Apple's Original Garage - 2066 Crist Drive

Stop on Silicon Valley Tech Heritage Tour, a free self-guided tour.

The Los Altos garage where Apple Computer was born stands as one of Silicon Valley's most iconic locations. Steve Jobs grew up in this modest ranch house owned by his adoptive parents, Paul and Clara Jobs. In 1976, Jobs convinced his friend Steve Wozniak, who had designed an innovative personal computer, to start a company. Along with Ronald Wayne (who sold his 10% stake for $800 just days later), they founded Apple Computer Company on April 1, 1976. In the garage and Jobs' bedroom, they assembled the first 50 Apple I computers to fulfill an order from local computer store The Byte Shop. Wozniak built the computers by hand while Jobs handled sales and marketing. Each Apple I sold for $666.66. The garage workspace was cramped and basic, but it allowed them to bootstrap their company without outside investment initially. By 1977, they'd developed the more user-friendly Apple II, which became hugely successful. The property was designated a historic site in 2013. Though privately owned and not open to the public, the garage remains a powerful symbol of how transformative companies can emerge from modest beginnings. The Apple garage story, while somewhat mythologized (much work happened elsewhere), represents the democratization of computing - Jobs' vision that computers should be accessible to everyone, not just hobbyists and corporations.