The Town Gets a Name

The village of Cupertino sprang up at the crossroads of Saratoga-Sunnyvale
Road (now DeAnza Boulevard) and Stevens Creek Boulevard. It was first
known as West Side, but by 1898, the post office at the Crossroads needed a
new name to distinguish it from other similarly named towns. John T. Doyle, a
San Francisco lawyer and historian, had given the name Cupertino to his winery,
in recognition of the name bestowed on the nearby creek by Petrus Font. In
1904, the name was applied to the Crossroads and to the post office when the
Home Union Store incorporated under the name, The Cupertino Stores, Inc.

Many of Cupertino's pioneer European settlers planted their land in grapes.
Vineyards and wineries proliferated on Montebello Ridge, on the lower foothills
and on the flat lands below.

After 1906 a lot more than grape growing was going on in Cupertino. Orchards
were thriving and new businesses established.

Cupertino Incorporates …

In the late 1940's, Cupertino was swept up in Santa Clara Valley's postwar
population explosion. Concerned by unplanned development, higher taxes and
piecemeal annexation to adjacent cities, Cupertino's community leaders began a
drive in 1954 for incorporation. Cupertino rancher Norman Nathanson, the
Cupertino - Monta Vista Improvement Association and the Fact-Finding
Committee, played important roles in this movement.

Incorporation was approved in a September 27, 1955 election. Cupertino
officially became Santa Clara County's 13th City on October 10, 1955.

… and Business Begins to Thrive

A major milestone in Cupertino's development was the creation by some of the
city's largest landowners of VALLCO Business and Industrial Park in the early
1960's.

Of the 25 property owners, 17 decided to pool their land to form VALLCO
Park, 6 sold to Varian Associates, a thriving electronic firm founded by Russell
Varian, and 2 opted for transplanting to farms elsewhere.

The name VALLCO was derived from the names of the principal developers:
Varian Associates and the Leonard, Lester, Craft and Orlando families.

Today, Cupertino houses some of the largest high-technology firms in the world,
like Apple Computers, Hewlett-Packard and Tandem Computers, and rapidly
growing companies such as Symantec and NetManage.