Journeys in Suburbia: Downtown San Jose--Part 7: Guadalupe Park

Downtown
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

7. Guadalupe Park/River Trail **

Roughly parallel to HWY87 along the Guadalupe River, Guadalupe Park is one of the largest parks in San Jose. The entire park actually runs for 16km from Downtown San Jose South of HWY 280, past the international airport, to Alviso in the SF Bay. For now, we will focus on the middle 1km of Downtown.

Guadalupe Park in Downtown can be loosely divided into two sections: The SAP (HP/Sharks) Pavilion area, and the Discovery Meadow Area.  The first will be discussed in Part 7.

A. De Anza Hotel **

 When it was built in 1931, the De Anza Hotel was the tallest building in San Jose. It has an interesting Art Deco/Mayan/Spanish Colonial design.

If you walk to the left side of the building, you can see a mural of a diver jumping down towards what should be a tool, a 1930s-era mark signifying the building has a swimming pool, which was a rarity in those days.  The De Anza Hotel became run down by the 1970s, but seems to have been saved and restored to some of its former splendor. 

Continue East down Santa Clara Street until you reach the park on the right.



B. Arena Green ***

 The Arena Green is a large park space, and serves as a part of the greenway. This is a decently nice park, with a carousel and a few memorials and monuments.  Like much of Downtown, there is a sizable homeless population that reside here, but unlike say, St. James Park, so do children and nearby office workers.

Two playgrounds are in the park, for both toddlers and older children. It seems reasonably popular with locals.

The carousel has some interesting creatures, including a shark, courtesy of the team next door. It should operate Tues-Sun 10 am-5 pm and costs $1, but apparently has been closed for a while due to municipal budget cuts. Haven't seen it operate in a long time. 

A new Vietnam Memorial of San Jose was also recently erected.

As a final note, this is a good area to park during the day to avoid all the annoying parking fees and meters at Downtown.

Across the street on the West side of the park is a large arena. 


C. SAP Arena***

Better known as the Shark Tank (also the San Jose Arena, Compaq Center at San Jose and HP Pavilion at San Jose), the SAP Arena is the primary facility for the San Jose Sharks.Concerts and basketball tournaments are also held here.  It has the capacity to hold around 18000 people.

Southwest of the SAP Arena and the Arena Green, across Santa Clara St., and behind a sea of parking lots, is the main train station of San Jose.


D. Diridon Station**

Opened as the Cahill Depot in 1935, this was the main Southern Pacific Railroad Station in San Jose after moving away from the heavy traffic of downtown. Besides Union Station in Los Angeles, this was the last of the old passenger depots built in California. Among the multiple trains that used this station was the Coast Daylight LA-SF train. 
The Diridon has an Italian Renaissance Revival Style, one of only four such designs in California.  The station was restored in 1994 and there is talk of extending the Bay Area Rapid Transport (BART) as well as California's high speed rail system here.

On San Frenando St., south of the train station at yet another parking lot, is a lonely neon sign.


E. Stephen's Dancing Pig **

For decades, the local butcher's shop for San Jose was run by one Stephen Pizzo, who began at some point during the Great Depression.  WWII rationing benefited Pizzo, who was able to profit from a relative with a cattle ranch in the hills, and in 1948 he moved his shop to a building on this site, with three pigs drawn on the wall and a neon sign with a dancing pig.  Though Stephen continued to build on his shop, purchasing the first vacuum-sealed packaging West of the Mississippi, market consolidation soon began putting his store at a financial disadvantage. The company began promoting the strong quality of its meat products, but slowly lost ground. The store finally closed in the mid 2000s after 63 years.  A few years later the building was razed and replaced with a parking lot.  The sign with the dancing pig still remains, and remains illuminated, dancing into the night.

Continue west on San Fernando St., to the VTA Station.


F. Life is a Circus *

"Artist Iiona Malka Rich created this sculpture of three, multicolored striped lions with illuminating eyes (using fiber optics) from a bronze-like material. One has eight legs with two heads, and the other two lions have six legs each. The theme for this art feature is “Life is a Circus” which is inscribed around the base of the artwork. In addition, lion footprints are “stamped” on the ground through the plaza to replicate the natural movement of these unique animals." (Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, 2005)

Across the street from the light rail station is another mural, with some old houses.

G. San Jose Mural/Little Italy*

 Little Italy is the small remnants of an Italian community established in the 1870s.  There have been recent efforts to revitalize the district, with some success--the area looks much better than it had been for years. Still, there isn't too much here except a few restaurants at this point. The mural from the introduction is located here. 



 

 At this area, the Guadalupe Trail is fairly exposed, and HWY 87 is definitely near enough to see and hear. A few information placards are placed at periodic intervals.  You can descend onto the trail and continue South to Discovery Meadow.