Kelley Park: San Jose's whimsical wonderland

By Maggie Beidelman

SAN JOSE -- Tucked in the middle of this city is a magical sort of place. A place filled with frolicking billy goats, shimmering koi fish and an old town replica complete with a winsome candy shop.

It's a place where visitors are transported, from the responsibility of everyday adult life, from the stress and pressures of modern society, and from the urban chaos of 21st-century city life.

The name of this haven? Kelley Park. Kelley Park, a three-in-one deal, including History Park, the Japanese Friendship Garden and Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, provides 156 acres waiting to be taken advantage of by any overworked, stress-prone college student.

Open lawns and hillsides lend themselves to picnics, frisbee and sunny-day naps. Gardens fragrant with cherry blossoms, crocuses and other fauna offer paths for leisurely strolls by picturesque ponds.

According to Jim Reed, archivist for History San Jose, "The park is rented for picnics, parties and weddings... an assortment of special events."

"The land of Kelley Park was originally owned by former mayor of San Jose, Judge Lawrence Archer, who willed it to his daughter, Mrs. Louise Kelley. At some point in the '60s, it was acquired by the city," said Reed. Since then, the land has been divided into three separate parks.

The History Park, a dedication to turn-of-the-century towns, connects contemporary visitors to a rosy-hued, simpler past when "running errands" consisted of visits to the general store, the blacksmith, the doctor or the printing office.

Victorian-style residences line the grounds, which are also home to the functioning O'Brien's Candy Factory and Ice Cream Shop located inside the Pacific Hotel, now converted into a museum.

"During the school year on weekdays, we give tours to grade schools, and as every fourth grader is required to take a course on California history, we get about 20,000 children a year." Running through town with chocolate ice cream cones and colorful rock candy, the park provides a place in which history weds leisure and play.

A saunter through this charming downtown may even be met with the familiar tune of "The Star Spangled Banner" traveling across the road from the nearby Municipal Park baseball stadium. The effect is almost disturbingly quaint.

A nod to the diversity of San Jose is present in this town with the inclusion of such institutions as the Portuguese Museum and Temple of the Five Gods. Next door to this fossilized piece of Main Street Americana is the Japanese Friendship Garden.

Native plants line the waters of a koi pond filled with hundreds of over-fed, multi-colored fish, swimming eagerly to the surface in the hopes of more hand-outs. Several benches cleverly spaced about the pond provide a relaxing place for solitary meditation guided by the trickle of nearby waterfalls. But as the name suggests, it is best to enjoy this experience with a friend.

If visitors follow the path outlined by the quiet stream of Coyote Creek, they will eventually arrive at Happy Hollow Park & Zoo, where an open-air, tree-lined amphitheater welcomes them to a world of imagination and maybe even a little play-acting.

The zoo includes an array of exotic animals, from Jezebel the Jaguar to parrots from New Guinea. But the rulers of this minute animal kingdom are the ravenous goats kept in the petting zoo, which will nibble delectable pellets right out of one's open palm.

The park also includes children's rides and a puppet theater. Grown-up guests may try to wedge themselves into the uber-desirable Danny the Dragon seat for a performance of the marionettes who will dance before them, dangling merrily from their strings.

After traversing the grounds of these three unique spaces, one may wish to enjoy a picnic or barbecue at the many tables and benches half-hidden amidst the trees and hedges. Hot dogs and soda pop, chili and cole slaw, this is the sort of fare best-suited to the park. It's all about lazy decadence and good old-fashioned relaxation.

Whatever your schedule, stop making excuses. Risk just a few hours to travel back in time on the nostalgia-inducing, refreshing grounds of Kelley Park. "If (university students) have any interest at all in their roots of what is now Silicon Valley and used to be Santa Clara County," said Reed, then History Park "is the best place to learn what used to be here before it was changed by technology."

Contact Maggie Beidelman at (408) 551-1918 or mbeidelman@scu.edu.