San Jose's Eichler tracts are a short list. Joseph Eichler's company built in the city from 1952 to 1963, in five neighborhoods: Morepark, Fairglen, the Fairglen Additions, Hudson and Fairhaven. The National Park Service's multiple property document for these San Jose Eichler tracts counts 484 single-family homes in eight separate tracts. The City of San Jose's 2025 Eichler design standards count seven tracts and about 480 homes. Only one of the five neighborhoods, the Fairglen Additions, is a listed historic district.
This post takes the neighborhoods in the order they were built, using the federal document, the recorded tract numbers on the city's tract map, county map records and the city's design standards. Where those sources disagree, we say so rather than pick one. It's an architecture history, not a market report. Our San Jose mid-century modern page covers the city's other modern homes.
San Jose when Eichler arrived
The multiple property document places the tracts in San Jose's Willow Glen and Western districts and in a city that was growing fast. It says the population went from 95,000 in 1950 to over 500,000 in 1975, and the city's area from 17 square miles in 1950 to 67 square miles in 1960. In 1958, San Jose issued building permits for 5,722 single-family units, and the next year 150 subdivisions were under construction. Many local subdivisions of the period had 30 to 40 houses, built on small orchard parcels.
The document says Eichler's San Jose tracts varied in size but followed the subdivision design of the day, with arterial streets at the edges, collector streets leading in and minor streets, loops or cul-de-sacs inside. Lots ran from about 6,000 to 10,000 square feet, and blocks held anywhere from a few to 17 house lots. The document quotes Eichler on how he bought land: "We prefer to buy in established areas and build on."
Morepark, 1952–1953
Morepark sits west of downtown San Jose, next to Burbank, and it was built from two recorded tract maps:
Tract 656. County map records show it recorded on July 10, 1951, on Richmond, Kingman and Fruitdale Avenues. The multiple property document describes a small 33-lot tract on both sides of what is now Richmond Avenue, on the market in 1952.
Tract 1136. Recorded on March 9, 1953. The document says it expanded Morepark to the east with 44 lots on Menker and Goodwin Avenues and was built out by 1954.
The city's tract map gives the same lot counts, 33 and 44. The multiple property document puts Morepark in Eichler's early experimental period, when he worked with both Anshen and Allen and Jones and Emmons. A 1953 critique quoted in the document cited Morepark as an example "of the general excellence of the Eichler developments" but faulted some of the plans for poor orientation and circulation; Eichler answered that those plans were experimental houses meant to sell for a lower price. The city's design standards add that older tracts, including Morepark, may also have horizontal wood siding.
Fairglen and the Fairglen Additions, 1957–1961
Fairglen, 1957–1959
Eichler's 30-unit Fairglen tract, Tract 1818, came next, in 1957, south of Dry Creek Road and southwest of Willow Glen. The document says access to the new Sinclair Freeway (Interstate 280), whose construction began in 1958, was touted. On the city's tract map, Tract 1818 has 30 lots on Margot Place, Adele Place and Dorrance Drive along Dry Creek Road. The Fairglen Additions nomination calls it the one-and-a-half-block Fairglen tract north of the Additions, and says it matches the larger-lot subdivisions on the north side of Curtner Avenue.
The Fairglen Additions, 1959–1961
South across Curtner Avenue, Eichler built Fairglen Additions Units 1, 2 and 3, Tracts 2238, 2239 and 2240, with 218 homes in all (73, 61 and 84 lots). The district nomination counts 13 floor plans, first designed by Anshen and Allen and by Jones and Emmons and finished by Claude Oakland's firm after Oakland went out on his own in 1960. The National Park Service listed the district on the National Register on June 6, 2019.
Even here the dates vary. One passage of the multiple property document says the Additions were built between 1959 and 1960; the nomination and the document's own list of surviving tracts say 1959–1961.
Hudson, and a tract number that doesn't match
The multiple property document says that in 1960, with the Additions nearing close-out, Eichler Homes signed two more tract maps for a development slightly to the west, across Meridian Avenue from the Additions. That passage doesn't name the development, but its timing and place in the narrative, between the Additions and Fairhaven, match Hudson. The sources give Hudson two date ranges: 1960–1962 in the federal document and in a later chapter of the city's standards, and 1961–1963 in the standards' introduction.
The tract number is a bigger puzzle. The federal document lists Hudson as Tract 2837. On the city's tract map, though, Tract 2837 is a 101-lot tract farther south, on Joseph Lane, Rebel Way and Marietta Drive, not across Meridian from the Additions. The streets just west of Meridian there, including Hudson Drive, Comstock Lane, Dumbarton Avenue, Frobisher Way and Raleigh Drive, fall in Tract 2827, with 102 lots, and using 2827 makes the eight tracts' lot counts add up to exactly 484, the document's total. That points to a typo in the federal list, but no source we read confirms it. The document's "two other tract maps" are also unexplained: it lists one tract number for Hudson, and on the city's map the Hudson Drive streets sit in one tract. If the tract number matters for a specific house, check the recorded map with the county.
Fairhaven, 1962–1963
Fairhaven, Tract 3009, was Eichler's last San Jose development. The multiple property document says the tract map for the 57-unit Fairhaven was signed in 1962 on the western edge of the growing city and built out over the next year, and that a 1963 newspaper article named Jones and Emmons as one of its designers. The city's tract map shows 57 lots on Mossbrook Avenue, Mossbrook Circle, Student Lane and Parkwest Drive. Its dates vary too: the federal document gives 1962–1963 in one list and 1961–1963 in another, and the city's standards do the same.
Why the counts differ, and which tracts are listed
The city's numbered list shows where the seven-versus-eight difference comes from: it lists Morepark once, where the federal document counts its two tract maps separately. Both sources agree on five neighborhoods. The city's "approximately 480" is a round number; the tract map lots add to 484.
A multiple property document is the framework that related places can be nominated under. This one sets out what a tract needs to qualify: the character-defining features of Eichler tract planning, construction within 1952–1963, quality of design, and integrity of location, setting and design. Those features include low one-story massing, flat or 2:12 gable roofs, post-and-beam framing with vertical-grooved plywood, clerestory windows and radiant-heated slabs. As of the city's 2025 standards, only the Fairglen Additions had been listed under it. San Jose's Eichler design standards, adopted December 2, 2025, apply to Eichler tracts on the city's Historic Resources Inventory, which in 2025 meant only the Fairglen Additions, and to any added later. As adopted, then, the standards didn't apply in Morepark, Fairglen, Hudson or Fairhaven.
The city's 2019 council memo also notes that National Register listing alone doesn't make a house eligible for the Mills Act property tax program; only designated City Landmarks qualify. This is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check a specific address with San Jose's planning division and Historic Preservation Officer. The full multiple property document is on the National Park Service's site, and our guide to dating a house explains how to find a tract map and build year.
Who designed San Jose's Eichlers
The multiple property document credits three firms: Anshen and Allen, with Eichler from 1950; Jones and Emmons, brought on in 1952; and Claude Oakland, who worked for Anshen and Allen from 1950 and left in 1960 to start his own firm. Both of the first two firms stayed involved with the San Jose tracts, and Jones and Emmons worked on Fairhaven at the end. Our Jones and Emmons page covers that firm, and our guide to which architects designed which Eichlers covers all three.
Frequently asked questions
How many Eichler homes are in San Jose?
The National Park Service's multiple property document counts 484 single-family homes in eight tracts. The City of San Jose's 2025 standards say about 480 in seven tracts, counting Morepark's two maps as one.
Which San Jose Eichler tracts are historic districts?
Only the Fairglen Additions, listed on the National Register on June 6, 2019 and then added to the city's Historic Resources Inventory. The other four neighborhoods are covered by the federal multiple property document but, as of the city's 2025 standards, hadn't been listed.
When did Eichler start building in San Jose?
Morepark's first tract map was recorded in July 1951, and the multiple property document says those homes went on the market in 1952. Fairhaven, the last, was built out by 1963.
Related reading
Fairglen Eichler History: San Jose's Fairglen Additions District
Pomeroy Green Eichler Townhouses: Santa Clara's 1963 Cluster Plan
More guides on this topic: Eichler Neighborhoods & Tract Histories
Want to know which San Jose Eichler tract a house is in, or what its tract map shows? Call or text the Boyenga Team at Compass at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team online.
