The Fairglen Eichler neighborhood in San Jose's Willow Glen area grew in pieces: a 30-home Fairglen tract started in 1957 north of Curtner Avenue, then the far larger Fairglen Additions south of Curtner. The Fairglen Additions (Units 1, 2 and 3) hold 218 Eichler homes built from 1959 to 1961 between Curtner Avenue and Andalusia Way, and since June 6, 2019 they have been a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places.
This post is a history of the district built from the public record: the National Register nomination, the National Park Service's multiple property document for Eichler's San Jose tracts, the City of San Jose's 2019 council memo and the Eichler design standards the City Council approved in December 2025. It covers the street plan, the 13 floor plans, who designed them and what the listing means for exterior changes. It doesn't cover the market. Our San Jose mid-century modern page covers the city's other modern neighborhoods.
Where the Fairglen Additions sit and how the streets were laid out
The nomination calls the Fairglen Additions the third of five Eichler projects in San Jose between 1952 and 1963. It was built on former orchard and ranch land. The district runs from Curtner Avenue south to Andalusia Way, and from the west side of Booksin Avenue to the east side of Briarwood Avenue, and it was built in three units:
Unit 1 (Tract 2238), 73 lots. It started at the southwest corner of Curtner and Booksin Avenues, in a grid broken up by cul-de-sacs.
Unit 2 (Tract 2239), 61 lots. It continued the grid west of Fairglen Avenue and turned into a winding pattern south of Fairlawn Avenue.
Unit 3 (Tract 2240), 84 lots. It ran from Fairorchard Avenue to the south side of Andalusia Way.
The tract numbers come from the multiple property document, and the lot counts match the City of San Jose's tract boundary map. Curtner Avenue is the arterial edge, Booksin and Briarwood Avenues are the two collector streets in, and minor streets and cul-de-sacs wind through the middle to keep through traffic down, the hierarchy the Federal Housing Administration recommended at the time. Lots are generally 60 by 100 feet, about 6,000 square feet, with minimum front yards of 25 feet, rear yards of 20 feet and side yards of five feet. Many models were built as mirror images to keep privacy between neighbors.
Some ideas never got built. Newspaper items described a larger subdivision with a community center and an Olympic-sized pool, and the nomination says tract maps indicate Eichler owned a fourth tract just south of Andalusia, sold just before Unit 3 was finished.
Thirteen floor plans from three architecture firms
When the Additions opened, Joseph Eichler credited months of work by Jones and Emmons and by Anshen and Allen, and said he believed it was the first time a major homebuilder had developed "six completely different floor-plan concepts." The sales brochures show nine plans. The nomination, working from the Unit 1 plot plan, city building permits and a field survey, counts 13 models actually built:
Unit 1: SJ-E31, SJ-773, SJ-1003, SJ-1004, SJ-1103, SJ-1114, SJ-1163 and SJ-1184.
Unit 2: SJ-24 and SJ-1534.
Unit 3: SJ-4, SJ-4 "D" and SJ-1504.
Every model has two baths, and all but SJ-773 and SJ-1003 have four bedrooms. L-shaped plans have a private front courtyard in the corner between the garage and the living and dining wing; the nomination traces them to Anshen and Allen's AA-1 prototype of 1950. Square plans put an atrium between the garage and the bedroom wing, an idea Anshen and Allen drew as early as 1956. Every plan has a second bathroom in the master suite, which Eichler introduced at Fairmeadow in Palo Alto in 1953. Our guide to atrium, courtyard and gallery plans explains the differences.
From the street, the houses generally have either a low-sloped gable roof with a one-car garage and carport, or a flat roof with a two-car garage. SJ-1534 has an open skylight over the entry. SJ-4 has a raised 10-foot roof with clerestory windows over the living and dining areas, and SJ-4 "D," designed by Claude Oakland & Associates, sets an A-frame roof with clerestories over the central atrium.
The nomination says the site plans and homes were first designed by Anshen and Allen and Jones and Emmons & Associates, and completed by Claude Oakland's firm. The multiple property document adds that Oakland left Anshen and Allen in 1960 and took the Eichler account with him while the Additions were under construction. A 1960 set of SJ-4 drawings at the UC Berkeley Environmental Design Archives is signed by Oakland, and the same archive holds Jones and Emmons site plans for the Additions. More on the architect is on our Claude Oakland page.
Materials, inside and out
The houses have custom vertical-grooved redwood plywood siding over mixed post-and-beam framing on concrete slabs. The nomination notes that Eichlers built before the Korean War used redwood tongue-and-groove or shiplap boards, and that postwar shortages helped drive the switch to plywood. The original scheme was dark, earth-toned stain on siding and front fences, light stain on the beams and bright paint on the flat slab entry doors. Inside, the ceiling is the stained underside of 2x8 tongue-and-groove redwood decking, the walls were Philippine mahogany veneer paneling, and the radiant-heated slabs were covered in 12-inch asphalt tile. Many models have a built-in breakfast bar that swings out into the multipurpose room.
How the district was listed
San Jose's design standards say Fairglen Additions residents formed a preservation committee in 2016 with the aim of a National Register listing. The multiple property document and the district nomination are both dated October 26, 2018. On February 1, 2019, the State Historical Resources Commission voted unanimously to forward the nomination; San Jose's Historic Landmarks Commission voted in support on February 6, and the City Council voted unanimously to support it on March 12, 2019. The National Park Service listed the district on June 6, 2019, as reference number 100004036.
The nomination lists the district at the local level under Criterion C, for architecture, with a period of significance of 1959–1961 and 46.8 gross acres. It counts 204 contributing homes and 14 noncontributing. The usual changes were filled-in carports and garages, added 4:12 sloped roofs and second stories; homes that lost their one-story massing and roof forms were counted as noncontributing, though the nomination calls those additions reversible.
The sources disagree slightly on dates. The multiple property document's narrative says the 218 units were built "between 1959 and 1960," while the nomination, and that document's own list of surviving tracts, give 1959–1961.
What the listing means for owners
The National Park Service says National Register listing puts no restrictions on a non-federal owner's private property unless federal money, licenses or permits are involved, and that state or local rules may still apply. San Jose's February 2019 council memo explained that National Register properties go onto the California Register automatically, which makes them historical resources under the California Environmental Quality Act, and that the city's Historic Preservation Officer would then place the homes on the city's Historic Resources Inventory. After that, exterior changes need discretionary review through a Single-Family House Permit.
The memo also says National Register listing doesn't make a house eligible for the Mills Act property tax program; only designated City Landmarks qualify. When we checked on November 6, 2026, the city's historic resources map showed 218 Fairglen Additions records, each with "No" in its Mills Act field.
San Jose's Eichler design standards
On December 2, 2025, the City Council adopted Resolution No. RES2025-409, approving the San Jose Eichler Neighborhood Objective Design Standards, effective 30 days after approval. They apply to Eichler tracts on the Historic Resources Inventory, which as of 2025 meant only the Fairglen Additions. They cover exterior work that needs a building permit or a Single-Family House Permit, not interiors or backyard landscaping, and they don't require changes to anything already built. Among the rules in the version presented to the council:
Roofs. Changing a roof's shape or raising it above its original height is prohibited. Flat and low-pitched roofs must be re-covered with built-up, membrane, rolled or foam roofing; clay tile, concrete tile, slate, standing-seam metal and wood or metal shingles are prohibited.
Atriums. Covers and shades over an existing atrium are allowed if they follow the roofline, rise no more than 6 inches above it and keep the street side intact; removing walls that face an atrium is prohibited. Our atrium cover guide covers the usual options.
Additions. Second-story additions are strongly discouraged. Ground-level additions go at the side or rear, with side additions set back at least 3 feet from the front, rear additions inset at least 2 inches, a smaller footprint than the original house and a flat, skillion or matching roof.
The standards also treat contributing homes as qualified historical properties under the California Historical Building Code, which allows in-kind repair or replacement of original windows and sliding doors without meeting the California Energy Code; the city's Building Official decides when that code applies. The council let the planning director make minor clarifications later, so get the current version from the city first. This is general information, not legal advice; check your parcel with San Jose's Historic Preservation Officer and planning division, and ask an attorney about any deed restrictions. The National Register nomination has the full plan descriptions and maps.
Frequently asked questions
When were the Fairglen Additions built?
The nomination dates them to 1959–1961. One passage in the multiple property document says 1959–1960, but its own tract list gives 1959–1961.
Who designed the Fairglen Eichlers?
Anshen and Allen and Jones and Emmons drew the first site plans and homes, and Claude Oakland's firm completed them after Oakland went out on his own in 1960. A 1960 set of SJ-4 drawings signed by Oakland is in the UC Berkeley Environmental Design Archives.
Can you add a second story in the Fairglen Additions?
San Jose's Eichler standards strongly discourage it and prohibit raising a roof above its original height. Ask the planning division what your lot allows, and check your deed's CC&Rs, which the standards say may add their own limits.
Does National Register listing qualify a Fairglen home for the Mills Act?
No. The city's 2019 memo says only designated City Landmarks are eligible, and National Register listing alone doesn't make a house one.
Related reading
San Jose Eichler Tracts: Morepark, Fairglen, Hudson and Fairhaven
Pomeroy Green Eichler Townhouses: Santa Clara's 1963 Cluster Plan
Rancho Rinconada, Cupertino: The 1950s Tract and Its Builders
More guides on this topic: Eichler Neighborhoods & Tract Histories
Curious about a Fairglen Additions Eichler's model, tract or original features? Call or text the Boyenga Team at Compass at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team online.
