The History of Willow Glen Willow Glen is a district of San Jose, California. It doesnt have exact boundaries--its almost a state of mind. Its roughly 3 miles southwest of downtown San Jose, and includes all of the original town of Willow Glen (founded in 1927 and annexed by San Jose in 1936), along with many adjacent areas that have developed since then. The traditional boundaries of Willow Glen are the Guadalupe River, Los Gatos Creek, and Coe and Curtner Avenues, though many adjacent areas are usually included today. Downtown Willow Glen is on Lincoln Avenue, generally between Coe and Minnesota Avenues. Willow Glen began as a marshy area with numerous Willow trees surrounding the Los Gatos Creek and Guadalupe River. It was drained in the early 1900s and planted with orchards. Later, houses and roads were built in the farmland and Willow Glen began to urbanize, with Lincoln Avenue developing as its downtown shopping area. Lincoln Avenue was originally called El Abra, but by the mid-1860s, its name had been changed to Willow Glen Road. Shortly after the assassination of President Lincoln in 1865, residents agreed to call it Lincoln Avenue. The Willow Glen Methodist Episcopal Church was founded in 1863, the same year as Willow Glen Elementary School. Initially, the church met in the public schoolhouse at Lincoln Avenue and Malone Road. Willow Glen Elementary Schools original building on Lincoln and Pine avenues stood on land donated by Royal Cottle, brother of Ira Cottle, for whom Cottle Avenue was named. Royal Cottle was a strong advocate for education and donated part of his 140-acre Willow Glen farm for the communitys first school: Willow Glen Elementary School. Skyrocketing land prices in Willow Glen are nothing new. In 1887, Willow Glen farms cost 10 times as much as other farms in the San Jose area. Willow Glen farms produced wheat, barley, potatoes, onions, beets and corn easily and in abundance, earning the community a reputation as one of the best farming areas in San Jose. A streetcar took turn-of-the-century Glenites down eucalyptus-lined Lincoln Avenue to downtown San Jose. In the 1920s a railroad was proposed to run through the middle of the community. Area residents joined together to successfully prevent the railroad from dividing their community. In 1927 the area was incorporated as the town of Willow Glen. By the 1930s the growth of the community made it necessary to join the City of San Jose and in 1936, residents of the Town of Willow Glen voted 978 to 871 in favor of annexing to San Jose. The main reason had to do with Willow Glens poor sewage system. There was no citywide sewage system; rather, individual septic tanks were located beneath each home. Annexing to San Jose was the cheapest solution to Willow Glens sewage problems. During the 1960s, Willow Glen was once again faced with an attempt to divide its community with the proposal of an expressway that would run through the center of their neighborhood. Once again, the community joined together to stop this incursion. Immediately after the Willow Glen Neighborhood Association formed in 1973, its members lobbied to keep the city from widening Bird and Pine avenues, which would have been turned into major thoroughfares. The associations efforts were successful and the city dropped the road-widening projects. Today, downtown is a bustling shopping district filled with shoppers, strollers and dogs walking up and down the sweeping tree-lined sidewalks. and Where is Willow Glen?........
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:23:45 +0000
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