Welcome to the Historic Inventory project and
thank you for helping document Naglee Park's past. The purpose of our project is
to collect historic information about the houses and owners of each structure in
historic Naglee Park and in the adjacent Naglee Terrace and Orvis Street
neighborhoods.
The guidelines and documents we will be using in our study are those
developed by the federal Department of the Interior for use in documenting
structures which are being evaluated for the National Register of Historic
Places. We are using these forms because they have been adopted by the City of
San Jose as their standard form, and because these forms are used widely across
the United States for similar projects.
The Boundaries of the Study
The limits of our study are the historic
boundaries of the Naglee Park subdivision, as well as the neighborhood just
south of this area. The boundaries of Naglee Park are 11th Street, Santa Clara
Street, Coyote Creek and William Street. The areas south of Naglee Park include
the area bounded by William Street, Coyote Creek, Highway 280 (Sinclair Freeway)
and 11th Street.
Naglee Park Background
Naglee Park is a residential subdivision that
was developed in 1902 on the grounds of the estate of Civil War Brig. General
Henry Morris Naglee. Naglee was a California pioneer who is noted for his
contributions to the California banking and viticulture industries. He lived in
several locations in California; a San Francisco apartment, a large Rancho near
Stockton and his country estate in San Jose. He also maintained a home in
Philadelphia, his birthplace. His San Jose house and carriage house are located
on the corner of 14th and San Fernando and are the oldest buildings in the
neighborhood.
A stipulation in Naglee's will prevented his San Jose estate from being sold
until his youngest daughter reached the age of 30. Nearly 20 years after
Naglee's death his two daughters formed a development company, the Naglee Park
Improvement Company (NPIC), to develop the San Jose estate as a residential
subdivision.
Naglee Park development started in 1902. The first subdivision map was filed
in the spring of 1902 by the Naglee Park Improvement Company, a small
corporation formed by General Naglee's two daughters and their husbands. This
type of residential subdivision was an unique concept for its time on the West
Coast, although it borrowed development ideas that were already popular in
eastern America. It was developed as a complete neighborhood with paved streets,
utility easements and restrictive covenants limiting the size of the houses that
could be built. Businesses were forbidden and stables were limited to the rear
of the properties. Since Naglee Park was developed just as the automobile was
being introduced, this subdivision shows the transition from the horse-and-buggy
to the automobile.
California, Santa Clara County, San Jose and Naglee Park were in a building
boom around the turn of the century. Economic prosperity and the growing fruit
industry made Naglee Park a tremendous success. Similar developments soon opened
in other parts of Santa Clara County; Hanchett Park and later, Palm Haven. By
about 1910 the last of the Naglee Park home sites had been sold and the Naglee
Park Improvement Corporation was disbanded.
The city of San Jose had grown up around Naglee Park. When Naglee Park was
finally opened for development, it was the largest tract of land adjacent to
Downtown. Convenient public transportation along Santa Clara Street made the
area attractive to downtown merchants and businessmen who wanted homes near
their businesses. So early Naglee Park residents include a substantial number of
the Valley's doctors and dentists, bankers, attorneys and insurance men,
merchants and fruit company managers.
Some Naglee Park development facts to keep in mind
Naglee Park was
opened in 1902. Only General Naglee's house was built at an earlier date, about
1865. The first part of the development opened along Santa Clara Street in 1902
and new blocks were opened as older sections were sold. So the older homes are
along San Fernando Street; newer houses are closer to San Salvador and William.
Many houses south of William Street along 12th Street date from an earlier
era, 1860-1900.
A "Victorian" house is one built during the reign of Queen Victoria of
England. Victoria died in 1901, so there are very few houses in the Naglee Park
area that can correctly be described as "Victorian".
General Naglee's house is located at the corner of 14th and San Fernando.
Since it was built around 1865, it can legitimately be classified as Victorian
house.
The streets in Naglee Park were named for the California missions.
IMPORTANT: The numbered streets in Naglee Park originally alternated
names and numbers. The old scheme was 11th, Whitney, 12th, Crittenden, 13th,
Priest. The names were changed about 1911 to match the streets north of Santa
Clara Street - 11th, 12th and so on, thru 17th.
Researchers Take Note: The old address you are seeking on 13th Street
may in fact be labeled as 12th Street.
When Naglee Park was built, the developed city of San Jose stopped at 11th
Street. Although the city limits included the land to Coyote Creek, most of the
town of San Jose was composed of small rural homes until well past the turn of
the century.
The area just east of Naglee Park, on the other side of Coyote Creek, was a
substantial little enclave with its own government, fire department and vital
community life. Known as the town of East San Jose, it was annexed to San Jose
about 1911.
The building permit system was well established in San Jose when the Naglee
Park homes were under construction. Although building permits in the 1890's were
simply a form of municipal tax, by 1902 architect Theodore Lenzen had
reorganized the permit system to regulate standards of construction.
A building permit has been required for any plumbing, electrical or
structural work, including building garages in Naglee Park since 1902.
Unfortunately, the early building permits and the permit index for the years
1900-1910 have disappeared.
Naglee Park houses were equipped with city water, sewers, gas and electricity
and telephones from the time they were built. San Jose Water Company was
incorporated in 1866; San Jose Gas was incorporated in 1860 but used primarily
for lighting until the turn of the century. Municipal electricity and telephone
systems were in use in the 1890's. Since early electrical illumination systems
were quite dim, gas lights were common until about 1910. Many early Naglee Park
houses still show evidence of both systems.
Some important frames of reference for researching Naglee Park. In 1910, the
total population for the city of San Jose was 28,946. The total for the County
was 83,539. There was only one high school in San Jose and it was located on
what is now the campus of San Jose State University. So chances are, all the
students in the neighborhood, and their families, knew each other.
