Residents like to call their town a special place. With oak trees lining the main street, rolling hills in the background and many businesses nestled in small wooden structures, the downtown has a quaint feel that the town's leaders work actively to preserve.

With a population of approximately 43,003, Danville is known for its small-town atmosphere and its outstanding quality of life. Eight parks, with ball fields, tennis courts, picnic facilities, playground equipment and walking trails, offer family activities all year long. The Iron Horse Trail provides miles of paths for biking and walking. Danville's weather boasts nearly 300 days of sunshine every year.

Special events bring out the small-town atmosphere. The Fourth of July Parade and the Lighting of Old Town Danville are highlights of the year along with art festivals and holiday festivities. The Village Theatre offers live theater productions. The art gallery in the same building showcases local talent. "Music in the Park" a summer concert series, features local groups. When the Southern Pacific Railroad came to the Valley in 1891, Danville changed dramatically. The farmers built warehouses and shipped crops by rail in any kind of weather, and the residents traveled to and from Danville with an ease they had not experienced before.

John Hartz sold 8.65 acres of his land for the Danville station and granted land access to the depot. He then subdivided and sold lots east of the station, shifting the town's focus from Front Street to Hartz Avenue. Eventually, a bank, drug store, saloon, doctor's office and Chinese laundry joined the houses lining the street. The Danville Hotel originally sat across from the station and was moved to face Hartz avenue in 1927.

The twentieth century found Danville affected by the wars, the Spanish flu, the depression and new immigrants. The Valley became a melting pot of Chinese, Portuguese, German, and Japanese immigrants. They often began working in the hay fields or as cooks and gardeners, later becoming blacksmiths, landowners, teachers and storekeepers.

Residents worked diligently to improve their community. In 1910 a public high school district was organized and San Ramon Valley Union High School was built; a library supervised by Lillian Close opened in 1913 with l04 books; St. Isidore's catholic Church was first established at Hartz and Linda Mesa in 1910; and an Improvement League spearheaded the first streetlights and paved roads in 1915.

Danville continued to be farm country well into the 1940's. The whole Valley had 2,120 people in 1940, growing to 4,630 by 1950. Developments such as Montair and Cameo Acres were built, the water and sewer districts extended their boundaries, and the new I-680 freeway which sliced through Danville in the mid-1960's altered Danville permanently. The Valley population leaped from 12,700 in 1960 to 25,900 in 1970, to 41,100 in 1975 to 57,300 in 1980. The 1980 census showed that 82 percent of Danville's 26,500 had arrived after 1970. In 2000, Danville's population was 41,715. The days when everybody knew everybody else were long gone. But in 1982, Danville citizens showed their strong sense of identity by voting to incorporate their community, allowing themselves to shape future changes more directly.

After 130 years, the small settlement on the banks of the Creek has grown from a blacksmith shop to a thriving community - still changing, still beautiful and still special.