Until the early 1980s, the City of San Ramon was primarily a bedroom community for the major employment centers in the Bay Area. The development of Bishop Ranch, in 1982, transformed San Ramon into a significant regional employment center. With the development of major new employment centers, employees are attracted from such far away distances as Sacramento and San Joaquin Counties.

San Ramon was once home to Seunen Indians, Costanoans who lived adjacent to the Valley creeks and traded with other Bay Area tribes. In the 1800s it was Mission San Jose grazing land, later becoming part of Jose Maria Amador's enormous rancho San Ramon. American settlers came to San Ramon in 1850, when Leo Norris purchased 4,450 acres from Don Amador. He and his partner William Lynch built the first frame house (made of redwoods from Oakland) and planted the first barley crop. Initially the Americans called the area Brevensville, Lynchville and Limerick, after early settlers Eli Breven, William Lynch and the large Irish population. The first village developed adjacent to San Ramon Creek at the intersection of Old Crow Canyon Road and San Ramon Valley Boulevard. When a permanent post office was established in 1873, it was called San Ramon.

In the decade of the 1860's, the village of San Ramon became a hub of community activity. In 1864 a stage line established by Brown and Co. ran from San Ramon through the Valley to Oakland. With the arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad's San Ramon branch line in 1891, other changes took place. The name "San Ramon" permanently replaced Limerick. Crops and passengers were now able to travel to and from the area, no matter what the weather did to the roads.

As with the entire Valley, agriculture was the basis for San Ramon's economy until the 1960's when the new state highway, I-680, was completed. Developers Ken Volk and Bob McClain built the first suburban homes at the County line: "Country quiet, City close" was their radio theme song. "San Ramon Village" appeared as a separate census designation for the first time in 1970 with a count of 4,084 people, part of the San Ramon Valley population of 25,899. That same year Western Electric purchased 1,733 acres of the Bishop Ranch and proposed a "new town" complete with a variety of housing, green belts, stores and light industry. Eventually part of the land did become homes and, in the early 1980's, 585 acres became a premier modern office development called Bishop Ranch Business Park.

In 1983, San Ramon voters decided by an overwhelming vote to incorporate as a separate city and took control over development, police, parks and other services. Today, San Ramon is a dynamic young city, one of California's new outstanding urban villages. It has a variety of homes and shops and a major employment center - all in a setting of remarkable beauty.