November 5, 2004

Images of a bygone era now available to a wider audience

New book features photos of historic downtown San Jose

“San Jose’s Historic Downtown” is one of the latest additions to Arcadia Press’s “Images of America” series. Its release this fall coincides with publication of a similar tile by neighboring Los Gatos, titled “Los Gatos.”

San Jose’s book consists of 200 photographs from the archives of San Jose Public Library’s California Room, San Jose State University Special Collections and Sourisseau Academy.

It opens with a quote from local historian Leonard McKay, “How will we know it’s us without our past?” For those born and raised in San Jose, the images with detailed captions will evoke nostalgia for the place once known as “The Garden City,” a market town that served the needs of farmers throughout Santa Clara Valley and an area once viewed as the breadbasket for the Presidios of San Francisco and Monterey.

Noteworthy milestones in California history include “first civil settlement” and “first American capital.” San Jose once bore the distinction of being home to the largest enclosed mall on the West Coast. That’s Evergreen’s Eastridge Mall.

The book is organized into eight chapters, each covering a different aspect such as “Scandals, Tragedies, Disasters and Calamities” and “Pleasures, Pastimes and Hospitality.” Exploring the library’s photo archives and doing the research necessary to caption each selection was a labor of love for San Jose Public Librarians Bob Johnson and Lauren Miranda Gilbert, co-authors of the book.

The research and writing of this book stretched over eight months and was done in addition to their primary assignment of working reference desks at San Jose’s King Library. Each gained a deeper appreciation for the manner in which San Jose has reinvented itself over the years, a process that continues through to the present day. It is an appreciation that they hope to share with their readers.

“We often noted what currently stands on the site, when we identified buildings or street scenes, so that readers could imagine themselves in the same location, thus gaining a greater visceral sense of our history,” says Gilbert. “I think the photos that will surprise people the most are those that show downtown after the 1906 earthquake,” adds Johnson. “While people know what happened in San Francisco, few realize that the 1906 quake also devastated a large part of downtown San Jose.”

The 200 photos contained in this volume represent only a fraction of the library’s archives. Those interested in delving deeper into the rich history of San Jose will find much to explore in the combined collections of San Jose Public Library’s California Room, SJSU’s Special Collections and the Sourisseau Academy. Among the California Room’s treasures are photos, maps and research files acquired from the estate of late local historian, Clyde Arbuckle.

“San Jose’s Historic Downtown,” released Sept. 28 is readily available at Amazon.com and Barnesand Noble.com. It is a great option for holiday gift lists and a fitting souvenir for out-of-town visitors.

Those interested in previewing the book may place a request to check out a copy through the library’s online catalog. Simply go to SJLibrary.org and click on “Library Catalog.” The book is currently “on order.” A current San Jose Library Card or SJSU ID will be required.