![]() The heyday of Murphy Avenue ended in the 1960s, when Sunnyvale Plaza was built on Taaffe Street and took business away from Murphy Avenue. The Methodist Episcopal Church, Sunnyvale’s first church, and the Mission Revival-style town hall (1929-1969) occupied two corners of McKinley and Murphy. The Bank of Italy changed its name to Bank of America, and other businesses such as the Strand movie theater, Redwine’s garage, and Seijo’s Depot Bakery were popular downtown destinations. Postal Service informed the citizens that California already had other towns with the names Murphy and Encinal, so they decided upon Sunnyvale.īy the 1940s and ’50s, Murphy Avenue had become a bustling center of commerce. By 1901, the township, now called Encinal by the locals, had grown sufficiently to warrant a post office, but the U.S. Several businesses were established on the street, including the general store with post office boxes, run by Fred Cornell the Bank of Italy Green’s Groceries and the Stowell and Spalding Building, which housed Fewing’s Department Store (Kirkish’s from 1924). On a hastily penciled map of 1898, the name was changed to Murphy Avenue, sitting between Mathilda and Bay View avenues, with cross streets of Washington, McKinley and El Camino Real. ![]() The downtown story began with developer Walter Crossman, who bought 200 acres of land surrounding the train station from Patrick Murphy (Martin Murphy Jr.’s son) to develop his “City of Destiny.” In the budding settlement of Murphy, or Murphy’s Station, of 1897, Main Street connected the train station with San Francisco-San Jose Road (now El Camino Real) and was nothing more than a graded dirt road. The main street of Sunnyvale’s growing community has seen its ups and downs through the years. The display shows tools from the first veterinary office, the first morgue services, items from Del Monte’s cannery, Ryan’s Hotel, Tao Tao’s and the Kirkish store. The exhibit includes a series of photographs and maps depicting the slow growth and development of the early downtown, as well as artifacts from the first businesses lining Main Street and the railroad tracks. That phase in the city’s history is explored in “Historic Downtown Sunnyvale,” a new exhibit opening at the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum June 30. “Murphy Street Scene” by John Battenberg, was part of a 1980s revitalization project for the street, which was finally emerging from a long period of sad decline. ![]() A blue metal sculpture that now graces the Sunnyvale Heritage Park Museum grounds was originally erected on Murphy Avenue.
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