The HP Garage: Where Silicon Valley Actually Started

367 Addison Avenue. A one-car garage with a green door and a brass plaque. In 1939, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard rented this space and turned it into their first workshop. They built an audio oscillator. The company they started became HP. The garage became the founding myth of Silicon Valley.

It's a private residence and you can't go inside. You can stand on the sidewalk and look at it. The white siding is weathered. The door is unassuming. The street is quiet. There's no museum, no gift shop, no visitor center. Just a plaque, a garage, and the knowledge that a trillion-dollar industry traces its origin to a shed where two guys with soldering irons and notebooks decided to build something.

Worth a quick stop if you're in the neighborhood. Don't expect spectacle. The whole point is that it's ordinary.