The
Santa Clara Valley was heavily populated by the indigenous
Ohlone people when the
Spanish first arrived in the 1770s. However, following the arrival of the Spaniards,
smallpox,
measles, and other
Old World diseases greatly reduced the Ohlone population. In 1777,
Mission Santa Clara was founded by Franciscan missionary
Padre Junipero Serra and was originally located in San Jose (near what is now the
San Jose International Airport runway). In 1843,
Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas was granted to Francisco Estrada and his wife Inez Castro. Portions of the land given in this grant later developed into the cities of
Mountain View and Sunnyvale. Two years later, in 1844, another land grant was provided to Lupe Yñigo, one of the few
Native Americans to hold land grants. His land grant was first called
Rancho Posolmi, named in honor of a village of the
Ohlone that once stood in the area. In 1850, Martin Murphy Jr. bought of Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas for $12,500. Murphy established a wheat farm and ranch named
Bay View. Murphy had the first wood-frame house in
Santa Clara County; it was shipped from
New England. In 1861, The
San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road was allowed by Martin Murphy Jr. to lay tracks on Bay View and established
Murphy's Station.
Lawrence's Station was later established on the southern edge of Bay View. When Murphy died in 1884, the land was divided among his heirs. Parcels of the Murphy land were sold starting in 1900 to real estate developer Walter Crossman. Fruit agriculture for canning soon became a major industry in the county. The invention of the refrigerated rail car further increased the viability of an economy based upon fruit. The fruit orchards became so prevalent that in 1886, the San Jose Board of Trade called
Santa Clara County the "Garden of the World". In the 1880s, Chinese workers made up roughly one third of the farm labor in Santa Clara County. This percentage reduced over time after the
Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. In the following decade, the 1890s, many immigrants from
Italy, the
Azores,
Portugal, and
Japan arrived to work in the orchards. In 1897, real estate developer Walter Everett Crossman bought of orchard land from Patrick Murphy to organize and develop the town, which he named
Encinal. He advertised the area as "Beautiful Murphy" and later, in the 1900s, as "the City of Destiny". Sunnyvale continued to grow and in 1904,
dried fruit production began. Two years later,
Libby, McNeill & Libby, a
Chicago meat-packing company, decided to open its first fruit-packing factory in Sunnyvale. Today, a water tower painted to resemble the first Libby's fruit cocktail can label identifies the former site of the factory. Also in 1906, the
Joshua Hendy Iron Works relocated from San Francisco to Sunnyvale after the company's building was destroyed by fire after the 1906 earthquake. The ironworks was the first non-agricultural industry in the town. The company later switched from producing mining equipment to other products such as marine
steam engines. In 1912, the residents of Sunnyvale voted to incorporate, and Sunnyvale became an official city.
Fremont High School first opened in 1923. The year 2023 marked the school's 100 year anniversary. In 1924,
Edwina Benner was elected to her first term as mayor of Sunnyvale. She was the second female mayor in the history of the state of
California. In 1930,
Congress decided to place the
West Coast dirigible base in Sunnyvale after
"buying" the parcel of farmland bordering the
San Francisco Bay from the city for $1. This
naval airfield was later renamed
Naval Air Station Moffett and then
Moffett Federal Airfield and is commonly called Moffett Field. In 1939, the
National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA, the forerunner of
NASA) began research at
Ames Laboratory. During World War II, the war economy began a change from the fruit industry to the high-tech industry in Santa Clara County. The Joshua Hendy Iron Works built marine steam engines, naval guns and rocket launchers to aid in the war effort. As the defense industry grew, a shortage of workers in the farm industry was created. Immigrants from
Mexico came to Sunnyvale to fill this void of workers. Following the war, the fruit orchards and
sweetcorn farms were cleared to build homes, factories and offices. In 1950, the volunteer fire department and the paid police department were combined into the department of public safety. In 1956, the aircraft manufacturer
Lockheed moved its headquarters to Sunnyvale. Since then, numerous high-tech companies have established offices and headquarters in Sunnyvale, including
Advanced Micro Devices and
Yahoo. The first prototype of
Atari's coin-operated
Pong, the first successful video game, was installed in Sunnyvale in August 1972, in a bar named Andy Capp's Tavern, now Rooster T. Feathers. Atari's headquarters were located at 1196 Borregas Avenue in north Sunnyvale. By 2002, the few remaining orchards had been replaced with homes and shops. However, there are still city-owned orchards, such as the Heritage Orchard next to the Sunnyvale Community Center. In 1979, an indoor mall called
Sunnyvale Town Center opened in what used to be a traditional downtown shopping district. After years of successful operation, the mall
started to decline in the 1990s. After numerous changes in plans and ownership, the mall was demolished in 2007.
2000s Sunnyvale celebrated its one-hundredth anniversary on August 25, 2012. According to the Bay Area Census, there was a total population of 130,885 people in households and 875 people in group quarters in 2000.
Downtown development In November 2009, previously closed portions of the main streets in downtown Sunnyvale were reopened as part of the ongoing downtown redevelopment of the
Sunnyvale Town Center mall, marking the first time in over three decades that those street blocks have been open to vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Part of the project involved building new apartment buildings, however during the
Great Recession the property was repossessed by
Wells Fargo in 2009; the developer countersued, leaving the project in legal limbo through 2015. The two office buildings are now fully occupied by
Uber. Mixed-use developments have been built at the former Town and Country location near the Plaza del Sol just north of Murphy Avenue. By mid 2015, new multistory apartment complexes had opened, including a number of ground-floor businesses, and the lawsuit against Wells Fargo was resolved in the bank's favor. The development was sold to Sares Regis in late 2016. Redwood Square reopened as a park in 2017. Many apartments are occupied, and more are being completed in 2020. A
Whole Foods Market and
AMC Theatres multiplex opened in October 2020.
Major businesses In the 2010s, Sunnyvale became home to operations from numerous major technology companies, including
Apple,
LinkedIn (now headquartered in Sunnyvale),
Google,
Amazon,
Meta,
Walmart Labs, and
23andMe. Google announced major development plans in the Moffett Park area in 2017 adjacent to
Moffett Field, with these offices ultimately opening in 2022. In addition, Amazon and Meta began leasing buildings in Sunnyvale in 2017 and 2021, respectively. ==Geography==