Published in the March 5- 18, 2014 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Mike Monroe
Mike Monroe
It is a beautiful spring morning, the recent winter rains have given the hillside grasses a well needed watering and the wildflowers are in magnificent display. Morgan and Diana Hill are staying at their newly completed country home with their two-year-old daughter Diane away from the high society life in San Francisco. It is 1886. Diana’s father, Daniel Murphy, had passed away in 1882, leaving her vast tracts of grazing lands in Santa Clara County and Nevada.
While Diana was certainly not a “country girl,” the newly married couple decided to build Villa Mira Monte alongside Monterey Road with the railroad tracks not too far from their back door.
The six room Queen Anne-style house featured crystal chandeliers, Minton-tiled fireplace and 10-foot gilt mirrors. The front porch looked out over acres of Madrone orchard land and close at hand was the unique foothill peak called El Toro or Murphy’s Peak (Mira Monte). The original 4,000-acre ranch crossed the valley floor to the eastern hills and was dotted with oak trees and native grasses much like a park or savanna.
The Hill’s were not consistent residents as they traveled frequently and Morgan took over the family cattle business in Nevada. The property was sold and subdivided during the 1890s as pioneering families were hoping for a new start as orchardists and farmers in the verdant southern Santa Clara Valley.
One prominent family, the Actons, built a home near the corner of Hale and Warren which eventually became the city of Morgan Hill’s museum. The Acton House was first moved to Main Street where our public library now stands and then to the Villa Mira Monte property. What we call Morgan Hill today originally was part of Burnett Township, later called Madrone, almost called Huntington, and in 1906 became our incorporated city named after Diana and Hiram Morgan Hill’s ranch. (By the way, our city’s namesake he did not like the name Hiram and went by Morgan.)
Today, the property represents a wonderful vestige of our community’s heritage. The Morgan Hill Historical Society owns and cares for the site which now includes the Centennial History Trail and an expansive rose garden with more than 300 rose bushes awaiting us to admire them. The Acton House Museum and Villa Mira Monte will be open for us to enjoy and explore. Please join us for a pleasant morning as we stroll the grounds and remember yesteryear.
