Agnews Historic Park — Attraction in Santa Clara

Friday, July 25, 2025:

The park is beautiful.

The one star is for the bathrooms being inconsistently locked or unlocked, sometimes they are open close to the park opening time, sometimes not until much later in the day, sometimes not at all.

Today there were two trucks of workers parked by the bathrooms from around 6:30 to 7:00am, and after walking, I tried to use the bathroom at 7:00 (which they were parked next to), they were locked. I asked if they had a key and was told no.

If the park is open at 6:00, and lists restrooms, why aren’t they unlocked at opening time?

Maybe this is why the park is almost always empty of people? Who wants to take their family to have a picnic at a park where you never know if you can use the restrooms?

Suggestion: advertise for a volunteer park host like the county parks do, if the city doesn’t have enough employees to unlock...

This is a hidden gem of the City of Santa Clara Park system. This is a public park and open to all during daylight hours. There are picnic tables, benches and lots of open grassy spaces. You can ignore the red "No Trespassing/No Parking" signs near the entrance as that only applies to the marked spaces at the back and the Oracle campus areas which are fenced off. Plenty of other open parking spaces along the main entrance avenue. Public bathrooms at visitor's center are currently closed due to...

This is a beautiful place to walk around! The place was formerly the Agnews Asylum. It collapsed during the 1906 earthquake and was rebuilt. The park is well-maintained with sidewalks throughout. It is part of the Oracle campus, but makes a nice short walk too. You can see the whole thing in half an...