Palm Haven is a historic
residence park {{Unreferenced, date=June 2010
Residence Parks were residential developments that were built around the early 1900s in North America. Most were built prior to World War I and those that had not already sold most of their lots suffered considerable f ...
and neighborhood in the
Willow Glen district of
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popu ...
.
History
Established in 1913 on the edge of the city, Palm Haven was considered the quintessential "
Residence Park {{Unreferenced, date=June 2010
Residence Parks were residential developments that were built around the early 1900s in North America. Most were built prior to World War I and those that had not already sold most of their lots suffered considerable f ...
".
Developers Eaton, Vestal, and Herschbach built Palm Haven with wide parkways planted with
Mexican Fan Palms and
Canary Island Date Palm
''Phoenix canariensis'', the Canary Island date palm or pineapple palm, is a species of flowering plant in the palm family Arecaceae, native to the Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco. It is a relative of ''Phoenix dactylifera'', the true dat ...
s at equal intervals. The entrances to the development were marked by large,
Mission-Revival styled concrete pillars adorned with large urns, plants and electric lanterns.
A covered waiting station in the same
Mission-Revival style was built on an island at the foot of the Palm Haven Avenue entrance for a Palm Haven stop on the Peninsular Railway.
The center of the neighborhood contains a plaza planted in a formal style creating sight lines and symmetry.
Common to
Residence Parks, Palm Haven had a set of conditions, covenants and restrictions that controlled what was built, a minimum cost, property setbacks, and racial exclusions.
The neighborhood is largely intact today as its palm trees are now fully grown at approximately 100 feet tall. All the original trees from the 1913 planting are designated "Heritage Trees" by the
City of San Jose and are the largest coordinated tree planting within city limits.
The neighborhood is a designated Historic Conservation Area in the
City of San Jose.
Notable residents
Many important figures in local history with regional and even national impacts lived in Palm Haven including:
*
Lewis Dan Bohnett - Attorney and statesman who led the fight to stop the
Southern Pacific Railroad from running straight through
Willow Glen and Palm Haven. He succeeded in getting
Willow Glen incorporated as a city and took the legal fight all the way to the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
and won.
*
Herman Krause - Celebrated area designer of premium residential and commercial installations in the San Jose area during the early 20th century.
*
Frank Delos Wolfe - Noted area architect lived in Palm Haven and designed many homes there along with hundreds in the San Jose and San Francisco Bay Area. Work spans late 19th century to 1925. Some innovations previously credited to
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...
have been found to be firsts with Frank Delos Wolfe. Several structures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as California & San Jose registers.
References
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*
External links
Official Palm Haven site
{{Neighborhoods of San Jose
Neighborhoods in San Jose, California