The Sunnyvale Sun

Cover Story

Photograph courtesy of the Sunnyvale Historical Society

A mailman in the 1930s stops at a postal box across from the Sunnyvale Theatre.

Now and Then

The downtown street reßects its Irish roots

By Stephen Baxter

For scores of St. Patrick's Day revelers, Murphy Avenue offers three Irish pubs within stumbling distance--Murphy's Law, Fibbar Magee's and Scruffy Murphy's. For some Sunnyvale historians, the street tells a story of the city.

As the 100 block of S. Murphy prepares to be shamrocked on March 17, the Sunnyvale Historical Society loaned The Sun a few archival photographs of the street to offer a window to its past--and its Irish roots.

Murphy Avenue was named for Martin Murphy Jr., who was born in Ireland. In 1850, he bought 4,800 acres from what is now Mountain View to San Jose. Murphy secured a stop on the railroad line not far from the present Sunnyvale Caltrain station, and in the decades that followed a town formed around it. Streets were later named after Murphy's granddaughters, Evelyn, Mathilda, Helena and Maude, and Murphy Avenue was called "Main." Three of his sons-in-law, Taaffe, Arques and Carroll, also earned street and avenue names.

Oriented to the train stop, Sunnyvale's first commercial building was constructed in 1897 on the corner of Murphy and Evelyn avenues where Thai Basil restaurant now stands.

It opened as F.E. Cornell's Country Emporium and post office. Murphy Avenue was paved in 1916, and the store became a candy shop, a coffee shop and then a grocery in the 1930s. Most of the original buildings on S. Murphy have been demolished and rebuilt, but 101 and 103 S. Murphy remain.

Murphy Avenue grew south and included bakeries, banks, salons, offices and billiards halls. Some longtime residents remember the 100 block in the mid-20th century as a place where children usually did not venture.

"When I was a kid, the 100 block was not a street that little girls went on. There were bars and there was a pawn shop," said Janice Havey, a former president of the Sunnyvale Historical Society.

Chiyo Winters, who has lived in the city since 1948, said she remembered many more bars, a few she called "disreputable." There was also a nickelodeon theater and the Strand Theater.

The 200 and 300 blocks of Murphy were replaced with a shopping mall in the late 1970s, and the city began to preserve city history in 1979. In 1987, the 100 block became a Heritage Landmark District.

Nearly all the buildings on the 100 block changed hands and served different purposes, but others stayed the same.

According to records from the historical society, Murphy's Law Irish Pub and Sports Bar at 135 S. Murphy opened as a tavern in 1924.

It was called Pastime.