Stevens Ranch Fruit Barn interior, History Park

The fruit barn at History Park is home to the exhibit Passing Farms: Enduring Values which examines Santa Clara Valley’s agricultural past. The exhibit’s curator, Yvonne Olson Jacobson, grew up on her family’s Sunnyvale farm with orchards of prunes and cherries. She witnessed the transformation of the Valley of Heart’s Delight to the Silicon Valley, and realized the importance of documenting the disappearing family farms and way of life. The exhibit explores the Valley’s fruit industry from the late nineteenth century to World War II. During its heyday, Santa Clara County produced more than one third of all the fruit canned in the world.