Stanford Eichler homes stand on university land in unincorporated Santa Clara County, next to Palo Alto, in the faculty neighborhoods the county calls the San Juan Residential District. The archive of Claude Oakland's firm at UC Berkeley lists Eichler Homes, Inc. as developer on lots in the two Pine Hills tracts from 1960 to 1963, and J.L. Eichler Associates on Frenchman's Hill lots from 1968 into the early 1970s.
This post covers how the land works, what the county's 2021 historic survey found, what the archive shows, and how exterior changes are reviewed today. It is architecture and history, not a market report. For the Eichler tracts in the city next door, see our Palo Alto mid-century modern page.
Land that is leased, not sold
Stanford's Faculty Staff Housing office (FSH) explains the starting point. When Leland and Jane Stanford founded the university, they specified that campus lands could never be sold. They also authorized the Board of Trustees to lease parcels of university land to faculty members for their homes. Today the university offers leasehold single-family homes, townhouses and condominiums, on campus and off.
A buyer purchases the house on a ground lease, and the land stays with the university. FSH offers two forms: a residential ground lease for on-campus purchases, and a restricted residential ground lease for certain properties sold by Stanford. The office notes that the lease product has changed over the years and that each owner's lease document governs. Eligibility is limited, too. FSH says its housing programs are available to a specific and limited number of faculty, executive staff and clinician educators.
So a Stanford Eichler isn't bought the way a house in Palo Alto is. Eligibility, lease terms and design review all run through the university. This is general information, not legal advice. Read the lease, and ask FSH and an attorney about a specific property.
Eight neighborhoods, three postwar tracts
The FSH historic-resources FAQ says the San Juan Residential District includes all faculty homes between Campus Drive East and Page Mill Road. The same FAQ, dated September 1, 2019, says a county committee heard plans for a historic survey there at its June 20 meeting. The survey's fieldwork ran in September and October 2020, and the final report, dated March 2021, counts eight neighborhoods: Frenchman's Hill, Hill Site, Peter Coutts Hill, Pearce Mitchell, Pine Hill I, Pine Hill II, Ryan Court and San Juan. Together they hold 860 faculty residences built between 1898 and the 1990s.
The survey studied the four neighborhoods with buildings from 1970 or earlier. Three are postwar tracts:
Pine Hill I: 115 parcels, with up to 112 holding buildings from 1958 to 1961. The report gives its tract map as Tract No. 1959.
Pine Hill II: 120 parcels, with up to 117 holding buildings from 1960 to 1970.
Frenchman's Hill: 190 parcels, with up to 189 holding buildings from 1968 to 1973.
The report's overview map gives different figures: 116 units for Pine Hill I starting in 1955, 120 for Pine Hill II starting in 1956, and a 1967 start for Frenchman's Hill. We report both.
The survey's property lists also label each house by style. By our count, Frenchman's Hill lists about 120 houses as Contemporary, about 40 as Ranch and 23 as Mid-Century Modern. Pine Hill I lists 39 Ranch, 39 Contemporary and 27 Mid-Century Modern, and Pine Hill II about 60 Contemporary, 26 Mid-Century Modern and 21 Ranch. A few entries carry mixed labels, so the counts can shift by one or two.
The survey did not recommend any of the three tracts as a historic district. Other than their being planned as subdivisions, it found no distinctive style dominating any of them and no significant shared history. The report doesn't mention Eichler in describing them at all.
The report's appendices add a permit note for all three. The county has determined that homes there won't need a Historic Significance Assessment with a building permit application unless the home was designed by an architect of significance, used innovative or path-breaking construction technologies, or is associated with a historically significant activity or individual.
What the Eichler archive shows
The Oakland & Imada Collection at UC Berkeley's Environmental Design Archives holds the records of Claude Oakland's firm, and Eichler project records make up the bulk of it. Its project index has 49 rows with Stanford as the location. By our count, 44 are houses with an Eichler company as developer:
Pine Hills, Eichler Homes, Inc. Eleven rows dated 1960 to 1963. One is for Pine Hills No. 1, Lot 111, Tract 1959, matching the county's tract number. Nine are for Pine Hills No. 2 lots, and one 1961 row gives Tract 2807.
Frenchman's Hill, J.L. Eichler Associates. Thirty-three rows dated 1968 to 1972, two with later dates added. Thirty-one give Tract 4276 and a lot number, from Lot 1 to Lot 185.
All but one of the 44 rows are filed under individual clients' names; the exception is a 1970–1971 file titled simply "Frenchman's Hill." Some list model codes: SV-154 special, CC-174, MS-134 and S-134, L-15M, PA-104 and 1.4 at Frenchman's Hill, and 154M and SV-14 at Pine Hills No. 2. Two Frenchman's Hill rows, for models 2.4M and 3.5M, also list Jones & Emmons as architect. Our Jones & Emmons page covers that firm.
The index also lists Eichler Homes, Inc. as developer on two campus projects that weren't houses: a campus recreation facility in 1962, and general office buildings and a computation center from 1961 to 1967.
Stanford University Libraries' Faculty Housing photographs, transferred from the FSH office in 2001, include images taken during construction of homes in the "Frenchmen's Hill" subdivision, 1967–69. The spelling varies between Frenchman's and Frenchmen's, and the county says Pine Hill where the archive says Pine Hills.
How many Eichlers are on campus? We found no university or county count. A published history of the campus Eichlers puts the number at about 100, scattered among other houses rather than grouped in one enclave, and dates them from 1951 to 1972. The archive's rows don't settle it either way, since they cover only lots with files, and its earliest Stanford house row is from 1960.
How exterior changes are reviewed
Stanford reviews first. FSH says home improvement projects on a Stanford lease must be reviewed and approved by FSH before work starts. Each lease area has its own building regulations, including a Building, Design, and ADU Manual for the San Juan Residential Subdivision. Approval can take up to 10 workdays after FSH receives everything it asked for, and, as of this writing, Stanford is no longer approving junior ADU projects.
Age matters. The 2019 FAQ says plans for a building 50 years old or older go to Stanford Heritage Services for a preliminary review against the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties. By the survey's dates, every Frenchman's Hill house from 1968 to 1973 has now passed that mark. Under the FAQ's reading of the standards:
In-kind replacement is preferred: wood windows for wood windows, metal windows for metal, wood siding for wood siding. Exceptions have been approved where that wasn't feasible.
Additions to the sides and rear are generally acceptable if their scale and materials are compatible.
Changes to the front need more care to keep the historic appearance.
Demolishing a building more than 50 years old is more complicated and more likely to be denied.
After university approval, an owner ordinarily goes to the county for a building permit. Extra discretionary county permits apply in two cases: a county-designated landmark, of which the FAQ counts only one in the faculty neighborhoods, and an "-h" historic preservation combining district, of which it says there are none. The FAQ also says the Stanford process was formalized in 2006, and that listing on the county's Heritage Resource Inventory doesn't by itself affect exterior changes, though it would restrict demolition.
The county zoning is R1S, Low-Density Campus Residential. A September 2020 county presentation lists its standards: 25-foot minimum front and rear setbacks, 5-foot side setbacks, a 35-foot height limit with up to 2½ stories, and 8 units per net acre. Average lots are far larger than the 5,445-square-foot minimum: 16,481 square feet in Pine Hill I, 15,660 in Pine Hill II and 13,082 in Frenchman's Hill. Confirm the current figures with the county, since that study was meant to update the standards.
This is general information, not legal advice. Ask FSH and the county planning department how the rules apply to a specific house.
What to check before you buy or remodel
Eligibility. Confirm with FSH that you qualify to buy before anything else.
The lease. Read the ground lease for that house, since FSH says the terms have changed over time.
The tract. Pine Hill I, Pine Hill II and Frenchman's Hill have different dates and different Eichler companies in the archive. Check the lot and tract number.
The archive. If the lot has a file in the Oakland & Imada index, the drawings may show the original plan.
The age. If the house is 50 years old or older, plan for historic review time.
Permits. Pull the county permit history. Our guide to checking permit history explains how.
Frequently asked questions
Can anyone buy a Stanford Eichler?
No. Stanford's housing programs are open to a limited number of faculty, executive staff and clinician educators, and the house comes with a ground lease rather than ownership of the land. Check eligibility with Faculty Staff Housing.
Who built the Eichlers at Stanford?
The UC Berkeley archive of Claude Oakland's firm lists Eichler Homes, Inc. on Pine Hills lots from 1960 to 1963, and J.L. Eichler Associates on Frenchman's Hill lots from 1968 to 1972. It doesn't say how many houses in each neighborhood Eichler built.
Are the Stanford Eichler neighborhoods historic districts?
No. The county's 2021 survey did not recommend Pine Hill I, Pine Hill II or Frenchman's Hill as historic districts. Individual houses still go through Stanford's historic review once they are 50 years old.
Do I need county approval to remodel?
Usually just a county building permit, after Stanford approves the plans. Extra county review applies only to a county landmark or an "-h" district, and the 2019 FAQ counted one landmark and no "-h" districts in the faculty neighborhoods.
Related reading
Eichler Architects: Who Designed Which Homes, Tract by Tract
Greenmeadow Eichler History: Palo Alto's Jones & Emmons Tract
More guides on this topic: Eichler Neighborhoods & Tract Histories
Curious about a Stanford Eichler's lease, model or history? Call or text the Boyenga Team at Compass at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or contact the Boyenga Team online.
