Palm Haven, San Jose


Palm Haven is a historic residence park and neighborhood in San Jose, California,

History

Established in 1913 on the edge of the city, Palm Haven was considered the quintessential "Residence Park".
Developers Eaton, Vestal, and Herschbach built Palm Haven with wide parkways planted with Mexican Fan Palms and Canary Island Date Palms 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: