Friday, January 22, 2016

Now Levi's Stadium, once Spanish Land Grant



Now it is an exciting venue for football, and for a great halftime show. This is now, and what was then?
Someone lived there before…..

West of the former Santa Clara Alms house, between Guadalupe and Coyote creeks, on land formerly the Ulistac Nature Area, and before that Rincon de los Esteros, is a small but recently culturally important location once situated on a land grant given to Ignacio Alviso in Alta California days. The land grant was claimed by several parties as was de rigueur for a large Spanish Rancho. Later the location in question was set pretty much on the former Santa Cruz Division Railroad track…Francisco Berryessa lived there in 1880 (see census record) on land he claimed in 1852.

This land is the location for Levis Stadium, the site of the 2016 Super Bowl in Santa Clara. Cleats will tread where early ranchers, farmers, and train passengers once worked and played.




Historical maps tell the whole geographical story:
Enter any location that interests you--for the stadium you can enter
4900 Marie P DeBartolo Way, Santa Clara, CA 95054.
Census image from Ancestry.com 1880 U.S. Census record.