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Garage Birthplace of Apple is a 'Bit of a Myth,' Wozniak Says

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www.losaltosca.govIn 2013, Los Altos' Historic Commission called Steve Jobs' boyhood home a historic resource.
Say it ain't so, Woz.

The rags-to-riches story of Apple (AAPL) computer starting in the garage of Steve Jobs' Los Altos boyhood home is "a bit of a myth," says Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

The Woz told Bloomberg TV that the famous garage, heralded as the birthplace of the Apple empire, was really only a staging place where he'd take finished computers and "make them work."

"The garage represents us better than anything else, but we did no designs there," Wozniak said. "We would drive finished products to the garage, make them work, then drive them to the store [in Mountain View, Calif.] that paid us cash." The first Apple computers sold retail for $666.66 each, netting Jobs and Woziak about $250 profit, Woziak said.

Nothing Productive? Really?

Wozniak said the garage never housed a bustling workforce of groundbreaking geeks. "There were hardly ever more than two people in the garage, and mostly they were just sitting around doing nothing productive."

Apple Inc. Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Interview
David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesApple co-founder Steve Wozniak
In 2013, the Los Altos Historic Commission declared Jobs' ranch home on 2066 Crist Drive a historic resource, which means any renovations must be reviewed by the city.

The commission chose the property, built in 1952, because it is where "the Apple Computer Company was founded and the first 50 to 100 Apple computers were assembled," according to commission documents. The designation means the property is eligible for listing on the California Register of Historic Resources and the National Register of Historic Places.

Contrast this to another famous garage. Ten years ago, Hewlett-Packard (HP) returned the garage at 367 Addison Ave., Palo Alto, to conditions much as they were in 1939, when Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard established their partnership -- and some say birthed the whole Silicon Valley.

 

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