History of Vieira Park - San Jose, CA - Signs of History on Waymarking.com

The Vieira family and their ancestors have owned and lived on Communications Hill since 1896, when José Azevedo purchases nearly 100 acres of ranch land on the San Juan Bautista Hills in the middle of Santa Clara Valley. José was a Portuguese immigrant from Sao Jorge island in nine-island Azores archipelago. In 1903, José married Senhorinha Dos Almos, also an immigrant from Sao Jorge. Together they had four children; two sons, José and Julio, died as infants, José himself died of influenza just a month after paying the balance of their debt on the ranch in 1915. Senhorinha never remarried. She raised her to daughters Mary Helen and Adeline, living off the land.

In 1924, Mary Helen married Joseph Machado, an immigrant from Faial island in the Azores. Joseph built a little house at the corner of Hillsdale and Navaez in which they lived for more than 40 years. Mary Helen and Joseph had their only daughter, Dolores, 15 years after they are married. The couple worked in the canneries of Santa Clara Valley until they retired. Adeline married John Mello and adopted their daughter Marilyn, raising her on the ranch as well.

In 1958, Dolores married Batista S Vieira, an immigrant from Sao Jorge Island, as had been her maternal grandparents. Batista worked as a dairy milker before they were married; he milked cows a dairy on the north side of Communications Hill. Batista and Dolores chose to live on the ranch and raise their children there as well. When Batista's and Dolores' son Davide was born, four generations were living on the ranch. On the day after Davide's sixth birthday in 1965, 95-year-old Senhorinha died on the ranch where she had lived for 62 years, 50 of them has a widow.

Life continued on the ranch. Batista was making a living in the construction trades. After a few years as a foreman for painting company, he and Dolores started one of their own in 1963. Batista and Dolores went on to have another son, Joseph, in 1966. After a long illness, Dolores' mother, Mary Helen, died in 1971. Later that year, Batista and Dolores moved from the ranch to reside near better schools for Davide and Joseph. The flat portion of the ranch was leased for an upscale mobile home park in the mid-1970s. Davide began his professional career at one of the valley's pioneering high-tech companies in 1981.

Batista and Dolores struck a deal with KB Home for the upper acreage of the ranch and the development of Tuscany Hills in 2004. 30 acres of the original hundred purchased my José Azevedo in 1896 remain the property of Vieira family. Vieira Park commemorates four generations of a family's life; from ranching, to canneries, to construction and high-tech industry. The Vieira family's history parallels that of the Santa Clara Valley, their home for more than a hundred years.

Group that erected the marker: City of San Jose Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary: Grassina St San Jose, CA USA URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed

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