On Thursday November 14th, I set out with 19 Local Guides attending Connect Live 2019 on a walking tour of San Jose, CA. We started by meeting our awesome tour guides Carlos and Frances Wong from Visit San Jose, the city’s destination marketing organization, in San Pedro Square. We quickly set off on our tour to take in the sights.
The tour was a mix of past and present and I found myself in awe of all the rich history surrounding us. We began our tour at the San Pedro Square Archway. San Pedro Square is alive with history and this became evident as we walked down the street and passed the first restaurant that opened its doors in 1972 and then walked to the Peralta Adobe built in 1797. I was particularly taken by the Peralta Adobe, it is the last remaining structure from El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe and is one of the oldest settlements of Spanish California. Across the street from Peralta Adobe sits the Fallon House from 1855, which was home to Thomas Fallon, the first mayor of San Jose. San Pedro Square is also full of modern eateries and artisan pop-ups. I loved the four artisan stalls on the street that featured calligraphy, succulents, and flowers. Our guide told us that the artisans change every six months so visitors can always find something unique!
After exploring San Pedro Square we wandered about the city taking in the architecture and street art. Two of my favorite stops were the California Theater and the 100 Block Mural. The California Theater is a grandiose Art Deco venue that originally opened in 1927 as a motion picture house called the Fox Theatre. The bright lights outlining the sign of the theater took me back in time. Our tour concluded by walking across the street to take a look at the 100 block mural which was recently created by 100 different artists each painting a 3′ x 3′ square. Now that it’s complete, it’s being submitted for a Guinness World Record for “largest collaborative mural” (as in: most number of artists working together on a mural). In just an hour and half, we covered a ton of ground and learned a lot about the rich history of San Jose.
