Martin Murphy House | |
---|---|
Bay View or Home Of Martin Murphy Jr. | |
Location | 252 North Sunnyvale Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, US |
Coordinates | 37°22′56″N122°1′33″W / 37.38222°N 122.02583°W |
Founder | Martin Murphy Jr. |
Built | 1850 |
Original use | Home |
Demolished | 1961 |
Official name | Home of Martin Murphy Jr. |
Designated | May 22, 1960 |
Reference no. | 644 |
Location in Santa Clara County |
The Martin Murphy House was a historic home located in Santa Clara County, California. It was the residence of Martin Murphy Jr., who journeyed to California with his family in 1844, as part of the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada. As the founder of Sunnyvale, Murphy constructed a prefabricated lumber house in the area, which had been transported around Cape Horn in 1849. It was the first frame house in the area. [1] The Murphy family maintained their residency in the house until 1953 when the city of Sunnyvale took ownership of the property. In 1961, a fire destroyed the house. The California Historical Landmark #644 marks the location of Murphy's residence at Murphy Park in Sunnyvale. [2] [3]
Martin Murphy Jr. (1807-1884) [4] moved to California with his family in 1844, becoming part of a pioneering wagon train that was the first to cross the Sierra Mountains in 1844. The Stephens–Townsend–Murphy Party wagon train was composed of the Stephens family, Townsend family, and the Murphy family, and used oxen to pull their covered wagons. [5] [6] [3]
In 1849, Murphy Jr. relocated to the Santa Clara Valley and purchased half of the Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas from Mariano Castro for $12,500 (equivalent to $457,800in 2023) in 1850. Murphy established a wheat farm and cattle ranch. In 1850, he commissioned a prefabricated wood-frame house from a lumber mill in New England. He arranged for it to be shipped around Cape Horn and then reconstructed on his newly acquired property. Due to its unobstructed view of the southern region of San Francisco Bay, the Murphy family renamed it "Bay View." The 20-room home was located at 252 North Sunnyvale Avenue. [5] [7] [8]
The Murphy family maintained their residency in the house until 1953. [9] : p18
The house was demolished in 1961 due to extensive termite and fire damage. [10] The Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum constructed a replica of the Murphy House next to the Sunnyvale Community Center. The dedicated and opening took place in October 2008, serving as a tribute to the contributions made by the Murphy family. [1] [11] [12] A small museum was established in Murphy Park with the purpose of safeguarding and showcasing preserved artifacts from the Murphy house and other aspects Sunnyvale's history. [13]
On May 22, 1960, the California State Park Commission in cooperation with the city of Sunnyvale and the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum erected a commemorative plaque, that designates the site as California Historical Landmark #644, the homesite of Martin Murphy Jr. The marker is at 250 North Sunnyvale Avenue. [3] [9] : p54
The inscription on the plaque reads:
Martin Murphy, Jr., arrived in California with his family in 1844 in the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada. The founder of Sunnyvale, he constructed here his house of pre-fabricated lumber brought around the Horn in 1849. Members of the Murphy family lived here continuously until 1953, when the property was acquired by the City of Sunnyvale. The house was destroyed by fire in 1961. [2]
Murphys, originally Murphys New Diggings then Murphy's Camp, is an unincorporated village located in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains in Calaveras County, California, United States. The population was 2,213 at the 2010 census, up from 2,061 at the 2000 census.
Sunnyvale is a city located in the Santa Clara Valley in northwest Santa Clara County in the U.S. state of California.
The California Trail was an emigrant trail of about 1,600 mi (2,600 km) across the western half of the North American continent from Missouri River towns to what is now the state of California. After it was established, the first half of the California Trail followed the same corridor of networked river valley trails as the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, namely the valleys of the Platte, North Platte, and Sweetwater rivers to Wyoming. The trail has several splits and cutoffs for alternative routes around major landforms and to different destinations, with a combined length of over 5,000 mi (8,000 km).
Donner Memorial State Park is a state park of California, US, preserving the site of the Donner Camp, where members of the ill-fated Donner Party were trapped by weather during the winter of 1846–1847. Caught without shelter or adequate supplies, members of the group resorted to cannibalism to survive. The Sierra Nevada site has been designated a National Historic Landmark. The state park contains the Emigrant Trail Museum and the Pioneer Monument dedicated to the travelers of the Emigrant Trail.
Railtown 1897 State Historic Park, and its operating entity, the Sierra Railway, is known as "The Movie Railroad." Both entities are a heritage railway and are a unit of the California State Park System. Railtown 1897 is located in Jamestown, California. The entire park preserves the historic core of the original Sierra Railway of California. The railway's Jamestown locomotive and rolling stock maintenance facilities are remarkably intact and continue to function much as they have for over 100 years. The maintenance facilities are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Sierra Railway Shops Historic District.
State Route 88 (SR 88), also known as the Carson Pass Highway, is a state highway in the U.S. state of California. It travels in an east–west direction from Stockton, in the San Joaquin Valley, to the Nevada state line, where it becomes Nevada State Route 88, eventually terminating at U.S. Route 395 (US 395). The highway is so named as it crests the Sierra Nevada at Carson Pass. The highway corridor predates the era of the automobile; the path over Carson pass was previously used for the California Trail and the Mormon Emigrant Trail. The mountainous portion of the route is included in the State Scenic Highway System.
The South Bay Historical Railroad Society is located in Santa Clara, California and operates the Edward Peterman Museum of Railroad History in the Santa Clara Depot, as well as the Santa Clara Tower and two other buildings.
The Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad (YMSPRR) is a historic 3 ft narrow gauge railway with two operating steam locomotives located near Fish Camp, California, in the Sierra National Forest near the southern entrance to Yosemite National Park. Rudy Stauffer organized the YMSPRR in 1961, utilizing historic railroad track, rolling stock and locomotives to construct a tourist line along the historic route of the Madera Sugar Pine Lumber Company.
The Death Valley '49ers were a group of pioneers from the Eastern United States that endured a long and difficult journey during the late 1840s California Gold Rush to prospect in the Sutter's Fort area of the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada in California. Their route from Utah went through the Great Basin Desert in Nevada, and Death Valley and the Mojave Desert in Southern California, in attempting to reach the Gold Country.
The Stephens–Townsend–Murphy Party consisted of ten families who migrated from Iowa to California prior to the Mexican–American War and the California Gold Rush. The Stephens Party is significant in California history because they were the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada during the expansion of the American West. In 1844, they pioneered the first route at or near what was later named Donner Pass. The crossing was a year before the third expedition of John Charles Fremont, two years before the Donner Party, and five years before the 1848–49 Gold Rush. Three other known European exploration crossings of the Sierra Nevada had previously occurred at points south of this however, including Fremont's second expedition the previous winter, at Carson Pass.
Elijah Stephens also spelled Elisha Stevens was a blacksmith and trapper who was born in South Carolina. In 1844, he left Council Bluffs, Iowa as the captain of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party, the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada mountains into Alta California. He then moved to Cupertino, California, in 1848. Stevens Creek is named after him.
The Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum is a historical museum located in Sunnyvale, California. It is a replica of the original Martin Murphy House.
Rancho Pastoría de las Borregas was a 9,066-acre (36.69 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California, United States, given in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Francisco Estrada. The name means "Ranch of the Ewe/Lamb Pasture" in Spanish. The rancho lands encompassed the present day cities of Sunnyvale and Mountain View.
Rancho Ojo de Agua de la Coche was a 8,927-acre (3,613 ha) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1835 by Governor José Figueroa to Juan María Hernandez. The name means "pig's spring". The grant extended south from Rancho Laguna Seca (Alvires) between Coyote Creek and Llagas Creek, and encompassed present-day Morgan Hill.
Rancho La Purísima Concepción was a 4,439-acre (17.96 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Santa Clara County, California given in 1840 by Governor Juan Alvarado to José Gorgonio and his son José Ramon, Ohlone Native Americans. The granted extended from Matadero Creek to Adobe Creek and encompassed present day Los Altos Hills.
Purisima Creek is a 2-mile-long (3.2 km) eastward-flowing stream originating in Los Altos Hills in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is a tributary of Adobe Creek which it joins just after entering Los Altos.
Martin Murphy may refer to:
Martin Creek, known locally as Dennis Martin Creek, is a 1.4-mile-long (2.3 km) north by northeastward-flowing stream originating just east of Skyline Boulevard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, near the community of Skylonda in San Mateo County, California. It flows through the town of Woodside before crossing Portola Road and joining Sausal Creek on Stanford University lands just across the border from Woodside. Sausal Creek enters Searsville Reservoir, which flows to San Francisco Bay via San Francisquito Creek.
Murphy's Ranch, also called Murphy's Corral, is a historical site in Elk Grove, Sacramento County, California. The site of Murphy's Ranch is a California Historical Landmark No. 680 listed on May 11, 1959. At Murphy's Ranch on June 10, 1846, was the start of the Bear Flag Revolt and Bear Flag Rebellion.