Steve Jobs’ original Macintosh demo site is now rubble

The Flint Center being demolished — image credit: Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group

It was the site of the original Steve Jobs launch of the Mac and it lasted until the time of the M4 Mac mini, but finally the famous Flint Center Apple event site is being demolished.

It’s famous for being where Steve Jobs unveiled the original Macintosh in 1984. It’s famous for staging key Apple Events right up to 2014 and the launch of the Apple Watch.

Later, Apple would need larger spaces, and then later still it had its own huge space at Apple Park. But there were reasons to choose the Flint Center when Apple did — and it did so years before the Mac.

Three years, in fact. For the Flint Center was also the site of Apple’s first-ever shareholders meeting as a public company. The Flint Center auditorium at the De Anza College was needed in order to house all of the new shareholders.

That was in 1981, and while the size of the audience will have dictated or at least limited the choice of venue, the Flint Center had an advantage. At that time, Apple was based at 20863 Stevens Creek Boulevard, Cupertino, which was barely half a mile away from the Center.

This was one event you wish had the kind of blanket coverage Apple gets today. For according to various sources including The Pop History Dig, the shareholders’ meeting was not a happy one.

It’s even said that after being interrupted by the crowd, Steve Jobs departed from prepared remarks and gave a speech about respect betrayal. It isn’t clear who was supposed to be betraying whom, but not long afterwards, Job was effectively sidelined into taking over the Macintosh.

It sure is great to get out of that bag

Maybe Jobs had some emotional distance by 1984, but he didn’t have a lot more physical distance. At this point, Apple was operating out of 10260 Bandley Drive, Cupertino, which was just under a mile from the Flint Center.

Steve Jobs with the original G3 iMac at the Flint Center

The January 24, 1984, event there is the one you’ve seen on YouTube, the one that’s been reference myriad times — and one of the ones shown in the 2015 Aaron Sorkin movie, “Steve Jobs.” It was filmed over several days beginning January 29, 2015 — 31 years after the real events.

The fate of the Flint Center

Those 31 years, though, had proved to problematic for the Flint Center. According to SiliconValley.com, a study in 2015 found that over the previous few years, the center was being booked 17% to 24% of the time.

Even then, no more than seven events a year had audiences of over 2,000 people. With a capacity of 2,400, practically a quarter would be empty even at most large events.

Given that the building was also in disrepair and an estimated $50 million would be needed to fix it up, it was clear what would happen next. While it didn’t go down without a fight — musicians protested because of its acoustics — the end came in 2019.

Or at least, that was when the decision to close the Flint Center and build something else was made. Since then, the site has remained abandoned, but the center is now being demolished.

It’s planned that it will be replaced by a new building described as a Creative Arts Building. The famous stage is already gone forever, but at least the place isn’t being turned into a carpark.