San Jose Water Works ( Now San Jose Water Company)

Beautifully engraved unissued certificate from the San Jose Water Works. This historic document was printed by the Security-Columbian Banknote Company in the 1970's and has an ornate border around it with a vignettes of a river with a waterfall, farmland and a city. This item has the printed signatures of the company's officers.






Certificate Vignette



Founded in 1866, with a single downtown well, San Jose Water Works grew in size and came to Los Gatos and bought out Mountain Springs Water Company for $20,000 cash and $24,000 stock in the San Jose company.

San Jose Water Company was originally incorporated under the laws of the State of California in 1866. The company was later reorganized and reincorporated as the San Jose Water Works. San Jose Water Works was reincorporated in 1985 as San Jose Water Company, with SJW Corp. as the parent holding company.

San Jose Water Company is a public utility in the business of providing water service to a population of approximately 985,000 in an area comprising about 138 square miles in the metropolitan San Jose area.

The principal business of San Jose Water Company consists of the production, purchase, storage, purification, distribution and retail sale of water. San Jose Water Company provides water service to customers in portions of the cities of Cupertino and San Jose and in the cities of Campbell, Monte Sereno, Saratoga and the Town of Los Gatos, and adjacent unincorporated territory, all in the County of Santa Clara in the State of California. It distributes water to customers in accordance with accepted water utility methods, which include pumping from storage and gravity feed from high elevation reservoirs.