Preservation guide

Mid-Century Modern Historic Districts: Where Midmod Neighborhoods Have Formal Standing

Most mid-century neighborhoods stay mid-century only because their owners keep them that way. A few have more behind them. They are on the National Register of Historic Places, on a city register, or under zoning written for the tract. This page gathers the ones whose public records we could read: four Eichler developments in the Bay Area, rules in four Bay Area cities, four more places elsewhere in California, and 18 neighborhoods in 12 other states.

It is a companion to Keep It Midmod, our guide to repairing one house so it stays mid-century. This page is about whole neighborhoods: what a designation does, what it leaves alone, and how to check whether your own house is covered.

• Bay Area EichlersFour Eichler developments on the National Register, from Palo Alto to San Jose.See the four
• City rulesGuidelines, overlays and zoning written for Eichler tracts in four Bay Area cities.Check the rules
• Elsewhere in CaliforniaSacramento, Pasadena and Palm Springs.See the records
• Beyond California18 neighborhoods in 12 states, from Arizona to Massachusetts.Tour the list

What a designation does, and what it leaves alone

A historic district is a group of buildings recognized together. For mid-century neighborhoods the recognition comes in two main forms, and they do different jobs.

• The National Register of Historic Places. The federal list, kept by the National Park Service. The Park Service’s own answer is that listing places no restrictions on what a private owner does with a property, up to and including tearing it down, unless the project involves federal funding, licenses or permits. It adds that state or local preservation laws may still apply. So the Register is a record and an honor.
• City and county tools. A local register, a historic overlay, design guidelines, a single-story overlay or zoning written for one tract. These are where review of a remodel comes from, and each city writes its own. Some are binding and some are voluntary.

So the useful question for an owner is rarely “Is my neighborhood historic?” It is “Which rules apply to my lot?”

Contributing and not contributing

A district nomination counts its buildings one by one. Three records on this page show how that works. The Thornhurst Addition nomination in Indiana counts 21 contributing buildings, and seven houses added later that do not contribute. The Six Moon Hill release in Massachusetts counts 29 mid-century houses, and one house built in 2006 that does not. The Arapahoe Acres nomination in Colorado counts 122 contributing buildings and 2 that are not. In the first two, the houses that do not contribute are later additions.

The Park Service’s advice is to look in the district’s file to see whether a building is counted as contributing, or to ask the State Historic Preservation Office.

Bay Area Eichlers on the National Register

Three tracts built by Joseph Eichler’s company are historic districts on the National Register: Greenmeadow and Green Gables in Palo Alto, and the Fairglen Additions in San Jose. A fourth Eichler development, the Pomeroy Green townhouse complex in Santa Clara, was listed in 2021. The first three descriptions come from California’s Office of Historic Preservation; each name opens the record.

A tract name is not a boundary. A house in one of these neighborhoods may sit outside the listed area, or inside it without being counted as contributing. The state’s listed resources for Santa Clara County are the place to start checking.

Bay Area city rules for Eichler tracts

Review of a remodel comes from city rules, and four Bay Area cities have written rules or guidelines for their Eichler tracts. None of these depends on historic status. They differ in how binding they are.

Lucas Valley in Marin County has community standards of its own in the county’s development code; our Lucas Valley history covers them. For any Bay Area address, the Eichler Remodel Rules Finder covers 34 places and shows five layers of rules to check before remodeling.

Elsewhere in California

Sacramento has a city Register district of Eichler homes with a written plan. Pasadena has two National Register districts of modern houses. A Palm Springs listing joined the Register in 2025.

The copies of both Pasadena nomination forms on the state’s site carry a note that nominations are drafts until the Keeper of the National Register lists them. So the listing dates here come from the city’s own list of designations. For more on the region, see our guide to the mid-century modern homes of Southern California.

Beyond California: 18 neighborhoods in 12 states

Mid-century neighborhoods have earned formal standing across the country. Sixteen of the 18 below have a National Park Service record. Villa Monterey is on Scottsdale’s city register, and Paradise Palms is under a Clark County overlay. Each name opens the record we read. Where a Park Service record shows only the date it was published, we say “is dated” instead of “listed”.

Southwest and Mountain West

Midwest

South and Mid-Atlantic

Northeast

Pacific Northwest

This is not a complete list. Neighborhoods whose records we could not read are left out, and being left out says nothing about a neighborhood’s status.

Three routes neighborhoods have taken

The records above show three ways a mid-century neighborhood ends up with formal standing. Several use more than one.

1. National Register listing. A nomination documents why the place matters and counts which buildings contribute. It brings recognition and a detailed public record. By itself it brings no review of private work.
2. A city or county register or overlay. This is where review comes from. Scottsdale placed Town and Country and Village Grove on its own register in 2005, and the same register gives National Register listings in 2009 and 2010. Fairfax County adopted its overlay for Hollin Hills in 2022, more than eight years after the National Register listing. Clark County’s overlay for Paradise Palms began with 216 homes and grew to nearly a thousand. Sacramento’s plan for its Eichler district lists the work that is typically exempt from design review.
3. Zoning written for the tract. No historic status is involved. Palo Alto’s single-story overlays, Cupertino’s R1e zoning and San Rafael’s –EA district limit stories, height or design through ordinary zoning. Design guidelines, such as Palo Alto’s and Sunnyvale’s, sit beside them.

How to check your own house

1. Name the tract. The Eichler Tract Finder lists tracts in 26 Bay Area places, and the Bay Area Eichler Tract Map shows 87 tracts on one map.
2. Check the local rules. Start with the Eichler Remodel Rules Finder, then read the city’s current code or ask the planning counter. The design guidelines hub gathers our city-by-city guides.
3. Look in the record. For a Register district, the nomination shows the boundary and which buildings contribute. Our guide Is my house historic? explains California’s registers and local lists.
4. Find the house’s own papers. The Mid-Century House Records Finder shows where permits and maps are kept in 34 Bay Area cities and county areas. The Eichler Archives Directory lists 39 tract site-plan records you can open online.
5. Ask before you design. Rules change, and a guideline in one city is a standard in the next. Take the question to the planning counter before you pay for drawings.

Questions and answers

Keep reading

• How a neighborhood becomes a historic district: the nomination steps, how owners are counted and the timeline.
• Preservation glossary: 52 terms in plain English, from contributing building to period of significance.
• Keep It Midmod: a preservation guide: repairing one house so it stays mid-century.
• Eichler Archives Directory: where the plans, photographs and records are held.
• Design guidelines hub: our city-by-city guides.
• Is my house historic?: how California’s registers and local lists work.
• Mid-century modern landmarks: 13 public buildings of the period.
• Mid-century modern homes of Southern California: our guide to the region.
• Streng Brothers homes in Sacramento: more Sacramento modern.

If you own a mid-century home in the Bay Area and want to know what applies to it before you remodel or sell, call the Boyenga Team at (408) 373-1660 or (650) 383-8606, or write to MidMods@Boyenga.com.