Visit San Jose, California Places

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The Walkfo guide to things to do & explore in San Jose, California

  

San Jose, California Places Overview: History, Culture & Facts about San Jose, California

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San Jose, California history

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Pre-Columbian period

The Santa Clara Valley has been home to the Tamyen group of the Ohlone people since around 4,000 BC. The majority came to inhabit Mission Santa Clara de Asís and Mission San José.

Spanish period

California was claimed as part of the Spanish Empire in 1542, when explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo charted the Californian coast. For nearly 200 years, the Californias were sparsely populated and largely ignored by the government of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in Mexico City. Only in 1769 was Northern California finally surveyed by Spanish authorities, with the Portolá Expedition.

Mexican period

San Jose became part of the First Mexican Empire in 1821, after Mexico’s War of Independence was won against the Spanish Crown. In 1824, the Mexican government began an initiative, for Mexican and foreign citizens alike, to settle unoccupied lands in California. Between 1833 and 1845, thirty-eight rancho land grants were issued in the Santa Clara Valley, 15 of which were located within San Jose’s borders.

American period

On March 27, 1850, San Jose was incorporated on the same day as San Diego and Benicia. The city was briefly California’s first state capital; legislators met in the city from 1849 to 1851. San Jose suffered significant damage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. During World War II, the city’s economy shifted from agriculture to industrial manufacturing.

San Jose, California culture & places

Architecture

The downtown area is in the flight path to Mineta San Jose International Airport. There is a height limit for buildings in the downtown area, which is underneath the final approach corridor to the airport. Core downtown buildings are limited to approximately 300 ft (91 m) but can get taller farther from airport.

Visual arts

The city was one of the first to adopt a public art ordinance at 2% of capital improvement building project budgets. Early public art included a statue of Quetzalcoatl, controversial in its planning because some called it pagan. A statue of Thomas Fallon also met strong resistance from those who called him largely responsible for decimation of early native populations.

Performing arts

The city is home to many performing arts companies, including Opera San Jose, Symphony Silicon Valley, Ballet San Jose Silicon Valley. The SAP Center at San Jose is one of the most active venues for non-sporting events in the world. The annual Cinequest Film Festival in downtown has grown to over 60,000 attendees per year, becoming an important festival for independent films. The San Francisco Asian American Film Festival is an annual event, which is hosted in San Francisco, Berkeley and Downtown San Jose.

Sports

San Jose was a founding member of both the California League and the Pacific Coast League in minor league baseball. San Jose is home to the San Jose Sharks of the NHL, San Jose Barracuda of the AHL, and San Jose Earthquakes of Major League Soccer. The city of San Jose sued Major League Baseball for not allowing the Athletics to relocate to San Jose in 2013.

Landmarks

Notable landmarks in San Jose include Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose, History Park at Kelley Park, Cathedral Basilica of St. Joseph, Plaza de César Chávez, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, Mexican Heritage Plaza, Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Hayes Mansion, SAP Center at San Jose.

San Jose, California economy & business

Silicon Valley

The large concentration of high-technology engineering, computer, and microprocessor companies around San Jose has led the area to be known as Silicon Valley. Thirty-five percent of all venture capital funds in the U.S. are invested in San Jose and Silicon Valley companies. Google was in the process of planning the “biggest tech campus in Silicon Valley” in 2018. San Jose had 405,000 jobs within its city limits in 2006, and an unemployment rate of 4.6%.

Media

In April 1909, Charles David Herrold constructed a radio station to broadcast the human voice. The station, “San Jose Calling” (call letters FN, later FQW), was the world’s first radio station. KCBS technically is the oldest radio station in the United States.

Top employers

As of June 30, 2019, the city’s top employers in the city were: The top employers are: The city’s largest city-based employers are located in downtown Atlanta. The city is home to more than 1,000 jobs.

San Jose, California geography / climate

San Jose is located in the Santa Clara Valley, in the southern part of the Bay Area in Northern California. The city is shaken by moderate earthquakes on average one or two times a year. The most serious earthquake, in 1906, damaged many buildings in San Jose. The Daly City Earthquake of 1957 caused some damage.

Cityscape

“Dutch” Hamann was San Jose’s City Manager from 1950 to 1969. During his administration, the city annexed property 1,389 times, growing the city from 17 to 149 sq mi (44 to 386 km) During his reign, it was said the City Council would vote according to Hamann’s nod.

Topography

The Guadalupe River runs from the Santa Cruz Mountains, flowing north through San Jose, ending in the San Francisco Bay at Alviso. The lowest point in San Jose is 13 ft (4.0 m) below sea level; the highest is 2,125 ft (648 m) The asteroid 6216 San Jose was named after the city.

Climate

San Jose has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen Csb) with warm to hot, dry summers and mild to cool, wet winters. The highest temperature ever recorded in San Jose was 109 °F (42.8 °C) on June 14, 2000. Downtown San Jose experiences the lightest rainfall in the city, while South San Jose, only 10 mi (16 km) distant, experiences more rainfall.

Neighborhoods and districts

Many of San Jose’s districts and neighborhoods were previously unincorporated communities or separate municipalities that were later annexed by the city. Japantown, Rose Garden, Midtown San Jose, Willow Glen, Naglee Park, Burbank, Winchester, Alviso, Alum Rock, Communications Hill, Little Portugal, Blossom Valley, Cambrian, Almaden Valley, Little Saigon, Evergreen Valley, Mayfair, Edenvale, Santa Teresa, Seven Trees, Coyote Valley, and Berryessa.

Parks

San Jose possesses about 15,950 acres (6,455 ha) of parkland in its city limits, including a part of the expansive Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. The city’s oldest park is Alum Rock Park, established in 1872. In its 2013 ParkScore ranking, The Trust for Public Land, a national land conservation organization, reported that San Jose was tied with Albuquerque and Omaha for having the 11th best park system among the 50 most populous U.S. cities. Almaden Quicksilver County Park, 4,147 acres (16.78 km) of former mercury mines in South San Jose (operated and maintained by the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department). Alum Rock Park, 718 acres (2.91 km) in East San Jose, the oldest municipal park in California and one of the largest municipal parks in the United States. Children’s Discovery Museum hosts an outdoor park-like setting, featuring the world’s largest permanent Monopoly game, per the Guinness Book of World Records. Caretakers for this attraction include the 501(c)3 non-profit group Monopoly in the Park. Circle of Palms Plaza, a ring of palm trees surrounding a California state seal and historical landmark at the site of the first state capitol Emma Prusch Farm Park, 43.5 acres (17.6 ha) in East San Jose. Donated by Emma Prusch to demonstrate the valley’s agricultural past, it includes a 4-H barn (the largest in San Jose), community gardens, a rare-fruit orchard, demonstration gardens, picnic areas, and expanses of lawn. Field Sports Park, Santa Clara County’s only publicly owned firing range, located in south San Jose Iris Chang Park, located in North San Jose is dedicated to the memory of Iris Shun-Ru Chang, author of the Rape of Nanking and a San Jose resident. Kelley Park, including diverse facilities such as Happy Hollow Park & Zoo (a child-centric amusement park), the Japanese Friendship Garden (Kelley Park), History Park at Kelley Park, and the Portuguese Historical Museum within the history park Martial Cottle Park, a former agricultural farm, in South San Jose. Operated by Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department Oak Hill Memorial Park, California’s oldest secular cemetery Overfelt Gardens, including the Chinese Cultural Garden Plaza de César Chávez, a small park in Downtown, hosts outdoor concerts and the Christmas in the Park display Raging Waters, water park with water slides and other water attractions. This sits within Lake Cunningham Park Rosicrucian Park, nearly an entire city block in the Rose Garden neighborhood; the Park offers a setting of Egyptian and Moorish architecture set among lawns, rose gardens, statuary, and fountains, and includes the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum, Planetarium, Research Library, Peace Garden and Visitors Center San Jose Municipal Rose Garden, 5+1/2 acres (22,000 m) park in the Rose Garden neighborhood, featuring over 4,000 rose bushes A 2011 study by Walk Score ranked San Jose the nineteenth most walkable of fifty largest cities in the United States. San Jose’s trail network of 60 mi (100 km) of recreational and active transportation trails throughout the city. The major trails in the network include: Coyote Creek Trail Guadalupe River Trail Los Gatos Creek Trail Los Alamitos Creek Trail Penitencia Creek Trail Silver Creek Valley Trail This large urban trail network, recognized by Prevention Magazine as the nation’s largest, is linked to trails in surrounding jurisdictions and many rural trails in surrounding open space and foothills. Several trail systems within the network are designated as part of the National Recreation Trail, as well as regional trails such as the San Francisco Bay Trail and Bay Area Ridge Trail. Early written documents record the local presence of migrating salmon in the Rio Guadalupe dating as far back as the 18th century. Both steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and King salmon are extant in the Guadalupe River, making San Jose the southernmost major U. S. city with known salmon spawning runs, the other cities being Anchorage, Alaska; Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon and Sacramento, California. Runs of up to 1,000 Chinook or King Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) swam up the Guadalupe River each fall in the 1990s, but have all but vanished in the current decade apparently blocked from access to breeding grounds by impassable culverts, weirs and wide, exposed and flat concrete paved channels installed by the Santa Clara Valley Water District. In 2011 a small number of Chinook salmon were filmed spawning under the Julian Street bridge. Conservationist Roger Castillo, who discovered the remains of a mammoth on the banks of the Guadalupe River in 2005, found that a herd of tule elk (Cervus canadensis) had recolonized the hills of south San Jose east of Highway 101 in early 2019. At the southern edge of San José, Coyote Valley is a corridor for wildlife migration between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range.

You can visit San Jose, California places with Walkfo San Jose, California to hear history at San Jose, California’s places whilst walking around using the free digital tour app. Walkfo San Jose, California has 96 places to visit in our interactive San Jose, California map, with amazing history, culture & travel facts you can explore the same way you would at a museum or art gallery with information audio headset. With Walkfo, you can travel by foot, bike or bus throughout San Jose, California, being in the moment, without digital distraction or limits to a specific walking route. Our historic audio walks, National Trust interactive audio experiences, digital tour guides for English Heritage locations are available at San Jose, California places, with a AI tour guide to help you get the best from a visit to San Jose, California & the surrounding areas.

“Curated content for millions of locations across the UK, with 96 audio facts unique to San Jose, California places in an interactive San Jose, California map you can explore.”

Walkfo: Visit San Jose, California Places Map
96 tourist, history, culture & geography spots

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Walkfo San Jose, California tourism map key: places to see & visit like National Trust sites, Blue Plaques, English Heritage locations & top tourist destinations in San Jose, California

  

Best San Jose, California places to visit

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San Jose, California has places to explore by foot, bike or bus. Below are a selection of the varied San Jose, California’s destinations you can visit with additional content available at the Walkfo San Jose, California’s information audio spots:

Visit San Jose, California plaques