Some will remember the auction when the house was finally cleared out, and some may have been in the fourth-grade class that came to protest in 1961 before a bulldozer tore the old place down.

When the Sunnyvale Historical Museum's foundation finally gets enough money to construct its new building, the front of the museum will be a replica of the old Murphy House—a fitting tribute, since the house was built in 1850 for Martin Murphy Jr., often called the father of Sunnyvale.

After surviving the first wagon train to California over the Sierras in 1845, Murphy made his fortune as a landowner and by raising cattle and wheat. He established the 4,000-acre Bayview Ranch, the heart of which was his house.

Murphy's house was the first frame house in Santa Clara County—its numbered parts shipped around the Horn from Bangor, Maine because back then there were no saw mills in California.

The two-story, 20-room house became a social center. Even the bishop from San Francisco was a regular there. (The bishop's ornately carved headboard is stored at the historical museum at Murphy's Park.)

Parties there were more than lavish. The topper was when over 8,000 guests attended Murphy's 50th wedding anniversary party in 1881. Records show there were wagonloads of food, a massive barbecue trench, hundreds of gallons of coffee, lager, whiskey, even a freight car of champagne and wine.

After Murphy and his wife died, the estate was divided among the children. The house's final owner, Elizabeth Carroll Whittier, Murphy's granddaughter, died in 1954, a century after the place was built.

The city bought the house and the remaining six acres of the estate for $70,000 and planned to establish a park and a monument.

But the old place sat unattended.

In 1956 a small group of Sunnyvale residents met to establish a historical society, its main purpose to save the Murphy House. They boarded up the place and got it designated a historical landmark, which made the house eligible for state restoration funds. But by then the house had been badly damaged in a fire, trashed by vandals and was riddled with termites.

According to Chiyo Winters, curator for the Sunnyvale Historical Museum, the city didn't want the responsibility and expense of maintaining the historical landmark.

Though the small historical society tried valiantly to save the old house, a bulldozer came along in 1961 and demolished it.

The museum foundation is actively raising money to build its new museum. So far they have $800,000, half of what Winters says they need.

Most of the history for this article was gleaned from a two-page essay about the Murphy House written by Beverly Walz, reference librarian at the Sunnyvale Public Library.

The Sunnyvale Historical Museum at Murphy Park 252 N. Sunnyvale Ave., is open 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 1 to 4 p.m. on Sundays. For more information, call 408.749.0220.