History San Jose - Restoring the old San Jose-Alviso "Mudwagon" Stagecoach

San Jose’s History Park is a tree-lined, old-fashioned “town” filled with restored clapboard homes, a one-room schoolhouse, a firehouse, and businesses including a bank, ice cream parlor, livery stable, blacksmiths’ shop, printers' shop and the grand Palace Hotel. On weekends, Docents stroll in vintage attire. Trolly cars and antique vehicles transport visitors around the park. Visiting this unique place is definitely a step back into the early days of San Jose.

History San Jose, which runs the park, has the mission of preserving and enriching the cultural heritage of San Jose by bringing history to life. Over the years, History San Jose has become the repository of an amazing storehouse of artifacts that depict life in the Valley of Heart’s Delight from pre-settler days through today.

One recent acquisition was the San Jose-Alviso “Mud Wagon” stagecoach, a vehicle used in the 1800s to carry voyagers and the U.S. mail back-and-forth between the small bayside community of Alviso and the “big city” of San Jose.

A recent Farrington grant provided funding to completely restore the stage coach to its original working condition. Dedicated volunteer mechanics, iron workers, and craftsmen restored every bit of the antique vehicle, painted it to match its original finish, and brought it back to running order.

It is now a stylish addition to the line-up of antique trolly cars and runabouts that tour the park on weekends for all to enjoy. The stage coach will also be an important part of History San Jose’s education programs that seek to bring early San Jose History to life for local school students. As they tour the grounds of History Park in the stagecoach, they will get a real-life taste of what transportation was like on the bumpy, dusty roads of Santa Clara Valley in the early 19th century.