History Park at Kelley Park

The staffs are super friendly. They really try hard to preserve the history. My kids love the trains and the Victorian houses.

This place is like going into a time machine. It’s great for little kids and my son especially likes seeing the old trains and riding on the old trolley. It is a really big place with lots to explore. Great ice cream too. People are super nice. It is generally free admission except for special event days — but the last special event day (Gold Rush day) was awesome! They had gold panning activities and other things that were a ton of fun.

A nice elegant and peaceful park. But I am only referring to the Asian inspired garden trail. A fairly long pathways that intersects with beautiful tress and pond creatures swimming about. I’ve notice this is a place for beautiful wedding photos! Would be neat to further extend this area with more stores and Asian inspiring crafting! Like a new Japantown! Only one could ponder.

Came here for a festival and remembered coming here during my childhood years. Enjoying the music. Venues. Entertainment. Classic ice cream shoppe and historical buildings. A trolley ride to and from parking and also a fun adventurous walk through the history of San Jose. Such a hidden gem here. Next to the Japanese gardens, happy hollow park and zoo, close to the Giants aaa arena and no eateries nearby unless you want taco bell or tai food. But a great place to bring the family and bbq at the parks. Relax in the shade. And enjoy what San Jose has to offer.

This park has a lot to look at. Victorian homes that were transplanted from different parts of SJ are located throughout the park. Too bad they are not all open for viewing. For some reason the Vietnamese home has been given a lot of attention. Not sure why.
I’d say the park as nice and pleasant as it is would be somewhat boring had it not been for the festivals held inside. This gives the guests something to do while taking a casual stroll throughout the area.
I think this place has more potential bu there’s something missing.

I went about 4pm on a Sunday (they close at 5) and the park was pretty empty. It was nice to be able to walk around and check out all the neat buildings. There’s quite a few photo ops. The only bad thing was all the buildings and candy shop were closed so we couldn’t really look inside. I would come back earlier in the day to check out all the things we missed. The center of the place reminded me of the Gilmore Girls town center. It’s just really neat to have a place like this and it’s FREE!

This is my first time here. I came here to take some portrait photos, but it was also nice to see all the interesting history of San Jose. The place is clean and well maintained, and the people are very friendly and greets you with a smile. It’s a Saturday between 1−4pm. There were not many people, which isn’t a bad thing. This place is great to take pictures, relax, and just enjoy nature as well as the history.
Parking on Phelan Ave cost $ 6. I’m not too sure about the parking lot near Japanese Friendship Garden.

I went here on a family excursion to walk around during the weekend. I’m one of those people who like to take long walks and I’m always looking for places that I can walk around at with my husband and especially now with my son. I only visited this place once and at first didn’t think it was all that interesting but decided that it was still interesting to learn about the different cultures and people within the San Jose community.
So the set up of this park is of old houses from the 1900s and each house is representative of an ethnic culture such as Portugese, Vietnamese, African American, etc and has artifacts and written pieces of information about these people. It gives up a run through of what the printing services and train would look like during that time too. There is also a train ride that you can hop on and it seems to be a big hit for the young kids as they seem to have a lot of fun riding in it. There is also a store that you can buy coffee and ice cream. I tried the cold brew coffee that is bottled in what looks like a beer bottle. It had an interesting flavor to it as vitamin C was also added to the coffee. Interesting mix.
It was a slow day and not a lot of people were at this park. There are park benches all around so if you get tired you can sit down. Since I like taking walks I would have to say I enjoyed this place and would come back here again with my family.

First of all, this may be a great place! I wouldn’t know since they put the wrong hours of operation on the web site and the signs out front.
Went there on Saturday. l we were running late, but managed to arrive just after 4pm. No problem, the web site says they close at 5pm. Parked in the parking lot, paid $ 6. Then found the entrance to the gate in the parking lot closed, and a sign says to walk to the street entrance. Wow, hot day and walked all the way around the block! I found out why this entrance was closed soon.
Arrive at the other gate, and walked in. No one was there! The gate was opened, and the sign says open till 5pm (it was about 4:20) but all the buildings were locked up, and no one was around! I flagged down a worker picking up signs on the street and was told they close at 5pm, but all the buildings inside, and all the workers, leave at 4pm! The gate closes at 5pm! He seemed to give some sob story about how the workers are volunteers so they can’t expect to work very long; fine, but don’t advertise you are open till 5 when you close at 4!!!
What idiot decided to advertise that they are open till 5? Who would want to walk around empty streets and look at the outside of buildings for an hour? All the displays are INSIDE!!!

The price was excellent for two hours of entertainment. My 11year old son had a great time milking a wooden cow, learning to wash a piece of clothing by hand, riding on a trolley and seeing all the trains. Almost all the volunteers were very nice and helpful. However, at the gold mining area, the woman who played the sheriff on July 20^th was very rude to my 11 year old son. He was given a prospector permit ticket and told to go to section 2, but the sheriff decided to belittle him in front of the other participates, then when she was told by the registering woman that he was allowed to participate, she ignored her and walked away. If someone like this is going to work around children, she should learn better communication skills or be placed in another area away from children. The ice cream parlor was clean and their prices were reasonable, but they need air conditioning in there, since they are selling ice cream. I loved all the interaction activities and would visit again, but I would not visit the gold mining section.

My bf and I came here today for the Portuguese Festival. It was awesome to see the Portuguese get together as a community. I definitely love their live band and oh don’t forget the traditional Portuguese dance! It was awesome! There were lots of shade and seats, and it was nice to see no one fighting because of it lol…
I walked out of the festival learning Portuguese words and familiarity with the food. Too bad that this festival is just a one day event. Otherwise, we would come back for more!

Great park to take your kids and family. They have many things to look at and tinker with. It’s a very large place. You can let your kids around like a crazy ADHD kid and no one will say anything.
I’ve been here anytime and each time it’s better. It seems that the Vietnamese portion is almost done.
Good park to just kick it. Go to the Japanese garden to see more of this beautiful park. It’s free.

The Japanese garden was Flawless lovely. I just wish there were some geishas offering tea and cakes. No food allowed:/ and lots of signs saying keep off the grass (ignored)

I’ve been to this park for a couple of bicycle shows and car shows. I have to say this is a great venue for those types of shows. The grounds are very cool, like a turn of the century down town with lots of streets & stores. Much nice than say having an event at a fairground.
* Parking — you need to park in the back of the park — not on the Senter side, parking there is only 6 bucks. I’m told near the gardens its like 12 bucks!!! There is some parking on the street but you have to get there early or get lucky to get those spots
It’s a few minute walk to the parking lot from the inside of the park so if you need to go back and forth it isn’t a big deal either.
They have plenty of bathrooms, for the shows that I’ve been at they bring in super clean porta-​poddies which is nice. There’s also a ATM and a ice cream shop there.
Also, there is a really good Mexican place on the corner of Senter that you can walk over to if you don’t like the food your particular event is serving (See my Mariscos San Juan review)
As far as the historic buildings & what’s on display I haven’t spent any time checking those out so I can’t comment.
I’ve only ever been there in July and it’s always been hot, real hot, damn hot, so bring sun screen/​hat/​something cool to drink.

Came here for my friend’s BBQ. You can rent out the place or try to camp out early and claim a spot I believe. The park is pretty spacious and clean. Parking is not free, however you can try street parking. Dogs allowed as long as they are on leash.

A really fascinating model for presenting local history. Each museum within the park is run by a different organization, so it’s difficult to know which one is open when and where each one is. You sort of just have to walk around and get the feel of the place– which is enjoyable and engaging for families with kids especially!
They have tons of great weekend events, and their school programs for kids are booked a full year in advance!
This is a place every San Jose resident should check out at least once. It’s free during the week, and there’s a minimal admission fee over the weekend… So you have no excuse!

Awesome place with lots of «History»!!!
Hahaha!
Had my company picnic here.
They should do guided tours here though so that people can better appreciate it.

I came here for the Taco Festival of Innovation this weekend, and what a nice little park this was. I didn’t get a chance to explore as much of the park as I wanted, since I was there primarily for the taco festival, but it was a really neat place. As someone who is a fan of history it was neat to see that they have moved all sorts of old historic buildings to the park.
The biggest highlight was having ice cream at O’Brien’s, which serves some fantastically delicious ice cream!

Not only did I have my wedding here last year but I also had my baby shower this month at the Firehouse. The room was an affordable price, it accommodated over 60 guest and they provide chairs and tables.
definitely a unique place to host a small event.

Went to Dia de Portugal at History Park, SJ. It’s once a year always the 2^nd Sat in June. I went Sat 6÷12÷10 on a very warm day.
Parking was $ 6, but other places around the area was FREE, had to walk a little bit.
There were booths where people sold things, artists tent, a book fair, a kids jumpie thing, face painting, raffle booth, Portugese food & drinks being sold, live music & dancing.
Food we tried: Lingusa (Portugese smoked sausage) $ 4 — ok, octopus stew w/​some bread — just ok. Portugese doughnut $ 1 — it’s huge & round, B. said was chewy.
I watched the parade at 1 – 1:45pm. It’s lots of bands, girls in fancy dresses, some cute, tiny cars, saw SJ Council member Sam Liccardo.
Watched 3 cooking demos. Brazil dessert; Everything you want to know about Lingusa; a Caldo Verde (potato w/​kale soup).
Went to the Portugese Museum — it’s small, worth going to look around. Second time inside.
Didn’t ride the train, but it’s only 20 min RT & fun.
Worth checking out at least once.