First Site of El Pueblo de San

Within a year after the opening of the first overland route from Mexico to Alta California, Governor Filipe de Neve authorized the establishment of the first civil settlement in the state on lands including and surrounding the present Civic Center. Lieutenant Jose Joaquin Moraga, with 14 settlers and their families arrived in the Santa Clara Valley to found El Pueblo de San Jose de Guadalupe on November 29, 1777.