Morgan Hill sets off on a year-long celebration
The Morgan Hill Centennial is getting under way and the planning
committee has a year’s worth of events planned to recognize the
city’s 100 years of incorporation.
”
We started working in fall of 2004,
”
said Jennifer Tate, committee president.
”
Then all last year we put together our sponsorship packets and
contacted non-profit organizations about doing Centennial-themed
events.
”
Morgan Hill sets off on a year-long celebration
The Morgan Hill Centennial is getting under way and the planning committee has a year’s worth of events planned to recognize the city’s 100 years of incorporation.
“We started working in fall of 2004,” said Jennifer Tate, committee president. “Then all last year we put together our sponsorship packets and contacted non-profit organizations about doing Centennial-themed events.”
The history of the city involves more than the 100 years since incorporation, starting with a Native American tribe that inhabited the Santa Clara Valley for more than 6,000 years, according to the Morgan Hill Historical Society.
Much of the area in the valley, including current-day Morgan Hill, became part of a substantial land grant in 1778, under Spanish and Mexican jurisdiction.
The land remained under Spanish rule for nearly 70 years, when Martin Murphy moved into the area in 1845 and purchased 9,000 acres of an area known as Rancho Ojo de Agua de la Coche. As the family grew, so did the area they owned. Murphy’s sons and daughters eventually acquired 70,000 acres.
In 1882, Murphy’s granddaughter, Diana, the daughter of his youngest son Daniel married the man who would become the city’s namesake.
Though Hiram Morgan Hill and his wife Diana lived in San Francisco, they built an estate known as Villa Mira Monte in Morgan Hill as their vacation home in 1896. When the Southern Pacific railroad came into the area, they named the region Huntington. Visitors would always request the stop at “Morgan Hill’s Ranch” and soon the name Huntington was forgotten.
As the small community grew the idea of incorporation came up. The Morgan Hill Times printed editorials for and against it. Those against incorporation were mostly concerned about higher taxes. On Nov. 10 1906, local citizens voted 65-36 to become a city.
A hundred years later, Tate and her fellow committee members will remind locals of everything that has happened since with their centennial project.
“It’s a gift from the citizens to the city,” Tate said. “We will have a history trail that will be situated at the Morgan Hill House site that is going to be a great time from 1906 to the present time.”
Steve Tate and Roger Knopf are heading up the project. The timeline of sorts will become a permanent fixture at the Morgan Hill House, which is owned by the Morgan Hill Historical Society.
While the committee has planned a community reception for Nov. 10, they have already launched the centennial activities, starting with a New Year’s Eve celebration to bring in 2006.
“We already had our New Year’s Eve kick off party which was called Club 1906,” Tate said.
The event, held at the Morgan Hill Cultural and Community Center, offered casino games, food, drinks and dancing. Money raised from the $75 tickets will be used to fund the timeline project and the centennial days picnic.
At the event, the owners of Guglielmo Winery, which has shared in the community’s history for 80 years, unveiled a commemorative wine bottle for the Centennial. The label for the bottles includes a painting of downtown Morgan Hill at First Street, looking toward El Toro. Bottles of the commemorative wine will be available at local restaurants, retail outlets and at the winery.
Guglielmo has bottled 100 jeroboam-sized bottles, which hold the equivalent of four standard bottles, with a special gold label. The winery plans to produce 12 commerorative glass-etched Methusalem-sized bottles, which hold the equivalent of eight standard bottles. The bottles will be a special 2003 Santa Clara Valley cabernet sauvignon. The winery has plans to sell the specialty bottles at cost to local charities so they can be used to raise money through auctions or fundraisers.
The Centennial Days Birthday Party is the highlight of the year’s events. The birthday bash will include a community picnic, carnival and historical rides through town in vintage automobiles and cars.
“It will be a good, old fashioned country picnic with games and food booths,” Tate said. “We will have a historically-based scavenger hunt.”
The committee has invited past mayors of Morgan Hill, who will be honored at the August picnic for their contributions to the city’s history.
Centennial themes will be included for other yearly events including the Morgan Hill Independence Day Parade and Fireworks Display July 4. The theme this year will be “A Portrait of America.” During the Taste of Morgan Hill Sept. 23, the Arts and Cultural Alliance of the Morgan Hill Community Foundation will unveil a bronze statue titled “Waiting for the Train,” at the Morgan Hill train station, a throw back to the days when people called out for Morgan Hill Ranch.
Though the planning has been years in the making, Tate is excited as the events begin to unfold.
“This is the most fun we’ve had,” she said. “I thought I knew a lot of people in town, but now I know even more so this is great.”
For more information on Centennial Morgan Hill events, or to volunteer at or sponsor an event, visit www.mhcentennial.org or call 408-778-8305.
