Willow Glen is a district of
San Jose,
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, in
Santa Clara County
Santa Clara County, officially the County of Santa Clara, is the sixth-most populous county in the U.S. state of California, with a population of 1,936,259, as of the 2020 census. Santa Clara County and neighboring San Benito County together f ...
. Willow Glen is known for its historic downtown, dining and shopping, and is one of the most expensive neighborhoods to live in San Jose. Willow Glen was originally an independent town, until it voted to be annexed by San Jose in 1936.
History
![Roberto-Sunol House (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Roberto-Sunol_House_%28cropped%29.jpg)
The neighborhood began in the mid-1800s as
Rancho de los Coches and
Rancho San Juan Bautista
Rancho San Juan Bautista was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1844 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena to José Agustín Narvaez. The grant extended along the Guadalupe River from Los Gatos to San Jose ...
,
Mexican land grants adjacent to the
San Jose pueblo. Don
Antonio Suñol, who owned Rancho de los Coches and built the
Suñol House, is considered to be the founder of the community.
"Willow Glen" was named for the marshy wet area between the
Guadalupe River and
Los Gatos Creek, which were abundant in willows and cattails, unusual for the rest of the region. By the 1860s the small unincorporated community needed its first school, and
Willow Glen Elementary School was founded in 1863 on land donated by Ira Cottle.
Much of Willow Glen was laid out by Frank Lewis and Isaac Bird (the namesake of "Bird Avenue"). In 1860, Lewis dug the channel between Willow Street and Curtner Avenue that carries the
Guadalupe River to this day. That channel effectively drained the marsh and opened Willow Glen for farming. By the late 1800s, Willow Glen was generally considered one of the most prized locations in all of the Santa Clara Valley for raising wheat, barley, hay, tobacco and hops. By 1880, plots of Willow Glen farmland were priced nearly 10 times higher than similar plots in the valley.
![Willow Glen, San Jose, California 0470](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Willow_Glen%2C_San_Jose%2C_California_0470.jpg)
Lincoln Avenue was renamed from "Willow Glen Road" in 1865, shortly after the assassination of President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...
.
Willow Glen continued as an unincorporated community until the 1920s, when the City of San Jose ordered the Southern Pacific Railroad to re-route the
Southern Pacific Railroad trunk line which at that time was going down Fourth Street. The Southern Pacific then proposed to re-route down Lincoln Avenue. In order to forestall that attempt, Willow Glen was incorporated as a city in 1927. The railroad was instead re-routed to its current route through a then-unincorporated area now known as North Willow Glen, where its principal user is now
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...
.
Being a city, however, required thinking about issues such as sewage. Willow Glen had no sewer system – individual homes had their own
cesspool
A cesspit (or cesspool or soak pit in some contexts) is a term with various meanings: it is used to describe either an underground holding tank (sealed at the bottom) or a soak pit (not sealed at the bottom). It can be used for the temporary co ...
s or
septic systems
A septic tank is an underground chamber made of concrete, fiberglass, or plastic through which domestic wastewater ( sewage) flows for basic sewage treatment. Settling and anaerobic digestion processes reduce solids and organics, but the treat ...
. Because the area was marshy before being drained for Willow Glen, the high water table resulted in raw sewage often spilling above-ground from flooded cesspools. Rather than build their own very expensive sewage treatment system, in 1936 Willow Glen's residents opted to be annexed to San Jose and be linked to San Jose's
sewage system, the measure passing by a vote of 17 to 38.
Geography
Willow Glen includes areas within zip code 95125, though not all of the zip code area can actually be considered to be part of the Willow Glen neighborhood, and there are areas within the 95126 zip code that many people would consider to be part of Willow Glen. The Willow Glen Neighborhood Association's by-laws reserve voting memberships to individuals and businesses within boundaries of the Association defined by the San Jose 2009 Greenprint - Willow Glen Planning Area Map, and within 1/2 mile of the Greenprint boundary.
Interstate 280 is almost universally accepted as the community's northern border. The
Guadalupe River was the original eastern border of Willow Glen during its time as a municipality. The
Los Gatos Creek originally served as a natural western end for the community, until 1866, when extreme flooding of the creek caused it to naturally cut a new channel running far west around what was traditionally considered Willow Glen. The reshaped creek left behind a dry creek bed, known as the "Dry Creek," and opened up Willow Glen for greater southwest expansion.
Areas and neighborhood
*
Palm Haven - 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 ...
neighborhood
*Gardner/North Willow Glen - northern area of the district
*Lincoln Glen/Willow Glen South - southwestern area of the district
*Downtown Willow Glen - central shopping and dining area
Culture
Architecture
![Stone Church of Willow Glen (9984194964) (cropped)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Stone_Church_of_Willow_Glen_%289984194964%29_%28cropped%29.jpg)
Willow Glen neighborhoods are almost exclusively composed of custom or semi-custom homes in a diverse range of architectural styles. Many architect-commissioned houses can be seen in the neighborhood, including Victorian, Neoclassical (Queen Anne Cottage and Neocolonial), Colonial Revival, Craftsman, Mission, Prairie, Spanish Eclectic,
Eichler Homes
Joseph Leopold Eichler (June 25, 1900 – July 1, 1974) was a 20th-century post-war American real estate developer known for developing distinctive residential subdivisions of Mid-century modern style tract housing in California. He was one o ...
, and Tudor.
In recent years many smaller houses have been replaced with larger houses.
Dancin' on the Avenue
Dancin' on the Avenue was Willow Glen's annual street party that occurs on one day in the summer, along Lincoln Avenue between Willow Street and Minnesota Avenue. The event was organized by the Willow Glen Business Association. It ran from 1995 to 2018.
Founders' Day
Founders' Day occurs in September although it has not been celebrated every year. The event celebrates the rich history, cultural heritage, and progressive present of the neighborhoods, homes, and community of Willow Glen. The highlight is a festive parade that proceeds down Lincoln Avenue. The origins of Founders' Day are not known. Archives of the Willow Glen Resident newspaper indicate it originates from the area's nine years of independence from San Jose between September 8, 1927 and September 4, 1936. Another view is that it celebrates the work of
Antonio Suñol who built Laura Ville in 1847.
Christmas decorations
Willow Glen residents have a distinct Christmas tree decoration tradition. This tradition involves buying similar, very small, Christmas trees and placing them in the front yard ten feet from the sidewalk with multicolored lights. People and businesses in the neighborhood generally make significant decorations every year, both within the neighborhood and in the Lincoln Avenue business district, drawing visitors from all around the area.
The tradition of a Christmas tree on each residence's lawn was started in 1950 by Robert and Arlene Cimino. Trees were purchased in bulk from the Knights of Columbus and delivered to participating homes. The Ciminos moved from the area in 1956 and the tradition was continued by Frank Badagliacca Jr. His wife, Dolores Badagliacca, came up with the idea of putting a single white light on the top of each tree. The tradition now stretches to over 200 streets in the greater San Jose area.
Parks and Plazas
![Willow_Glen_Elementary_School](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/33/Willow_Glen_Elementary_School.jpg)
*
Willow Street Frank Bramhall Park
*Fuller Park
*River Glen Park
*Wallenberg Park & Garden
*Wilcox Park
Trails
The two sections of the
Los Gatos Creek Trail
The Los Gatos Creek Trail is a 9.7-mile (15.6 km) pedestrian and bicycle trail that runs through western Santa Clara County in California, from Lexington Reservoir in Los Gatos, California through Campbell, California to Meridian Avenue in S ...
terminate in Willow Glen. The connection requires on-street travel through much of Willow Glen.
One section of the
Guadalupe River Trail
The Guadalupe River Trail is an pedestrian and bicycle path in the city of San Jose, California. The path runs along the banks of the Guadalupe River. The trail is currently composed of two discontinuous segments: a short segment along the Upp ...
terminates near the far north east edge of Willow Glen but otherwise does not run through it.
The
Highway 87 Bikeway
State Route 87 (SR 87), known as the Guadalupe Freeway or referred to by the locals as Highway 87, is a north–south state highway in San Jose, California, United States. Before being upgraded to a freeway, it was Guadalupe Parkway (and some ...
runs along the eastern edge of Willow Glen but terminates at Willow Street at its most northern point.
The
Three Creeks Trail The Three Creeks Trail is a pedestrian and bicycle trail that runs through the Willow Glen neighborhood in San Jose, California, from Los Gatos Creek by Lonus Street to the Guadalupe River, as the western alignment. The western section of the t ...
runs diagonally through Willow Glen and passes close to downtown.
Transportation
Although no railway stations exist within Willow Glen, the area is served by the nearby
VTA light rail's Blue Line and
Caltrain
Caltrain (reporting mark JPBX) is a California commuter rail line serving the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Clara Valley (Silicon Valley). The southern terminus is in San Jose at Tamien station with weekday rush hour service running as fa ...
stations on or near its borders:
Fruitdale,
Race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...
,
Curtner,
Tamien,
Diridon, and
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
.
Notable residents
References
External links
Willow Glenby
Team San JoseWillow Glen Business AssociationWillow Glen Neighborhood AssociationNorth Willow Glen Neighborhood Association''Willow Glen Times''newspaper
{{Authority control
Former municipalities in California
Neighborhoods in San Jose, California