Trails to Rails - Sunnyvale 1840s to 1920s
October 25, 2025 11:00 am to 4:00 pm
An exciting new event is taking shape for the fall: Trails to Rails – the story of Sunnyvale from early trails to the advent of the railroad in the 1860s and how it shaped the city.
The event will highlight this period of the city’s history with many booths from different organizations, activities, and fun. Already scheduled are
- “Old Greenwood” – portrayed by Frank Mullen, bringing one of the important scouts of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy wagon train to life
- "California Bound” (covered wagon and trail artifacts)
- History Expeditions Team
- Oregon-California Trail Association sharing stories about the wagon trek
- South Bay Historical Railroad Society
- Bay Area Garden Railroad Society running steam engines
- 175-year anniversary of California statehood celebration booth
- a printer’s shop
- live music by various musicians
- plus activities such as games, photo booth, story time for children, doll making, wagon and train crafting, fun with wool
- and a food truck from the popular Sunnyvale Golf Club restaurant Old Greenwood.
Stay tuned for more information and details in upcoming newsletters and on Facebook as the planning progresses.
Roaring Camp Rail Adventure: Created with Lego Bricks
June 10 to July 24, 2025
Relive moments of your childhood, especially if you were a Lego builder, on a visit to the new summer exhibit at the museum. – After the resounding success of the Gingerbread Village built with Lego bricks, our Holiday exhibit, the SHSMA is collaborating with BayLUG (Bay Area Lego Users Group) again to bring a spectacular show for the summer! The entire upstairs space will be used for a display recreating Roaring Camp, the popular park near Santa Cruz.
In order to create the scenery as close to reality as possible, the Lego users group took a field trip to the Roaring Camp Railroads park and worked from photographs they brought home from that outing. It was a conscious decision to depict the park as it is today – a tourist attraction, not as a period piece from the Old West.
BayLUG members collaborate on these displays which they create for museums and other organizations, each building individual pieces which are then put together to create the whole scene. The aim was to document every building and feature found in the park and recreate it with Lego bricks. Visitors will see a variety of buildings and landscapes, and the scene will be enlivened with running trains!
In order to extend the opportunities for families to see this exhibit, the museum will be open on three Saturdays as well: June 14 and 28, and July 19.
There will be an admission charge for this special exhibit of $5 per person/$4 for SHSMA members (free for children under two - must be carried by a parent). Parents are responsible for their children, and we ask that they stay close in order to preserve the precious display.
Vintage and Yard Sale
This year's Vintage and Yard Sale will be on
Saturday, September 13, 2025
from 8 am to 3 pm
in the museum courtyard
We are now accepting donations for the sale. This includes games, toys, household items and decor, jewelry, tools, linens and china/glass, as well as vintage items. We cannot accept: clothing, books, items in bad condition, big furniture, artwork.
Speaker Night: A Pictorial History of Palo Alto with Steve Staiger
Get ready for a trip down “Memory Lane” with a unique and fun approach by Steve Staiger from the Palo Alto Historical Association. Using a carousel of eighty slides that he has collected over the last forty years, Steve will share the early history of Palo Alto, Mayfield, Stanford University, and other points of interest. He will also discuss some of the notable people who played a significant role in the development of Palo Alto and the surrounding area, including Sarah (Montgomery) Wallis, who was a member of the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party of 1844/45.
Steve Staiger has been an Historian with the Palo Alto Historical Association since 1984. He grew up in Marin County and developed his interest in local history at Tamalpais High School, where he took a class in Marin County history and researched and wrote the first maritime history of Marin (circa 1967). Steve attended UC Davis, graduating with a degree in history, and then received an MLS from the Library School at UC Berkeley. Having worked for Bechtel in San Francisco for several years, he became a Reference Librarian for the City of Palo Alto in 1977, retiring about twenty years ago. For the last forty+ years, Steve has assisted people in their research of their families’ histories, homes, and other aspects of local history. For the last twenty-five years, he has been a part of the effort to establish a local history museum in Palo Alto which should finally open its doors later this year.
Time Travelers' Book club
Join us for the next Time Travelers' Book club:
Sunday September 7, 2025, 2 - 4 pm, at the museum
The time period is post-war: 1945 - 1960. Bring a book that was written during that time, or takes place in it, fiction or non-fiction.
New Kitchen Item: Dough Box
Visitors will find a new item in the kitchen display at the museum: a "dough box" from the early 1800s. These were used in big households to prepare the dough for bread and other baked goods. All the ingredients were mixed and kneaded in the trough, then the lid was shut for the dough to proof. Once the dough had risen, the baker could form loaves and transfer them to the oven to bake.
We are grateful for the donation of this tool from Mary Chapman, a Sunnyvale resident whose family had kept it for several generations.
