GILROY—Gilroy’s history is about a lot more than garlic. Take cigars, for example, and beer, U.S. Army rations, a cattle baron and a fancy mountain resort.
And then there are the bricks—hundreds of them if not more—that will help share 150 years of that history with residents and visitors for many years to come.
It’s all part of the Gilroy Historic Paseo Project, a public-private partnership that’s closing in the final months of a years-long effort to help revitalize the downtown and tell the city’s history at the same time.
The city purchased and demolished a building and strengthened the remaining walls at a cost of more than $1.3 million to create the passageway on the west side of Monterey Road between Fifth and Sixth streets. It was opened officially in July 2014 and is awaiting finishing touches by a citizens’ committee, which hopes to raise $100,000 for beautification.
Lead by former Mayor Al Pinheiro, the committee now is selling personalized bricks that will be installed as part of the finished paseo, a landscaped, mural-decorated walk though history that will link downtown pedestrians on Monterey Road to free parking lots a quick stroll to the west.
“It will tell the story of our town in its different facets, the times and eras of our community,” said Pinheiro, under whose administration the project began four years ago.
Another paseo north of Fifth Street is on hold for now, according to Pinheiro, who said he’s still pushing for that one. Its theme will be Gilroy’s sister cities all around the world, he said.
Paseo is a Spanish word that means passage or promenade.
Bricks for the history paseo cost $250 and can be inscribed with a personal message by individuals, families, organizations or businesses, Pinheiro said.
In addition to the bricks that will line the base of the paseo’s north and south walls, designers plan a mural by Gilroy artist Whitney Pintello and seven large history-depicting panels that will rise up to eight feet high and stretch along the walls from east to west, said Joan Buchanan of the committee and Downtown Business Association.
The panels will show aspects of the life and commerce of the city and its environs under the titles Early Settlers, Agriculture, Commerce, Hospitality, The Com-munity, The Garlic Story and The Cowboy Era.
Each sponsored panel will explore its subject in more depth with photos and words. Among the detail are James Culp’s 1870 cigar factory, Gilroy Brewery started in 1868, cowboy star Casey Tibbs, Gilroy Hot Springs and a 1920s mural of ranch life that still adorns the Milias Restaurant at the corner of Sixth Street and Monterey Road.
One panel gives a nod to the Gilroy Dispatch and its antecedents, which, interestingly, started the same year as the city’s first brewery.
“It will be a great service to the downtown,” said Pinheiro, under whose administration the project began. “It lends itself to a wonderful place to come and visit and get to know our history, that’s important,” he said.
Organizers included in the panels “the contributions of at least seven different nationalities who brought their skills and talents to form a ‘new community,’” reads a project report.
The panel sponsorships require a donation of from $10,000 to $15,000 based on the sponsored panel’s size. The largest is 16-feet long by 8-feet high.
Two panels still need sponsorship, Pinheiro said. Commitments for the others have been secured from the Gilroy Downtown Business Association, Rotary Club, Gilroy Foundation, Recology, Pinnacle Bank, Bob Dyer and Don Christopher, according to Buchanan.
Completion of the panels’ design work is expected within six weeks, when several city commissions will review the plans before they go to the Gilroy City Council for approval.
For more information about the Gilroy Historic Paseo Project, to make donation or to purchase a personalized brick, go online to gilroyfoundation.org/paseo.
