Journeys in Suburbia: Downtown San Jose--Part 6: San Pedro Square

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

 

6. San Pedro Square***

Didn't Last

San Pedro Square is an up-and-coming area with a thriving nightlife. It seems popular with Sharks Fans. Ironically, there does not appear to be an actual "square" in San Pedro Square; instead San Pedro Street and the San Pedro Square Market form the center of this area.

Begin at the intersection of Santa Clara Street and San Pedro Street, which is graced with a large gate. 

Occasionally the gate is dressed up with Sharks paraphernalia, especially if San Jose's beloved hockey team is doing well in the season. 


A. San Pedro Square Market ***

San Pedro Square Market is a relatively new addition to Downtown San Jose. Modeled similar to other markets in say, San Francisco, Oakland or Napa, this complex is a mixture of small shops and restaurants, ranging from Asian noodles to steak bistros to pizzas, as well as a barber shop and other trendy little stores.  Sometimes live music plays, and the whole thing opens until midnight, inviting you to find a place to eat or drink, and enjoy the night.

If you are outside, drinking your coffee in the courtyard, you might see the small building from which San Jose arose.

B. Peralta Adobe **

Pueblo San Jose was founded by José Joaquín Moraga on November 29, 1777, as the first pueblo not associated with a mission, though it was only 5km away from Mission Santa Clara.

Built in 1797, this adobe house is the oldest surviving building in San Jose and the last remnants of Pueblo San Jose.  It was first occupied by the family of Manuel Gonzalez, who arrived with the 1776 De Anza Expedition, then passed on to the Luís María Peralta, a Spanish soldier who had been rewarded with the massive Rancho San Antonio, one of the largest land grants in California.

Across the street from the San Pedro Market, is a house, seemingly out of place in this small-industry section of the city.


C. Thomas Fallon House **

This was the home of early Anglo pioneer Thomas Fallon. Fallon joined Lt John Fremont's 1846 Expedition to California, eventually dropping out and settling around Santa Cruz.  Fallon joined the Bear Flag Revolt the same year, leading 22 men across the Santa Cruz Mountains to seize the Pueblo of San Jose without bloodshed on July 11, 1846. During the California Gold Rush, Fallon made a tidy profit selling picks to the miners in the Sierra Foothills, eventually becoming a wealthy individual in Santa Cruz.  After moving to Texas, Fallon moved his family to San Jose, where he built this house in 1855. Fallon was elected mayor of San Jose in 1859, and remained a generally respectable political figure (his wife filed for divorce in 1876 after finding Thomas in a compromising position with the family maid).

Continuing North up San Pedro Street, you'll come to a busy intersection at St. James Street. A group of statues are dramatically arranged in the center meridian. 


D. Thomas Fallon Statue **

Commissioned in 1988, the statues celebrate Fallon raising the American Flag over San Jose and was supposed to be erected over Caesar Chavez Park. However the statue ran into immediately controversy as the Latino population of San Jose objected to what they saw as a celebration of American Imperialism during the Mexican War, and of some of Fallon's person actions.  The statue was placed in a storage while other statues celebrating the multicultural nature of San Jose were erected-like that one feces-Quetzalcoatl.  In 2002, the statue was finally erected at one end of downtown, far from everything else.

There area has some nice places to eat; this would be a good stop if you get hungry exploring the wonders of Downtown.

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.

Journeys in Suburbia: Downtown San San Jose--Part 1: Cesar Chavez Park

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

Welcome to San Jose, we don't have major landmarks

Introduction
San Jose, California, is the tenth largest city in the United States, the third largest in the State of California, and the self-titled "Capitol of Silicon Valley".  However for its size and importance, San Jose is also really, really boring.

San Jose is a city of techies, and suburbanites. Far fewer people in the World have heard of poor, neglected, San Jose than to the smaller nearby city of San Francisco. Tourism inevitably revolves around two things: the ice hockey powerhouse that is the San Jose Sharks, and the architectural wonder/tourist trap that is the Winchester Mystery House.  Downtown is especially notorious, known to the locals as a region of seedy pawnshops and bars, an area that had declined for decades and no one knew what to do with.

Still, for anyone who finds themselves in Downtown San Jose with an interest in history and culture, there are a few treasures hidden away. Only a few short walks from hotels and convention centers are some interesting parts of California history, controversial public art, and different cultures.

Cesar Chavez Plaza with labeled locations described below. Yellow for history, Green for Public Art, Purple for Museums.

Part 1 will focus on the traditional center of San Jose, Cesar Chavez Plaza, and the sights around it.

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

1. Cesar Chavez Plaza ***

The center of Downtown San Jose is the Plaza de Cesar Chavez, named after the famed United Farm Workers (UFW) labor leader in 1993. It is the remnant of the old central square of Pueblo de San Jose.  San Jose (Saint Joseph) was established on the banks of the Guadalupe River nearby on November 29, 1777, the first permanent non-mission settlement in California. In 1797, the settlement moved to the area around what is now the Plaza. The Pueblo Plaza was in its heyday under Mexico, known for such things as bullfighting, racing, and a Californian-Mexican (Californio) game called "correr el gallo", where men on horseback would gallop over and try to pull up a greased chicken half-buried in the ground. Nowadays, while the Plaza de Cesar Chavez remains the cultural center of Downtown San Jose, it is nowhere as lively, mostly filled with children playing around a large, interactive fountain (careful, there have been outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis and salmonellosis), and hobos. During the wintertime, there is the popular Christmas in the Park, with exhibits, a large "giving tree", shops, and rides.

From the Fountain with its crowd of kids, take a path South through a nice tree-lined path lined with benches-and usually hobos sleeping on them.


A. Quetzalcoatl Statue ***

At the Southern end of the park is this squat brown statue. In 1988, after the Thomas Fallon Statue fiasco (addressed later), San Jose attempted again to add a little culture to its city. Employing famed sculptor Robert Graham, of Mexican heritage and who studied at San Jose State, the city paid some $500000 to commission the statue to Quetzalcoatl, the Mesoamerican plumed serpent god of  light, mercy, wind and knowledge.  The project immediately ran into controversy, with several versions rejected while Christian fundamentalists came to protest the pagan god and its (mistaken) association with sacrifice, warning of human sacrifices occurring in the night, and so on. The original plan, a large, sweeping bronze statue, was scrapped, to the fury of Graham.  The revised design was finally erected in the middle of the night and unveiled to some shock. The statue was made of brownish concrete, seemingly misaligned, and squat-, looking like a piece of excrement. The statue (also known as "Graham's revenge") is widely disliked (or looked with bemusement).


B. Hotel St. Claire *

Across the street to the right of the statue, this is a historical 1926 hotel on the National Register of Historic Places.  An ornate grand hotel said to be the most elegant between San Francisco and Los Angeles, it certainly looks nice, if you have the patience of passing heavy traffic.


C. San Jose Civic Auditorium *

 Around the corner on the right of the park is the Spanish Mission-Style 1934 , which for decades served as a venue for acts such as Duke Ellington, the Rolling Stones, the Who, and Jefferson Airplane. Presidents Herbert Hoover, and Ronald Reagan visited, as did President Richard Nixon, who was infamously met with a barrage of stones when he visited in 1970.  It has been recently restored.


D.  San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation **
Immediately behind the Civic Auditorium is this bright orange children's museum with various exhibits on science and technology, including a large IMAX theater.  It is certainly interesting for kids, but adults may find little of interest besides the IMAX and an occasional Special Exhibit. Tickets are $15 adult, $10 senior/student/child (3-17), with special exhibits an additional $12.

Cutting back across Cesar Chavez Plaza, you can see the large corner stone of San Jose's Old City Hall, a massive, gaudy two-story Victorian built in 1887 and torn down in 1958. San Jose has very little sense of preserving anything, so everything looks boring. Anyways..


E. Fairmont San Jose *
Facing you is the Fairmont. It is built on the site of California's first state capitol, a small two-story adobe building with the state assembly on the top floor and the senate on the bottom.  No one likes it, and they quickly move. San Jose thus becomes the Capital of the State of California from 13 Nov 1849 (before a state) to 1 May 1851. A small, neglected marker stands nearby to commemorate the location. In the 1860s the Chinese began moving in, and the area immediately dropped in respectability. In 1887 a fire, probably arson, burned down this Chinatown and the people were driven out.


F. Circle of Palms Plaza*

To the left of the Fairmont is this plaza in front of the San Jose Museum of Art.  The circle of palms surrounds a much larger marker commemorating California's First State Capitol.  Honestly that's a lot more commemorations than probably went into founding the State Capitol. During the winter, a popular ice-skating rink is located here.


G. San Jose Museum of Art***

The San Jose Museum of Art is an interesting museum of modern California Art.  Constructed in 1892 as a post office, this building once served that function until 1937, then became the library of San Jose before finally becoming part of the Museum of Art, which displays mainly modern California artwork. It features a large collection of sculptures and paintings. The newer section was constructed in 1991.Tickets are $8 adults/$5 Students and Seniors.


H. Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph ***

 To the North of Cesar Chavez Plaza is this impressive church . Originally built in 1803 as the first non-mission parish in California, St. Joseph's Church has been damaged by fire and earthquakes and rebuilt five times, finally completing this version in 1885.  In 1985 the church was elevated to a cathedral for the Roman Catholic Bishop of San Jose, and in 1997 it was elevated to a minor basilica.  The cathedral is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a local landmark.