List of Sites

The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House, a National Historic Landmark, is a large, rambling International style house, resembling "blocks piled up." It was designed by Lou Henry Hoover, wife of Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States. Herbert Hoover's contribution was to order that the home be fireproof, and the walls were constructed of hollow tiles.

Admiral William A. Moffett is credited with the creation of the two Naval Air Stations commissioned in the early 1930s to port the two U.S. Naval Airships (dirigibles). One of those stations, the Naval Air Station Sunnyvale, California, was the Pacific coast location selected, with help from northern Californian politicians and the leadership of the Chambers of Commerce from Mountain View to San Jose.

Ramona Street between University Avenue and Hamilton Avenue is a highly distinctive business block in downtown Palo Alto. It showcases the Spanish and Early California styles with gentle archways, wrought iron work, tile roofs of varying heights and courtyards. The development of Ramona Street was an early successful attempt to expand laterally the central commercial district.

A National Historic Landmark, the Hanna-Honeycomb House was Frank Lloyd Wright's (1867-1959) first work in the San Francisco region. Begun in 1937 and expanded over 25 years, this is the first and best example of Wright's innovative hexagonal design. Patterned after the honeycomb of a bee, the house incorporates six-sided figures with 120-degree angles in its plan, in its numerous tiled terraces, and even in built-in furnishings.

The Palo Alto Southern Pacific Station is an excellent example of the Streamline Moderne style which has important connections with American social history, and which is not typically found in Palo Alto. During the 1920s and 1930s most of the significant buildings in town were designed by a single dominant and exceptionally talented local architect, Birge Clark, who worked almost exclusively in the Mission Revival or Spanish Colonial Revival styles.

Today a Larkspur Hotel, the Hotel Sainte Claire is a hexagonal six-story building, dominating a corner lot at a busy downtown San Jose intersection. The significance of the Sainte Claire Hotel is twofold. First, its history is an integral part of the history of San Jose and remains to this day among the city's most recognized architectural landmarks.

As Santa Clara Valley's mercantile and financial center for the past 100 years, San Jose's downtown historic commercial district is significant both from a historic and an architectural perspective. The district includes buildings dating from the 1870s, reflecting the emergence of the American city; buildings from the 1890s, reflecting San Jose's boom years as an agricultural center; and buildings from the 1920s, showcasing the South Bay Area's first skyscraper.

The Winchester House, or Winchester Mystery House as it is better known, is a 160-room Victorian Mansion built by Sarah L. Winchester, wife of rifle manufacturer William Wirt Winchester. Sarah and William were married on September 30, 1862, and had one child, Annie Pardee, who died about a month after birth in 1866. William Winchester died on March 7, 1881, after which Mrs. Winchester, upset at the deaths of her husband and daughter, reportedly consulted a spiritualist.

Built in 1892 for Charles A. Baldwin and his wife Ellen Hobart Baldwin, the mansion known as Le Petit Trianon was once the center of their successful wine-producing estate where the couple was known to entertain lavishly. Baldwin installed a massive stone winery; built underground cellars (today part of the De Anza College grounds) and planted vines from Bordeaux and other regions of France.

The Picchetti Brothers Winery, also known as the Picchetti Ranch, contains a complex of seven buildings built between 1880 and 1920, which retain their original design details. The Picchetti bothers, Secondo and Vincenso, for whom the ranch was named, were among the first settlers on a ridge which they named "Monte Bello" or "beautiful mountain."