From the gold rush to Silicon Valley, Morgan Hill has been
involved in the evolution of a century of California life. Often
thought of as one of the last rural communities in the state, the
world events that took place during the last 100 years affected the
lives of the people who lived here.
From the gold rush to Silicon Valley, Morgan Hill has been involved in the evolution of a century of California life.
Often thought of as one of the last rural communities in the state, the world events that took place during the last 100 years affected the lives of the people who lived here. But, for the most part, life for the people who lived snugly under the shade of El Toro Mountain led a simple life and worried about the day-to-day activities of the town.
Residents settled here from near and afar, looking for a prosperous life in a new community.
The small town known as Morgan Hill, a name given to once identify the home of its rich and famous residents, Morgan and Diana Murphy Hill, sprang into life when the Martin and Daniel Murphy entered the valley in the height of the gold rush. Daniel Murphy was known as the wealthiest landowner in the country bringing the city the notoriety that went along with the wealth.
The turn of the century started out in a big way as the famous Catherine Dunne Ranch was being subdivided and the growth of the area encouraged residents to incorporate into a city of their own.
While some residents feared an increase in taxes, city leaders pledged that taxes would be kept minimal and the residents would benefit from the incorporation. Voters approved incorporation by a two to one margin and the city was officially born in November 1906.
It was only seven month before this incorporation that the city suffered through the San Francisco earthquake on April 18, estimated to be 7.8 on the Richter scale. The number has since been down-graded to 7.6.
San Francisco endured fierce fires that destroyed 28,199 buildings, left 225,000 people homeless and, according to officials at the time, killed 478 people. That number has since been revised upward to almost 3,000.
Earthquakes have always been a part of life in the Bay Area. Just before the big quake, there was a series of short, jolting shakers that rattled nerves more than dishes.
Mary Gordon, a young Morgan Hill resident, who was awakened by the earthquake told her mother “I have no use for earthquakes.”
The rural country town basked in the limelight in the early 1920s with a visit from royalty when the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden visited Morgan Hill to dedicate Sveadal, a resort owned by the Swedish community, in the backcountry of Uvas Canyon – off Croy Road.
The event drew thousands of people into the town’s small downtown. The day began with a parade as Prince Carl Gustav was escorted to the newly built Skeels Hotel, at Monterey Road and West Third Street. He greeted the people lined along the streets and was presented with a basket of prunes, the city’s top commodity, by 9-year-old Norma Edes, whose father, Clyde, was the mayor at the time. Norma and her family still live in the city.
Despite the beginning of the depression, in 1930, Morgan Hill was prosperous enough to build a new city hall and fire department downtown on Monterey Road.
The land at Monterey Road and West Main Avenue was sold to the city by R.H Hecken and the facility was built at a cost of $14,500. (Washington Mutual currently stands on the site). The new city hall was dedicated Sept. 15, 1930, an event that drew more than 2,000 residents into town. Businesses were closed for the day and San Francisco Mayor James Rolf, who would become the governor of California later that year, attended the dedication.
Earlier that summer the school board if trustees approved a $10,000 expenditure to add a new wing to the Live Oak High School (the current Britton Middle School campus) because the existing building was inadequate for the increasing student population. The graduating class that year consisted of 38 students.
WORLD WAR II
With the war starting and a new boom to the economy In 1940s, the face of Morgan Hill was about to change again. The rural Monterey Highway (part of El Camino Real) was becoming inadequate to accommodate travelers driving north to San Francisco or south to Los Angeles. It was determined that the road needed to be widened.
Widening the street required moving the buildings that fronted on Monterey Road back by 17-feet on the west side, including the Old Millhouse Mall on the corner of West Second Street. Most of the buildings were able to be moved by horse with the exception of the Skeels Hotel. That building, one of the few with a concrete foundation, was not going anywhere. Instead the balconies and the front of the building were dynamited and the front wall was rebuilt.
According to old-timers, more than 40,000 cars passed through Morgan Hill everyday. The long stretch had no traffic signal and accidents were a common occurrence.
No sooner was the highway widened that the city had its first traffic fatality in 14 years as 86-year-old Gerald Burnett, ranch owner of the Barrett Ranch, was killed when he was struck by a vehicle at Monterey and Encino Avenue. A month later another resident, Armanda Petrocchi, 55, was killed when she attempted to cross the busy highway.
It wasn’t until Mayor John Telfer was hit by a car in 1942 at Monterey Road and Second Street that the state listened to the pleas of the residents and installed the first traffic light in the city to slow drivers.
World War II claimed 19 young residents who went off to war and did not return home.
In the 1950s the city moved along with the rest of the world as the Korean war began and the nation was insuring its civil defenses were in order. At the beginning of January, 1951, the city installed a civil defense siren at city hall and spent time testing the siren so that all residents in the city would know that is sounded distinctly different than the fire siren.
While San Francisco became home to the New York Giants in 1959, Morgan Hill residents were arguing over the amount of commercial growth along Monterey Road and residential growth in the area. The city was anticipating a 10-year growth of 2,500 residents. The school district was worrying about where to put high school students as Live Oak had once again outgrown its facility. A $750,000 bond was passed to allow for the expansion of the school that would include a swimming pool. At the end of the decade the city’s phone system was rewired to allow nationwide direct dialing to connect the city with the rest of the world.
The 1960s began the era of growth in the city. A new grocery store opened the decade as Gilroy’s Bonfante family opened its first Nob Hill store on West Main Avenue. The 15,000 square-foot store required 20 people to keep the shelves stocked and offered that largest variety of food items of any store in the area.
Residential development was on the rise and traffic on Monterey Highway required the road to be expanded to four lanes.
MODERN TIMES
Growth would continue to be the issue in the city for the next 40 years. There were two factions: one that wanted to see Morgan Hill grow with the surrounding cities and another that wanted to keep Morgan Hill in its rural state.
Beginning that growth was a new library and a new City Hall built on Peak Avenue in 1973.
Highway 101 bypassed the downtown and threatened the livelihood of businesses and fruitstands. Merchants were accustomed to revenues being generated by people passing through town.
Residential development on the east side of town replaced the acres of prune and cherry orchards, one of the last signs of the local agriculture business.
In the 1970s, Morgan Hill and the Coyote Valley was still, for most people, considered a lush farming region with the nation’s best prunes.
By the late 1970s, technological advances and inventions were being developed at Stanford, Berkeley and San Jose State. With the new technology, the emergence of start-up companies that would become international leaders were popping up all around the Bay Area, including a new IBM computer software facility in the Coyote Valley that would usher in the computer and Internet age. The result of that would affect the lifestyle of the Morgan Hill community
As Silicon Valley began to exceed its growth and the computer market found its niche in northern California, businesses moved south.
In 1982 companies such as Silicon Graphics, Sun Microsystems, Adobe Systems and Cypress Semiconductors were founded in the southern Bay Area. Two years later, Cisco Systems arrived and Sybase, Inc., emerged to compete with Oracle Systems.
And while these new companies were forming, existing Silicon Valley companies were launching cutting-edge products that would change the marketplace.
In 1980, Hewlett-Packard introduced its first personal computer. IBM followed in 1983 with its PC-XT, the first personal computer with a built in hard drive.
The creation of the Morgan Hill Business Ranch and the Cochrane Business Ranch that began at the beginning of the 1980s gave the city the economic base it needed to improve it economics as state budget cuts of the 1980s reduced the city’s resources to a bare minimum police force and fire department and disbanded the parks and recreation department.
But new technology brought new business opportunities and growth to the city, increasing population traffic that caused the city to tighten its grip on building as well as finding adequate resources to accommodate the surge in population while trying to maintain Morgan Hill’s rural identity.
When the schools were on double session, sewer capacity was reaching the limit and the population was growing at double digit rate, the voters passed their first growth control ordinance. Measure E (later Measure P) would limit building to 250 residences per year with a maximum growth of 30,000 by the year 2000.
By February, 1984 the city had run out of sewer capacity. It wasn’t until October though, that the city leaders announced to the public that there would be a moratorium on building until the Regional Water Quality Control Board would allow the city more sewer capacity.
By 1985 U.S. 101 was completed between San Jose and Morgan Hill diverting motorists away from the downtown. Earlier the freeway had been built from Gilroy to Cochrane Road causing motorists to exit at Cochrane and finish the commute into San Jose by taking Monterey Highway.
Growth control advocates at the time fought the extension of U.S. 101 fearing that the connection into San Jose would encourage growth in South County. To discourage growth, county planners agreed to the construction of a four lane extension instead of eight lanes originally planned.
In 1989, while residents were getting ready to watch the World Series Battle of the Bay, the Loma Prieta earthquake shook homes off of foundations, cut power to most residents of the city and rattled nerves. Morgan Hill was spared from much of the destruction suffered in San Francisco, Hollister and Watsonville. The earthquake registered 7.0 on the Richter scale and caused $3 million in damages to businesses and residences in the city.
In 1990 Measure E was replaced by a new growth ordinance, Measure P that would allow growth to increase to 38,800 by 2010. The new ordinance required small projects and senior housing project to be included in the year building competitions for building permits.
The 1990s continued to see a surge of growth to the community in population, student attendance and traffic.
The opening of the 1990’s saw turmoil at City Hall as three of the council members were recalled in a special election after imposing a utility tax on the residents without a popular vote. As several citizen watchdog groups began to take an interest in city politics, the City began electing a mayor instead of selecting one from the senior members of the council. The first mayor to be elected for a two-year term was Dennis Kennedy. The first election resulted in a runoff between Kennedy and Bev Freeman, both councilmen at the time, with Kennedy winning the seat in the final election.
As the century wound down toward the new millennium, Morgan Hill enjoyed a healthy economy with city finances more secure than ever because of a deep reserve fund. The general fund has excess revenues of $6 million and more than $52 million in excess revenues in a variety of city funds.
While the location of new schools and taking care of where to house students remained an overriding concern, the city and school district have formed a alliance locate schools prior to development.
Plans were underway to improve city streets and restore recreational activities and facilities that were eliminated during the budget cuts of the 1980s.
In 1999 residents passed a $72.5 million bond issue to build a new high school and elementary school and renovate the aging Live Oak High School. It approved a $147 million extension to its Redevelopment Agency for the building of a community center, library, aquatics facility, sports complex, youth center and senior center as well as to provide new roads and provide incentives to attract new businesses to the community.
With growth of the Internet and the planned development of Coyote Valley, Morgan Hill officials are expecting a continued increase in population.
