The Corn Palace, not South Dakota, the one in Silicon Valley

The buildings are getting closer to our favorite Valley of Heart’s Delight Produce Stand.  Sunnyvale’s Corn Palace may soon disappear.  I stopped by to take pictures.  

The Corn Palace, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara CA

 Of course, it is not like the famous Corn Palace in South Dakota, it is a symbol of yesteryear dating back to 1926 – and as they say, if the walls could talk, oh, what stories they would tell.

“The one good thing about the Silicon Valley parking lot commute mornings and evenings on Lawrence Expressway is this small open-air structure with fresh produce in front of a backdrop of acres of corn,”  Daniel Hindin writes in Sunnyvale’s Sun news article, Way We Were – Corn Palace in 2000.

Joe and Ben Francia co-owned this 20-acre farm along with farm land in Mountain View and in the Salinas Valley.  At 80 years in the year 2000, the Francia Brothers recall the history and growth of our area in this article. Even with many offers on this golden piece of real estate in Silicon Valley, neither one considered giving up life as they knew it. It was in 2005 – 2007 when one of the brothers passed away that a family decision overrode the other brother to keep their wishes and not let go.  And,  it appears there were ill feelings about this.  

The new residential buildings get closer. 

Progress ... in Silicon Valley

 I pulled this history together from three sources - talking with an older gentleman at the Corn Palace (he recently got out of the hospital after a long illness) and very happy to return to work at his beloved Palace, from the 2000 Sun article, and a Corn Palace blog post written in 2007. 

The gentleman told his story of this history word for word (before I read the article) as if it just happened. 

I also found this short video taken in the actual fields behind the building with excellent commentary of this area. 

Corn Palace Video is below.

What is your favorite story of yesteryear? 

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Let's salute The Corn Palace –Sunnyvale, CA.  One of  our last acres of agriculture in Silicon Valley ~ The Fun Tour Guru

 

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Silicon Valley Where Past & Present Collides: Do You Remember National Semiconductor?

Early Silicon Valley History with our Semiconductor Industry 

I am active reading local articles in the Mercury News about our Silicon Valley history because of our new neighborhood center construction in Mountain View, CA, The Village at San Antonio Center.  On this land of the new neighborhood plan lies an old, neglected, one story building, which holds the story of a significant event of our technology history. (Editor's Note: this building was torn down - 2016 - we are glad we created this video)
 
Today, Silicon Valley is a blend of companies.  Don't forget that our region was coined Silicon Valley from a journalist because of the many semiconductor companies created through 1940s to 1970s.  

I was on my way home from an event in San Francisco last week, when I looked at the time on my car clock, there was still time to make it, so I decided to go undercover to a city council meeting because I was curious of what was happening with these plans.  I went to the Mountain View City Council Study Meeting. I walked away with a new understanding of their plans.

I listened closely to the members of this City Council as they made valid comments, concerns, and approaches about how the building plans should go forward. They listened to architect planners and to the public.  Most of the members seem to want to keep the same quaint Mountain View flavor and with local retail businesses even as they enter into the new modern neighborhood.

My only focus is to save this one building. I learned a great deal about this awesome new neighborhood transition that is coming and that there were many other concerns too.

I do know there is a way to save and protect one piece of Silicon Valley history, and revitalize the old building of Shockley Semiconductor - keep as a museum where people may learn essential ingredients of how this Valley began - and still build our new neighborhood around our history.  Let people walk and ride their bikes past it everyday. (See photos and video of this site in link above)

The activities on this location led to several developments in the semiconductor industry.  Workers left Shockley Semiconductor and created Fairchild Semiconductor as the second generation of this industry.  Several familiar corporate companies were created from business people who worked at Fairchild.  Three significant companies were Advanced Micro, Intel, and National Semiconductor.

A company I recently watched transition in the past few years is National Semiconductor. It was acquired by yet another company.  I took pictures to remember this. 

From National Semiconductor to Texas Instruments - Image by D West

The National Semiconductor corporate campus is still the same, has new paint and fresh updates, and now a new sign change with new owners. 

Early Days of Technology and Semiconductor Industry

National Semiconductor actually started in 1959 in Danbury, CT, to provide transistors for second generation computers.  They moved to the west coast because of an acquisition of a small integrated circuit company, Molectro. 

A year later, a former executive of Fairchild Semiconductor, Charles Sporck, became CEO and moved into a single-building with a leaking roof in Santa Clara.  Sporck led the team through this early period which made him the CEO with the longest tenure (during this period). 

National Semiconductor on Kifer - Image by D West

Highlights of 1968 - 1983 period

• Increased revenues to $1 billion by 1983, making National Semiconductor the first Silicon Valley company to surpass the $1 Billion milestone
• Expansion in Europe and Malaysia
• Move to the current site on Kifer Road, Santa Clara

Insiders interest: 
National Semiconductor acquired Fairchild Semiconductor sites located in Maine and State of Washington in 1987 

The company was reorganized and transformed in the 1990s.  Today: National Semiconductor was acquired by Texas Instruments in 2011.   

Will our Past and Present get to collide and stay together
 in Silicon Valley? ~ The Fun Tour Guru 

Comments are welcome... 
 

Silicon Valley history dates and stories are from the book "The Making of Silicon Valley : A One Hundred Year Renaissance".