San Jose has a colorful history of Victorian era homes from 1849 to 1915. The two best streets to see the painted ladies are Magnolia and Hester Avenues. They run in parallel between The Alameda and Park Avenue and feature a large inventory of turn of the century homes in various states of repair.
You can drive the two street pretty quickly, but if you want to take in the architecture I encourage you to park and walk both streets. You'll be amazed at how many great homes there are, and how many more are just waiting for restoration. My photos don't do them justice!
You can drive the two street pretty quickly, but if you want to take in the architecture I encourage you to park and walk both streets. You'll be amazed at how many great homes there are, and how many more are just waiting for restoration. My photos don't do them justice!
Hester was named after Honorable Judge Craven P. Hester, from which our neighborhood's Hester Park Gates and today's Hester Conservation District come from. He was so influential that the entire neighborhood was called the Hester District, and remained independent of San Jose for many years, until finally agreeing to be annexed into the city.
Hopefully with a little bit of publicity we can encourage more homeowners interested in restoring these great homes to move into the neighborhood. If you think you'd like to buy and restore a historic Victorian era home you can check out the listings on Zillow.
Hopefully with a little bit of publicity we can encourage more homeowners interested in restoring these great homes to move into the neighborhood. If you think you'd like to buy and restore a historic Victorian era home you can check out the listings on Zillow.
Magnolia Avenue was named and developed by Hotel developer Charles M. Schiele (Schiele Avenue is named after him as well). It has some of our neighborhood's oldest homes and remains largely intact with commercial buildings contained to either end of the long street.
In addition to the Painted Ladies, Magnolia Avenue also showcases the Magnolia tree. This is an ancient flowering tree that predates bees. The flowers are beautiful and tough, because they are pollinated by beetles! They were discovered and named after Pierre Magnol, a French botanist, and were very in vogue when the street was named. The trees were imported from Japan and China and planted on the street. Homeowners love the long lasting flowers and magnolia flower smell, but hate that the tree loses leaves daily during the hottest weeks of Summer (nobody wants to rake leaves in the heat of Summer)! Sadly, Our City Forest has been replacing many of the Magnolia Trees with Sycamores, although you can request them.
The term "painted ladies" comes from the American style of painting Victorian style homes in 3 or more bold colors.
If you need inspiration check out this Pinterest board on Painted Victorians. You'll get hooked. I promise! http://www.pinterest.com/artgirlri/painted-ladies
If you need inspiration check out this Pinterest board on Painted Victorians. You'll get hooked. I promise! http://www.pinterest.com/artgirlri/painted-ladies