This is the site of the oldest continuously occupied
commercial lot
in Milpitas. There was a store built on the corner of the Mission Road
(now called
Main Street) and the Alviso Road (now called Serra Street) in 1855 by
Frederick Creighton.
Alviso Road crossed Penetencia Creek at a ford about 200 feet west of
the corner
which is why the intersection came to be located where it is today
(Penetencia Creek
was relocated to its present location, 500 feet west of Main Street, in
the 1960s
to help control the frequent winter flooding of the downtown district.)
It wasn’t long before the store was replaced with a saloon. It was here
the travelers,
ranchers, and traders passing through the area would stop to rest and
partake of
liquid refreshment.
According to Clarence Smith, nephew of John Smith and owner of the bar
until the
late 1940s, his uncle built the present structure around the mid-1890s.
The records
of the city are uncertain as to the construction date but typically
place it after
the turn of the century. The building can be seen on the Sanborn Fire
Insurance
map of 1908 but is not shown on the 1893 Sanborn map. In 1893,
the Godwin Hotel was located here but it is assumed that it burned and
was replaced by the present structure.
In the 1940s, Clarence Smith sold the property to the Campbell family
who renamed
it Campbell’s Corners. Although the property was owned by others the
name remained
unchanged until it was purchased in 1997 for use as a restaurant. The
new owner removed
the west wall and gutted the interior. In 1999 he applied for a permit
to demolish
the remaining shell but the request was refused. The above photo (view
is from the
northeast) was taken just prior to the the building changing hands in
1997. The building has served as a restaurant under several different
names since then.
Across Serra Street (on the right in the photo) from the Corners was
the location
of several hotels beginning with French’s hotel in 1857 and followed by
the Milpitas
Hotel. The fire of 1910 is thought to have destroyed the Milpitas
Hotel, as well
as a store and a saloon to the north. What occupied the lot between
1910 and 1923
is uncertain but after 1923, a restaurant of the first fast food chain
in America,
the Fat Boy, was built. (The Bob’s Big Boy chain has a legacy to the
old Fat Boy
restaurants.) When the last restaurant to be located there closed, Sal
Cracolicci
purchased the building and leased it to a real estate firm. It was
demolished in
1986 shortly before the city formally enacted historic building
preservation ordinances. The site is now occupied by a dental office
building.