Park.  His daughters also erected this monument to their father in St. James Park.

From the Negley Statue, cut across the playground (that I have never seen any kids play at, by the way).  This area seems to have been redeveloped in the 1960s, leaving pretty boring office spaces and parking lots. At the at the Eastern face of the park near the middle is another church.

G. The First Unitarian Church of San Jose **

Built in 1888, this Richardsonian Romanesque church is on the National Register of Historic Places.  It was gutted during renovation in 1995, but has since been restored.

Immediately to the left of the church is another large, church like building.  However this is a very secular institution.


H. The Capital Athletics Club**

This building was built in 1924 as a Scottish Rites Temple, with Beaux-Arts and Egyptian influences.  It is now the Athletics Club, a members-only gym/workout space/gossip corner for the lawyers and city and county officials nearby. The interior is supposedly nice, if dated and run down.  Membership apparently is around $100 or so.

From the Northeast corner of the Park, head West until you hit 2nd Street and St. James. Another old-timey building lays across the street.


I. St. Claire Club**

Another clubhouse, this was built by San Francisco Mayor and Senator from California James Phelan in 1894.

Continue Westward, and you'll come to an imposing but abandoned building surrounded by fencing.


J. First Church of Christ, Scientist *

Built in 1905, this Neoclassical/Byzantine building stands on the edge of St. James Park.  The congregation moved in 1946 and the building was utilized for a series of functions, including a theater and child-care center.  It has however been empty for decades.  Recent efforts to restore the church faltered after the Great Recession, and it remains abandoned, a favorite of hobos and the druggies nearby.

To the left, the empty lot was once the site of Letcher's Garage. Clarence Letcher opened one of the first garages on the West Coast in the 1880s, moving to this spot in 1907. For years, he was famed for selling Cadillacs, Packards and Pierce Arrows, as well as custom-made cars, and signs advertising his garage were placed as far away as Los Angeles. In 1926, learning about an affair, Letcher's wife drove to the garage, had an argument with her husband, and pulled out a gun and shot him in the head before turning the gun on herself. In 1987, the garage became Club Oasis, a trendy bar, at least until someone was brutally beaten to death there in 1996. The club was then closed.  Though Letcher's Garage was on the National Register of Historic Places, it was recently torn down, probably for a parking lot.

So it goes.