From a Garage in Palo Alto to a Hill in Loveland!

David and Lucile Packard got married in 1938 and lived at 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto, California. The small garage was used by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett as their HP workshop. In 1989 the garage was named "the birthplace of Silicon Valley" and made it a Historical Landmark.

In 1938 the Hewlett Packard Company signed its first big contract with Walt Disney to provide test and measurement instruments for the animated film Fantasia. Government and private contracts followed and over the next few years Hewlett Packard became a multinational and respected corporation.

In 1959, the company decided to open a manufacturing plant in Colorado, Dave Packard’s birthplace. The Boulder area seemed ideal to them because of its proximity to the mountains and a number of universities.  Paul Rice, President of the Loveland First National Bank and Bob Hipps, a local appliance dealer who later became Mayor, learned of their interest in the area and invited HP stakeholders to hear their pitch for their city as a plant site. With help from Loveland citizens, they convinced HP to select Loveland as the location for its first manufacturing plant outside of California.

In 2021, under the guidance and support of the Loveland Historic Preservation Commission, the City of Loveland contracted with Cultural Resource Historians to complete an architectural inventory form on the Hewlett Packard property located at 815 14^th Street SW, Loveland, Colorado.  The research conducted and recorded identifies the historical and architectural significance of the property.  A special thankyou to Carl McWilliams for his expertise and hard work on this project!

 Click here to learn how Loveland, Colorado

became part of national history!