Down-home ‘birthday party’ appeals to Silicon Valley suburb
Morgan Hill – It’s a city that never aged.
Its proud residents still love a good down-home barbecue as if it were the only thing to do for miles.
And while there’s no denying how far Morgan Hill’s come in 100 years – especially as Silicon Valley has powered monstrous growth – it’s still fitting the suburb of 36,000 celebrated its centennial year Saturday with a nostalgic family-style barbecue that lasted no less than nine hours.
The event – called the Centennial Day Community Bar-B-Q and Birthday Party – drew hundreds of Morgan Hillians to the town’s Community and Cultural Center where they enjoyed food booths, family games and live music wafting over a grassy field. There was even a helicopter flyby to take choreographed photos of the crowd, who chanted “Morgan Hill!” in unison.
Somehow, 100 years after its incorporation and with light-speed technology now fueling the job market, many see the town’s countryside roots as a lasting element.
“It’s a great little family town,” said Terril Lowe, a New Jersey transplant who settled in 15 years ago with her husband and the couple’s infant daughter. “These kind of events are part of what makes it special. Everyone turns out for this kind of thing.”
The festive crowd had plenty to keep them occupied. They enjoyed the spoils of local beer and wine tents, barbecued tri-tip, Mexican entrees, root beer floats, shaved ice and the sounds of bluegrass and rock ‘n’ roll bands on the amphitheater stage. A soft yellow sun hung overhead, as July’s fearsome heat wave now seems confined to the record books.
Throughout the afternoon, city recreation leaders led children in an array of games as recreation coordinator Chiquy Mejia walked on stilts, dressed in intricate and colorful costumes. As the sun set later in the day, rock bands including the Joe Sharino Band played polished old-time riffs that traveled for miles in the warm evening air.
The most dramatic moment of the day occurred shortly after 2pm when a small two-person helicopter hovered a few hundred feet overhead. The crowd stood in perfect formation like a marching band, spelling out a giant “100” on the lawn, and shouting “Happy birthday Morgan Hill!” while lifting their arms to the sky. The chopper pilot made a few passes and then the sky-bound photographer waved good-bye as the crowd let out a triumphant cheer.
The aerial photography was arranged by Morgan Hill resident Tim Hendrick, one of many volunteers that pooled resources and hours of work to make the old-fashioned “birthday” party a popular success. The photos will later be included in a time capsule to be buried at historic Villa Mira Monte on Monterey Road, the house once occupied by prominent landowner Hiram Morgan Hill and his family.
The large team of volunteers that staged the event belonged to the Centennial Morgan Hill Committee, which recouped operational expenses through the sale of souvenirs and beverages. The group will host another centennial celebration on Nov. 10 at Villa Mira Monte.
The second-southernmost city in Santa Clara County, Morgan Hill sprang from quintessentially rural roots 100 years ago. The town was incorporated in November 1906 after about 100 farmers and otherwise rural residents voted in favor of crafting a local government. At the time, Theodore Roosevelt was the 26th president of a 45-state nation; Henry Ford’s Model T was two years away from changing family transportation forever; Orville and Wilbur Wright’s first airplane flight had only happened three years ago; Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity was one year old; and the World’s first animated cartoon film had recently been pioneered.
The “Town of Morgan Hill” quietly entered the fray as part of the rich agricultural region made famous by the novels of John Steinbeck. For a few generations, it remained a sparsely populated farm town until developers in the 1960s began to transform the landscape into what it is today.
Third-generation Morgan Hill resident Jim Xavier said the change was unavoidable.
“San Jose got crowded, so they started coming down this way,” said Xavier, who recently retired from the Santa Clara County Fire Department. He attended Saturday’s barbecue with a sense of nostalgia and a shimmering relic from the past: a fully restored 1926 Seagrave fire truck the city purchased 80 years ago for $3,400.
“Nothing stays the same,” he continued. “I know about 20 people here today. Twenty or 30 years ago at an event like this, I would have known half the people.”
But to a relative-newcomer such as Brenda Masterson, who moved to Morgan Hill six years ago to raise a family, longtime residents in the community still engender what she sees as a sense of local history more prevalent than in other Bay Area suburbs.
“There are a lot of deep roots in Morgan Hill that have stayed here and branched out to all aspects of the community,” said Masterson, watching her son play with other children at Saturday’s event. “It’s a great town for families.”
For more information on Morgan Hill’s centennial visit mhcentennial.org.
Tony Burchyns covers Morgan Hill for The Times. Reach him at (408) 779-4106 ext. 201 or tb*******@mo*************.com.
