Rancho Rinconada in Cupertino is a 1950s tract of single-story ranch houses on the east side of the city, built by the firm Stern & Price, with model houses designed by Cliff May. It has its own swim center, run by a small public park district that predates the neighborhood's place in the city: according to press coverage at the time, Rancho Rinconada was an unincorporated county pocket with Cupertino addresses until 1999.
This guide sets out what the record shows. It draws on Santa Clara County's index of recorded maps, May's own recollection in a university oral history, a library archive of the model-house photographs, the county Local Agency Formation Commission's (LAFCO) reviews of the park district and press coverage of the 1999 annexation. Where sources give different dates or counts, we give both.
Who built Rancho Rinconada
A local history of the neighborhood describes the original houses as low-cost, single-story ranch houses built in the 1950s by Stern & Price and designed by May. The county's map record backs up the builder. Santa Clara County's index of recorded maps lists Tract No. 1004, surveyed in April 1952 and recorded on September 10, 1952, with Stern & Price Inc. as owner. The map describes the land as part of the F. Tantau Tract of the Quito Rancho, and its streets include Tilson Avenue, Stern Avenue, Wunderlich Drive, Calvert Drive, Arata Way, Moretti Drive and Menhart Lane.
The map title doesn't use the name Rancho Rinconada, but two records of survey filed in July 1953 for lots on Wunderlich and Calvert Drives describe them as part of "Tract #1004 - Rancho Rinconada," which ties the name to that map.
Stern & Price worked elsewhere in the valley in the same year. The index lists the Stern & Price Construction Co. as owner of Tract No. 1030 in Palo Alto, recorded September 3, 1952, off Middlefield Road and Cowper Street, and of a July 1952 record of survey revising lots in Palo Alto's Tract No. 587 on Cowper Street, Maureen Avenue and Murdoch Drive.
Cliff May and the model houses
Two independent records connect May to the tract.
The photographs. The Huntington Library holds photographer Maynard L. Parker's negatives of the "Rancho Rinconada model houses" in Cupertino. Its catalog record for the "Moderne" model, a house decorated in a moderne style, is shared on the University of California's Calisphere portal. It credits Cliff May as architect, Douglas Baylis as landscape architect and Stern & Price, Inc. as builder, and calls Stern & Price the developers of the model homes. A second record, for a "Frankl" model, carries the same project number. The catalog dates the photos to about the 1950s and cites a trade article on California ranch houses from October 1952.
May's own account. His oral history for the UCLA Oral History Program was recorded in 1982 and early 1983 and copyrighted in 1984. While reviewing the edited transcript in 1983, May added a note. He recalled a tract for Stern and Price in Cupertino, the year before his Long Beach tract: nine hundred houses that sold out from four models, "sold as fast as they could sign up the buyers." He said the experience got him and the architect Chris Choate thinking.
The passage doesn't say where that thinking led. A California Department of Transportation history of tract housing describes the low-cost plans May developed with Choate, built from five standard wall panels made in a Santa Rosa factory and used in tracts across the state in the early to mid-1950s. Neither the map record nor the oral history says the Cupertino houses were built from panels, and May dates the panel work to 1952 through 1954, so don't assume a Rancho Rinconada house is a panel house. Our guide to Cliff May homes and the California ranch house covers his tract work in more detail.
How many houses, and where the edges are
The numbers depend on which boundary you mean.
May's tract. May remembered 900 houses, about 30 years after the fact.
The 1999 annexation area. Press coverage at the time described a 317-acre neighborhood of about 1,500 homes between Stevens Creek Boulevard, Lawrence Expressway, Bollinger Road and Miller Avenue.
The park district. LAFCO's 2007 review says the district covers two housing tracts, the Rinconada Housing Tract and the Barrington Bridge Housing Tract, with Tantau and Stern Avenues as its western edge. Its 2013 review puts the district at about 0.4 square miles.
These are different areas: the annexation coverage names Miller Avenue as a boundary, while LAFCO puts the district's western edge at Tantau and Stern Avenues. The county map index, which covers maps recorded through about 1957, adds two more tracts on the same streets. Tract No. 1088, recorded in April 1953, also lists Wunderlich and Moretti Drives, along with Barnhart, Tantau and Johnson Avenues, and was apparently drawn by the same surveyor as Tract 1004, but the index gives no owner. Tract 1320, recorded in February 1955, includes Wunderlich Drive, Johnson and Newsom Avenues and Bollinger Road, with a title company as owner. The index doesn't say who built either one, and it has no map named Barrington Bridge.
The swim center and its park district
The Rancho Rinconada Recreation and Park District is a public agency, not a homeowners association. According to Santa Clara County LAFCO:
It was organized in 1955 and reorganized in 1958. The 2013 review calls it the only district of its type in Santa Clara County, out of 108 recreation and park districts in the state.
Its one facility is a two-acre site on Chelmsford Drive with a six-lane, 25-yard pool, a bathhouse, a snack bar, a kitchen and a recreation hall. The pool was replaced in 2005.
In the 2007 review, about two-thirds of its revenue came from property taxes collected by the county, and the rest from fees. People from outside the district can use it by paying higher fees.
The district lies almost entirely in Cupertino. Two parcels along Lawrence Expressway, the Saratoga Creek Trail and its riparian area, are in San Jose.
LAFCO has long expected the city to take over. It adopted a zero sphere of influence for the district in 1982, signaling that the area should ultimately be served by the City of Cupertino, and reaffirmed that in 2007. The 2013 review listed options from staying independent to merging with the city, and noted that a merger would first require detaching the two San Jose parcels. LAFCO's district profile, last updated March 24, 2026, still lists it as an independent district with a board serving four-year terms.
From county pocket to Cupertino
Press coverage from January and March 1999 tells the annexation story. Residents had Cupertino addresses, but the area was an unincorporated pocket governed by Santa Clara County. In the November 1998 election, 66 percent of Rancho voters approved Measure W, an advisory measure on annexation, and 55.9 percent passed Measure X, extending Cupertino's 2.4 percent utility tax to the neighborhood. On March 1, 1999, after a public hearing, the City Council unanimously ordered the annexation, to take effect once LAFCO certified it, which city staff expected around March 15. The coverage says residents had asked to join the city to gain more say over housing development and better protection for trees.
A local history of the neighborhood tells it slightly differently, saying the residents of the unincorporated part of Rancho Rinconada voted in March 1999 to be annexed. The press accounts place the votes in November 1998 and the council's order in March 1999.
What to check before you buy or remodel
Permits in two places. Because the area was under county government until 1999, older permits may be on file with Santa Clara County rather than the city. Our guide to checking a mid-century home's permit history walks through the search.
Zoning. Before you plan an addition or a second story, ask the City of Cupertino's planning division which zoning district and height limits apply to the parcel.
Original or rebuilt. A local history notes that, as of 2020, the neighborhood mixed modestly built 1950s houses with newer homes built in the 2000s and 2010s. Our guide on how to date a house can help you tell which parts are original.
The tract map. Find the tract number for the lot, then read the recorded map and any later record of survey for it.
The name. The county index also lists many maps in the Rancho Rinconada de Los Gatos, around Los Gatos and Campbell, and in the Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito, in Palo Alto. Neither is this neighborhood, which the 1952 map places on the Quito Rancho. Search by tract number, not name.
The district. LAFCO publishes a map of the district's service area. Check it to see whether a parcel is inside.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. For a specific property, check with the City of Cupertino and the county. Our Cupertino page covers the city's other mid-century housing.
Frequently asked questions
Did Cliff May design Rancho Rinconada?
The record says yes for the model houses. The Huntington Library's catalog of the model-house photographs credits May as architect and Stern & Price as builder, and May recalled the Cupertino tract in his oral history. A local history of the neighborhood also credits him.
When was Rancho Rinconada built?
The first Stern & Price map, Tract No. 1004, was recorded in September 1952, and the model-house photos are tied to an October 1952 article. Maps naming some of the same streets followed in 1953 and 1955. A local history dates the original houses to the 1950s.
Is Rancho Rinconada part of Cupertino?
Yes. Press coverage at the time reports that the City Council ordered the annexation on March 1, 1999. The separate park district still operates on its own, and LAFCO's 2013 review notes two of its parcels are in San Jose.
Are Rancho Rinconada houses Eichlers?
No. The record ties them to Stern & Price and Cliff May. They were built as ranch houses, and the neighborhood now also includes homes built in the 2000s and 2010s.
Related reading
Pomeroy Green Eichler Townhouses: Santa Clara's 1963 Cluster Plan
Fairgrove Eichler, Cupertino: The R1-e Tract and Its Two-Story Rules
More guides on this topic: Eichler Neighborhoods & Tract Histories
Researching a Rancho Rinconada house, or wondering how much of yours is original? 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.
