Glossary

The words you’ll hear around Cupertino — places, history, weather and local ways, explained

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Architecture

Flint Center: De Anza College’s 2,400-seat theatre, dedicated in 1971, where the Macintosh was introduced in 1984.
Glendenning Barn: A 1916 redwood barn from a Cupertino farm family, kept and rebuilt on the Apple Park site.
Le Petit Trianon: The 1892 mansion on the De Anza College campus, built for a wine estate and now the California History Center.
Mary Avenue Bridge: The cable-stayed bicycle and footbridge over Interstate 280, opened in 2009.
Miracle House: Cliff May’s low-cost 1950s ranch house, built in numbers in Rancho Rinconada.
Woodhills: Fremont and Cora Older’s 1914 house in the hills, saved and restored inside Fremont Older Preserve.

Events

Big Bunny 5K: The city’s spring 5K and kids’ fun run at the Civic Center.
Cherry Blossom Festival: The April festival in Memorial Park celebrating the sister-city friendship with Toyokawa, Japan.
De Anza Flea Market: The student-run flea market at De Anza College on the first Saturday of every month.
Diwali Festival: The October festival of lights in Memorial Park.
Summer Concert Series: Free summer evening concerts in the Memorial Park amphitheater.

History & People

Arroyo San José de Cupertino: The Spanish name of Stevens Creek, honouring Saint Joseph of Cupertino, from which the city takes its name.
Baer Blacksmith Shop: The blacksmith shop from the Crossroads, recreated at McClellan Ranch Preserve, where the forge is fired once a month.
Elisha Stephens: The wagon-train captain who settled on Cupertino Creek in 1848 and gave Stevens Creek its misspelled name.
Home Union Store: The general store at the Crossroads that became The Cupertino Store.
Incorporation: The 1955 vote that made Cupertino Santa Clara County’s 13th city.
John T. Doyle: The San Francisco lawyer and historian whose Cupertino Wine Co. gave the town its name.
Juan Bautista de Anza: The Spanish commander whose 1776 expedition camped on the creek that gave Cupertino its name.
Pedro Font: The Franciscan priest, diarist and map-maker of Anza’s expedition, credited with naming the creek.
Rancho Quito: The 1841 Mexican land grant that took in parts of today’s Saratoga, Campbell and Cupertino.
Saint Joseph of Cupertino: The Italian saint of Copertino for whom the creek, and so the city, was named.
Tamyen: The Ohlone people of the Santa Clara Valley, who lived throughout the valley before the Spanish came.

Local Life & Customs

Cupertino effect: The spellchecker error that turned the word cooperation into Cupertino.
Cupertino Historical Society: The society and museum that keep Cupertino’s past, at the Quinlan Community Center.
Sister cities: Cupertino’s four sister cities: Copertino, Toyokawa, Hsinchu and Bhubaneswar.
Valley of Heart’s Delight: The old name for the orchard-covered Santa Clara Valley, famous for its spring blossom.

Nature & Parks

Blackberry Farm: A city park with pools, picnic grounds and a nine-hole golf course on Stevens Creek, named for Elisha Stephens’ blackberries.
Deer Hollow Farm: A working homestead farm inside Rancho San Antonio, with turn-of-the-century ranch buildings and the restored Grant Cabin.
Fremont Older Preserve: A 739-acre open space preserve above Cupertino, named for a San Francisco newspaper editor.
Llano de los Robles: The Plain of the Oaks: the Spanish name for the oak-covered valley floor Anza crossed in 1776.
McClellan Ranch Preserve: An 18-acre former horse ranch on Stevens Creek, with barns, a nature centre and the Baer Blacksmith Shop.
Rancho San Antonio: The joined county park and open space preserve on Cupertino’s northwestern edge, with Deer Hollow Farm and the trail up Black Mountain.
Stevens Creek: The 20.9-mile creek that gave Cupertino its name, running from Black Mountain through the city to the Bay.
Stevens Creek Reservoir: The lake behind Stevens Creek Dam, built in 1935, inside a 1,063-acre county park.

Places

Apple Park: Apple’s ring-shaped headquarters, opened in 2017, with a visitor center open to the public.
Cali Mill Plaza: The plaza at the Crossroads, on the site of the R. Cali Brothers Feed Mill.
Civic Center: Cupertino’s City Hall, Community Hall and library on Torre Avenue, home of the Big Bunny 5K and the Earth and Arbor Day Festival.
Cupertino: A city of about 60,000 people on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley, rising into the Santa Cruz Mountains, incorporated in 1955.
De Anza College: The community college on Stevens Creek Boulevard, opened in 1967 on the site of the Baldwins’ Beaulieu winery.
Infinite Loop: The street and office campus that was Apple’s headquarters from 1997 to 2017.
Main Street Cupertino: An 18-acre mixed-use development on Stevens Creek Boulevard, planned as the city’s first modern downtown.
Memorial Park: Cupertino’s central park on Stevens Creek Boulevard and Mary Avenue, home of the Toyokawa cherry grove, the amphitheater and the festivals.
Monta Vista: A neighbourhood in western Cupertino, the area’s first housing tract, whose name means mountain view.
Montebello Ridge: The ridge above Cupertino, also called Black Mountain, where the Picchettis and others planted vineyards from the 1870s.
Oak Valley: Cupertino’s newest and most northwesterly neighbourhood, beside Rancho San Antonio Park.
Permanente Quarry: The quarry and cement plant in the hills west of Cupertino, founded by Henry J. Kaiser in 1939.
Quinlan Community Center: The community centre beside Memorial Park, home of the Cupertino Historical Society and Museum.
Rancho Rinconada: A neighbourhood in eastern Cupertino of 1950s ranch houses designed by Cliff May, annexed to the city in 1999.
Seven Springs: A neighbourhood at the southwestern tip of Cupertino, developed in the late 1980s.
The Crossroads: The corner of De Anza Boulevard and Stevens Creek Boulevard, the old centre of West Side and Cupertino.
Vallco: The business park and later shopping mall named for Varian Associates and four farming families.
West Side: The old name of the Cupertino area: a 19th-century settlement at the crossroads of Stevens Creek Road and the Saratoga-Sunnyvale road.

Vineyards & Orchards

Beaulieu: Charles and Ellen Baldwin’s wine estate and label, on the land that is now De Anza College.
Chemissal: The 1888 spelling of chamise, the chaparral that covered the Cupertino District before the vineyards.
Cupertino District: The 19th-century name for the vineyard country around Cupertino, famous for its vines by 1888.
Phylloxera: The root louse that destroyed most of Cupertino’s vineyards around 1895 and turned the district to orchards.
Picchetti Ranch: The 1880s winery and homestead on Montebello Road, now inside a 308-acre open space preserve.