Bohannon homes are among the early tract houses of the Peninsula and the South Bay, and his name appears on recorded maps, including a 1952 Santa Clara map that lays out a Bohannon Drive. David D. Bohannon started Hillsdale in San Mateo before World War II, built wartime housing in Sunnyvale, and recorded a run of 1950s tracts in Santa Clara and San Jose. A California Department of Transportation history of tract housing names him, with William Levitt in the East and Fritz Burns in Los Angeles, among the merchant builders who came to dominate the postwar housing market.
This guide sticks to the public record: that Caltrans study, a City of San Mateo environmental report, Santa Clara County's index of recorded maps and the archive of his chief architect. Where the company's own timeline adds detail, we say so. Where sources disagree on a year or a count, we give both.
Who David D. Bohannon was
According to the Caltrans study, Tract Housing in California, 1945-1973, Bohannon was born in San Francisco in 1898 and died in 1995. He began buying and selling Bay Area real estate as a young man in the 1920s, working the way subdividers did then: buy a large parcel, lay out and build the streets, install utilities and sell the lots.
After the 1929 crash he could no longer sell lots. Reasoning that finished houses would sell more easily than vacant land, he went into construction in 1932 and built houses for sale on his own properties in San Mateo County. The study calls him one of California's first community builders, meaning he planned whole new communities with shopping centers, parks and churches, not just rows of houses. He was also a member of the Urban Land Institute's Community Builders Council, which first published its Community Builders' Handbook for real estate developers in 1947. The study estimates that he built more than 25,000 houses over his career.
Hillsdale in San Mateo
Hillsdale was his first new community. The San Mateo project's history is set out in the cultural resources chapter of the city's San Mateo Corridor Plan environmental impact report:
Bohannon bought 848 acres west of El Camino Real for a proposed shopping mall and a residential complex of apartments and 5,000 homes.
He built the first part of the Hillsdale Subdivision in 1940 on Hacienda Street near 31st Avenue, along Arbor and Briar Lanes.
In 1941 he replaced the old Southern Pacific station there with the Hillsdale train station.
In 1952 he donated the land for the Hillsdale Branch Library.
The sources differ on the start date. The Caltrans study says Hillsdale was begun in 1939, with a large shopping center, apartments and single-family houses, and that construction was suspended in 1941 because of the war and resumed in the late 1940s. The city's report puts the first homes in 1940. The company's own timeline says it acquired and began developing the 848 acres in 1939 and 1940, stopped construction in mid-1941, finished the master plan for Hillsdale Shopping Center in 1952 and opened the center in 1954.
The archive of his chief architect, Mogens Mogensen, lists among its major projects what it calls the "Hillside Commercial Center" and the "Hillside housing development" for the David D. Bohannon Organization. A published history of Mogensen's work adds that Bohannon marketed a Mogensen model called "the Contemporama" in Hillsdale Highlands. If you are researching a Hillsdale house, the archive is worth a call.
Wartime housing and San Lorenzo Village
The war turned Bohannon into a production builder. The Caltrans study describes the sequence:
Sunnyvale, 1941. His first major wartime project: 288 two- and three-bedroom houses for defense workers, built in nine months.
Napa. More than 500 houses for shipyard workers.
Richmond, 1943. 700 houses for Kaiser shipyard workers, finished in four months, from early May to early September.
San Lorenzo Village, from 1944. South of Oakland in Alameda County. The first phase, built during the war, had more than 1,300 houses with identical floor plans. Building continued into the early 1950s, reaching about 3,000 houses, and the later phases used several plans, all Postwar Minimal or small Ranch types.
The study credits Bohannon with refining the assembly-line methods that made this possible. At San Lorenzo Village he finished a house every 45 minutes, his cutting yard turned out 700 rafters an hour, and 2,500 workers were on the job there at the peak in the mid-1940s. Observers of the late 1940s called the on-site sawmills and pre-bundled lumber packages the "California method."
The counts for San Lorenzo Village differ. The Caltrans study says Bohannon built about 3,000 houses there and that other builders kept expanding the community until the land ran out in 1958. The company's timeline says the project eventually totaled 4,500 homes.
The South Bay tracts in the county map record
After San Lorenzo Village, the Caltrans study says, Bohannon built a series of smaller tracts, mainly in the South Bay, from the late 1940s through the 1950s. Santa Clara County's index of recorded maps, which covers maps recorded through about 1957 and skips some volumes, lists these maps with Bohannon, the David D. Bohannon Organization or his company as owner:
Embarcadero Oaks, Palo Alto. No. 2 (Tract 37), recorded in February 1936, off Embarcadero Road with Fulton Street and Tennyson and Seale Avenues; No. 3 (Tract 253), recorded in March 1946.
Homewood and Southwood, Sunnyvale. Three Homewood maps recorded in 1942 (Tracts 180, 209 and 213) off Murphy, Stowell and Maude Avenues, and Southwood (Tract 215) in August 1943 off McKinley and Vine Avenues. Homewood Map No. 3 and Southwood name Pacific Homes, Inc., with Bohannon as president. Neither the index nor the Caltrans study says whether these maps hold the 288 wartime houses.
Mayfair Heights, east San Jose. Tract 869 in May 1951, Unit No. 2 (Tract 1007) in July 1952 and the Mayfair Heights Annex (Tract 1160) in May 1953, on streets such as Westboro, Highwood and Marmont and out toward Story and White Roads.
Westwood, Santa Clara. Tract 980, recorded in April 1952, lists Bohannon Drive among its streets. Units 2 through 5 (Tracts 1002, 1067, 1130 and 1177) followed through May 1953, and Unit 10 (Tract 1564) in August 1955. Units 6 through 9 do not appear in the online index.
Westwood Oaks, Santa Clara. Recorded in November 1955, with Pruneridge Avenue, Homestead Road, Hillsdale Avenue, Gianni Drive, Hudson Drive and Carlysle Avenue among its streets.
There is one conflict here. The Caltrans text places Westwood Oaks in San Jose, but the county index lists the map under Santa Clara, and a Caltrans photo caption labels the "Westwood Oaks tract, Santa Clara," built around 1959. Our Santa Clara page covers the city's broader mid-century housing.
What the houses look like
Mogens Mogensen is the designer tied to the 1950s tracts. His collection at UC Berkeley's Environmental Design Archives says he was born in Copenhagen in 1920, joined the David D. Bohannon Organization in San Mateo as a designer in 1947 for two years, returned as chief architect in 1952 and opened his own office in 1956. He died in 1997.
A published history of Mogensen's work, drawing on newspaper coverage of the period, says Bohannon stuck to designs with broad appeal, and that the few modern tract designs Mogensen got built came out more traditional than he drew them. It describes:
Mayfair Heights. A low-gabled house with a front picture window angled to the slope of the roof. Inside, front doors opened into compact open-plan living areas under a vaulted ceiling with exposed beams, and the central living area opened through a full-wall window onto the patio, an arrangement 1952 coverage says Bohannon called "Sunshine Living."
Westwood. Simple one-story board-and-batten cottages, given a more modern look by carrying the roofline over the entry walk.
Westwood Oaks. 1958 coverage credited Mogensen as the designer of all the 1,500-square-foot homes. It described one model as fully contemporary, with clerestory windows and a low-pitched roof covered in crushed rock, alongside two models in other styles.
By that account, these are ranch houses with modest modern touches, not Eichlers. Our comparison of mid-century modern and ranch houses explains what separates the two.
How to confirm a Bohannon house
Find the tract number. County assessor records and parcel maps give the tract for the lot.
Check the owner on the recorded map. Look for David D. Bohannon, the David D. Bohannon Organization or Pacific Homes, Inc.
Watch for look-alike names. The county index lists Westwood Park maps from 1941 and 1946 and a 1937 Mayfair tract in Palo Alto, all recorded by other owners. A name alone is not proof.
Pull the permit history from the city that now issues permits for the address, and compare it with the house you see.
Ask the archive. The Mogensen collection, dated 1952 to 1992, includes drawings, photographs and project files.
Before a major remodel or addition, ask the city's planning department whether the house is on a local historic inventory and what review applies. This is general information, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions
Did David Bohannon build Eichler-style modern houses?
Not in the Eichler sense. A published history of his chief architect's work says Bohannon kept to designs with broad appeal, conservatively styled ranch and quasi-ranch houses. It describes some with beamed ceilings, clerestory windows or large windows to the patio.
When did Hillsdale begin?
The Caltrans study says 1939, the City of San Mateo's report says the first homes were built in 1940, and the company's timeline gives 1939 to 1940. The Caltrans study and the company timeline agree that construction stopped in 1941 because of the war.
Is the Westwood area around Bohannon Drive really his?
The county's map index lists the David D. Bohannon Organization as owner of the Westwood maps recorded from 1952 to 1955, and the first of them lists Bohannon Drive. Check the tract map for a given address, since earlier Westwood Park maps belonged to other owners.
How many houses did Bohannon build?
The Caltrans study estimates more than 25,000 over his career. Counts for single projects vary by source, so check the recorded maps for a specific tract.
Related reading
San Mateo Highlands Eichler History: The Hillside Tract and the X-100
Mackay Homes: What the Records Say About a Mid-Century Builder
Streng Brothers Homes: Sacramento's Mid-Century Modern Tracts
More guides on this topic: Mid-Century Modern Architects & Builders
Researching a Bohannon house, or wondering who built yours? Call or text the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team to talk through the house and its history.
