"I'd say individuality of houses and gardens, and a go-with-what-you've got attitude, makes this neighborhood a San Jose on Foot winner."
—Joe Rodriguez, San Jose Mercury News, July 18, 2002
"At the turn of the 19th century, San Jose was a very vibrant community, busy growing fruits and vegetables, packing them and loading them onto railroad cars and wagons, cutting, planing and milling thousands of board feet of the redwoods growing in the surrounding hills and all the way to the coast of Santa Cruz. Many of the workers lived in boarding houses, if they were not married, and usually wished to purchase a house if they did marry. New land was necessary for the new houses, and real estate agents were extremely happy to oblige.
"One such was the Cook and Brandon subdivision of county land, platted out in 1894, again in 1898, a third time in 1902, and a final time in 1904, when some of it became known as the Hancock Tract. The City of San Jose had ended at 11th Street and St. James Streets, with some city streets as far north as Taylor. The Cook and Brandon subdivision ranged from Taylor on the north, Coyote Creek to the east, St. James on the south and 11th Street to the west.
"The streets were quite wide in the 1894 version. Haven't you wondered why some streets are wide [in our neighborhood], while others are narrow? The wide streets are the locations of the original platted streets. Twelfth Street, 1894 version, is now 13th, or the Old Oakland-San Jose Road. 1993's 15th Street is 1894's 13th Street. Twenty-first Street today was 16th Street.
"In 1898, the land was subdivided and platted again, and each block was split down the middle. Originally, the split was to be an alley, a narrow service road to the backs of homes. Most of the Cook and Brandon subdivision had been pasturage before, with a few small gardens tended by people who lived elsewhere. Julian Street had a horse-drawn rail line that turned around at Coyote Creek and went back.
"Some of the land of this subdivision had been sold, but much had not in 1898. In 1902, the city decided to enlarge the alleys to make them streets, and the width of the new blocks became the same as the blocks between 1st and 11th, east of 11th Street. St. James was known as Lick Lane. Nineteenth was known as Clay Street, 20th as Carey Avenue north of Alum Rock (as Santa Clara was called). Twenty-first Street was Sullivan north of Alum Rock, Jones Street to the south. Twenty-second did not go north of Alum Rock; it was known as Monroe Street to the south."
—Larry Jean, N. 20th Street resident, Northside Newsletter, Winter 1994
Downtown San Jose Neighborhood Map
13th Street Strong Neighborhoods Initiative (SNI) Map
Historic Maps of San Jose
Northside People
Northside Homes