At 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto and about a 20-minute walk from Stanford University, we find a house and above all a garage in which William Hewlett and David Packard In 1939, they founded Hewlett-Packard.

The house, which we had the opportunity to visit a few days ago as part of the HP Imagine 2024 event, was declared a “Historic Place” in the United States in 1987 and was also listed on the National Register of Places of Interest. A commemorative plaque at the entrance to the garden informs us that this is the place where the concept of Silicon Valley was born:

“This garage is the birthplace of the world’s first high-tech region, Silicon Valley. The idea to create a region like this came from Dr. Frederick Terman, a professor at Stanford University, who encouraged his students to start their own electronics companies in the field rather than joining other companies. The first product, an audio oscillator, was developed in this garage.

A replica of this oscillator is actually one of the first objects we encounter when we enter the living room of the house. Patented as a model 200Ahis great innovation was the incorporation of a light bulb as a resistor to stabilize the temperature of the circuit. This allowed them to simplify the device and reduce the selling price to $55, instead of the $200 that other less stable models cost.

The house, now converted into a museum, retains the atmosphere typical of the period in all the areas that can be visited, although there are few original features (almost all the furniture comes from props), apart from an interesting small documentary collection consisting of letters, patents and other technical material from the 1930s and 1940s David Packard lived in this space with his wife Lucille, who eventually excelled in many philanthropic activities such as commissioning. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford March.

Undoubtedly, the back part of the house is more interesting, where we can visit both the shed in which William Hewlett slept for several weeks during the first stage of establishing the company (extremely spartan, there is barely room for a bunk bed and desk work) and above all the garage in which the first firm’s oscillators, in this case retaining much of the original equipment.

Although, as we have already mentioned, the model 200A It was the first product of the company, actually the first success came after the launch of the model 200B who found Disney studios as his first client. The company obtained eight low-frequency oscillators, which were used, among other things, to synchronize the sound effects of the film “Fantasy”, and subsequently developed a system Fantasoundpredecessor of the most famous Dolby Surround.

In late 1939, half a dozen new electronic measurement products (including a wave analyzer) were introduced to the market and were a great commercial success, giving them the impetus they needed to rent their first office, which was located in Page in 1940. Mill Road.

In the 1960s the company moved to new offices in the same area on Page Mill Road and continued to grow by adding new buildings to the complex. Currently, 200 to 300 of the company’s employees continue to work at this headquarters, and it maintains its status as HP’s headquarters, despite the fact that most of its employees work at its headquarters in Houston and Seattle. The original offices of David Packard and William Hewlett are stored here as a historical curiosity, and according to employees of the multinational company, everything remains as they left it on the last day.