This is Bonfante Gardens, which I guess is now called Gilroy Gardens. It used to be the employees-only retreat of one of the most employee-centric employers I’ve ever heard about: the Rayley’s supermarket chain Nob Hill Foods (are there any of these stores outside California?). The Bonfante family were (and still are) very keen on giving their employees access to a culture and club of their own…so I believe the Bonfantes started their own union to negotiate against themselves on behalf of their employees, they built a couple of huge indoor swimming pools for them, a gymnasium, baseball fields, events center, parks, a private athletic club, basketball courts, spa, and of course, their own theme park. There’s about 14,000 Rayley’s workers today, and I believe the majority of these listed amenities are still private-access for them. However the theme park proved to be kind of difficult to keep a handle on and the Bonfantes sold it to the City of Gilroy in 2008, hence the name change.



