Sunol’s post office opened in 1871, and 41% of its homes were built before 1940
3 places in town are on the National Register, among them a historic district with 1 buildings. Below: 1 old photo or paper from 1969 on and old-book passages.
The Sunol post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Sunolglen (1871), opened inside today’s town and later closed.
2020 census: 922155 years
How did Sunol get its name?
Sunol, formerly Sunolglen, is named for Don Antonio Suñol, owner of Rancho Valle de San José.
The first Sunol post office opened in 1871 and the name was changed to Sunolglen the same year. The name reverted to Sunol in 1920. The town's name is in honor of Antonio Suñol, first postmaster in nearby San Jose and part owner of the historical Rancho Valle de San Jose land grant that once contained the site of the town. Thomas Foxwell Bachelder had large farm in Sunol and sold land in 1884 that founded much of the town.
Passages that mention Sunol, cut from the printed page as they were published.
History of Alameda County, California1883 · page 458Read the page →
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Township. True, gold, silver, quicksilver, coal, coal-oil, building-stone, sulphur, and marble have been discovered, but with the exception of coal and building-stone, none of these have been worked to a successful end About the year 1875, Michael Rogan, of Sunol, erected a derrick and bored for oil on the ranch of James Brown, about five miles northeast from the town of Livermore, where he found 'indications which grew more marked and favorable as the work proceeded, but on the fifth day the well, unfortunately not being cased, began to cave, and was abandoned, Rogan -not feeling like going to the expense of erecting the nec-
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Illustrated album of Alameda County, California1893Read the page →
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irrigation. Grapes were planted, and succeeded beyond expectation, and gradually tree planting has made its way until at Niles, at Centerville, and beyond the Sunol Canon, in Sunol, Pleasanton, and Livermore, there are excellent orchards. Most of them are yet young, but they bid fair to compete favorably with the fruit belt in the Santa Clara Valley. Most of the orchards are in the lowlands. They have yet to
Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.
Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.
Timeline
Sunol, 1871 to 1969
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
The Sunol post office opened in 1871, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).
What is on the National Register in Sunol?
Three places: the Elliston (listed 1985), the Thomas Foxwell Bachelder Barn (1994) and the Niles Canyon Transcontinental Railroad Historic District (2010).
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (3), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock), the USGS Geographic Names Information System and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
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