Sponsored by Milpitas Charity Bingo.
By the middle of the 19th century, multiple branches of Bill Hare’s family had settled here in California.
Hare himself grew up in Sunnyvale, where he was always eagerly absorbing local history. Come 1990, he made what he jokingly calls “the long journey across Highway 237” to Milpitas. During library visits, by borrowing books, he soaked up some Milpitas history, but little did he know there was an organization in town devoted strictly to chronicling and preserving the town’s past…
Ten years later, in 2000, Hare and his wife Jennie bought a property up in the Milpitas Hills. On it was the building of the Laguna School, the first schoolhouse in Milpitas history, which dated back to 1865. Hare had learned of the school through his library excursions; it was highlighted in a book called “Milpitas: The Century of Little Cornfields” written by Patricia Loomis.
Soon after Hare settled in at his new property, the aforementioned organization reached out to him. They were curious about his plans for the property. A lifelong history buff, Hare said he was excited about owning an historic building such as the schoolhouse, and thus would dutifully protect its legacy.
Such was his first encounter with the Milpitas Historical Society.
Hare promptly joined as a member. As of now, he is the Historical Society’s president.
During his time working with the Society, Hare has taken pride in seeing an educational outreach program for MUSD’s elementary schools begun by fellow members Joseph Ehardt and Kraig Bunnell. The Society has also established annual scholarship awards for exceptional journalism and history students at Milpitas High School. The journalism award is named after original Milpitas Historical Society co-founder Elaine Levine, who along with her husband Mort Levine also co-founded The Milpitas Post. The Society’s other founders were Loomis, Ed Cavallini, Bob McGuire, and Leo Murphy.
As well, in recent years, the Historical Society collaborated with Milpitas Parks and Recreation on the creation of the multimedia program inside the Jose Maria Alviso Adobe.
Asked by The Beat about what the Milpitas Historical Society has in store for the future, Hare said, “One of the main goals of the Society has always been the creation of a city historical museum. Milpitas is only one of two cities in the Bay Area without one — the other being the tiny hamlet of Monte Sereno.”
He continued, “We actually did have a wonderful display at the Great Mall of the Bay Area for many years, an 85-foot glass wall going down the hallway of the food court entrance. Visitors from all over would stop and look at all of our artifacts and historical signage. When Legoland decided to build a location in the Great Mall, we lost that space, and all of our artifacts have been in storage ever since.”
Preserving and sharing the city’s history is not just a goal of the Historical Society, but also a point of concern. There’s an ongoing question as to whether or not younger generations of Milpitians will take the torch from them and keep the flame of the city’s history alive. Needless to say, the history of Milpitas is a book that is still being written; Hare pointed to MUSD’s new Innovation Campus as just one example of something that might someday be looked back upon as a trendsetter and/or an historic landmark.
“At 61 years old,” Hare says, “I am one of the youngest members of the Society. Many of our members have been with us for 40 years or more, and of course many…have passed on. We are hoping with our educational outreach that more people in Milpitas will become interested in how our city became what it is today, join our Society, and carry our story forward for future generations of Milpitans.”
That’s the thing about history: Outside of the young history buffs, most people don’t start thinking about history until they are older – “the way things used to be.” In Sunnyvale, they’ve preserved a bit of orchard to show how Sunnyvale used to be. The Alviso Adobe is a great start. The lot next to the library would be a good place for a Milpitas museum.