Joseph Eichler (1900-74) was born in New York in 1900, son of German Jewish immigrants. He grew up in a politically liberal family who admired Pres Franklin Roosevelt, and grew to maturity in NY’s culturally diverse community. He began his career on Wall St and later joined the poultry business run by the family of his wife Lillian, daughter of Polish Jewish immigrants.
After the Great Depression started, more of the nation's residential mortgages were in default, with foreclosures booming in the early 1930s. In an attempt to revive the economy, increase employment in the construction industry, and make home ownership widely available to the American public, the federal government introduced a series of programmes. The U.S appraisal industry opposed the mixing of the races, which it believed would cause the decline of both the human race and of property values. Appraisers introduced their property rating system, ranking properties, blocks and even whole neighbourhoods:
A/green – new successful development, professionals, no blacks
B/blue – some Jewish home owners but the development would remain stable
C/yellow – declining development
D/red – some black home owners, low income earners, declining value.
D areas’ properties were redlined, or marked as locations in which no loans should be made for either purchasing or upgrading properties. Redlining, along with similarly racist policies, deepened as suburban development swelled in the post-WW2 era.
Joseph, Lillian and their two sons, Richard and Edward, relocated to California in 1940. There they rented a Frank Lloyd Wright home, called the Bazett House in Hillsborough Cal and by the mid-1940s, Eichler was intrigued by architect Lloyd Wright’s modernism.
Although not an architect himself, Eichler’s name became identified with mid-century, single-family, modern homes that helped define suburban Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hiring progressive architects in San Francisco, Eichler realised his developer dream. As regional architecture designed for the Bay Area's benign climate, his designs grabbed attention: streamlined kitchen built ins, multi-purpose room adjacent to the kitchen, radiant-heated floors, wood panelling, gabled ceilings, floor-to-ceiling glass walls and the classic atrium that melded indoor-outdoor living. With the post-and-beam construction and open floor plans designed around the central atrium, the “Eichlers” were houses that remained very much in demand by design buffs.
He built c11,000 homes. His Northern Californian houses were in Marin county, East Bay, San Mateo county, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento. His three small communities in Southern California were in Orange, Thousand Oaks and Granada Hills. In total, these houses reflected the beauty and uniqueness of his design and the integrity of the builder behind it, set in inclusive and diverse planned communities featuring integrated parks and community centres. In addition to his Californian developments, he also built 3 Eichler houses in New York.
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Importantly Eichler made non-discriminatory housing a central principle of his company, launched in 1947. He remembered discrimination against Jews back in New York, and he believed discrimination was still common ..and not just in housing.
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After the Great Depression started, more of the nation's residential mortgages were in default, with foreclosures booming in the early 1930s. In an attempt to revive the economy, increase employment in the construction industry, and make home ownership widely available to the American public, the federal government introduced a series of programmes. The U.S appraisal industry opposed the mixing of the races, which it believed would cause the decline of both the human race and of property values. Appraisers introduced their property rating system, ranking properties, blocks and even whole neighbourhoods:
A/green – new successful development, professionals, no blacks
B/blue – some Jewish home owners but the development would remain stable
C/yellow – declining development
D/red – some black home owners, low income earners, declining value.
D areas’ properties were redlined, or marked as locations in which no loans should be made for either purchasing or upgrading properties. Redlining, along with similarly racist policies, deepened as suburban development swelled in the post-WW2 era.
Joseph, Lillian and their two sons, Richard and Edward, relocated to California in 1940. There they rented a Frank Lloyd Wright home, called the Bazett House in Hillsborough Cal and by the mid-1940s, Eichler was intrigued by architect Lloyd Wright’s modernism.
Although not an architect himself, Eichler’s name became identified with mid-century, single-family, modern homes that helped define suburban Los Angeles and San Francisco. Hiring progressive architects in San Francisco, Eichler realised his developer dream. As regional architecture designed for the Bay Area's benign climate, his designs grabbed attention: streamlined kitchen built ins, multi-purpose room adjacent to the kitchen, radiant-heated floors, wood panelling, gabled ceilings, floor-to-ceiling glass walls and the classic atrium that melded indoor-outdoor living. With the post-and-beam construction and open floor plans designed around the central atrium, the “Eichlers” were houses that remained very much in demand by design buffs.
He built c11,000 homes. His Northern Californian houses were in Marin county, East Bay, San Mateo county, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento. His three small communities in Southern California were in Orange, Thousand Oaks and Granada Hills. In total, these houses reflected the beauty and uniqueness of his design and the integrity of the builder behind it, set in inclusive and diverse planned communities featuring integrated parks and community centres. In addition to his Californian developments, he also built 3 Eichler houses in New York.
Two-storey residence, glass wall and amazing view
San Francisco’s Diamond Heights neighbourhood, 1965
Kitchen with wood panelling and beamed tongue-and-groove ceilings.
Silicon Valley, 1962
Indoor/outdoor view
Silicon Valley
Inspired by Wright, Eichler created a vision that embraced modernist aesthetics. In 1949, when it was still uncommon to find merchant builders and architects together, Eichler fell in love with building communities characterised by elegant family homes and middle class affordability. And he refused to be swayed by associates who saw greater profits in quick designs and/or poor materials.
Importantly Eichler made non-discriminatory housing a central principle of his company, launched in 1947. He remembered discrimination against Jews back in New York, and he believed discrimination was still common ..and not just in housing.
Discrimination throughout the country was rampant and legal then, and Eichler was one of the first major developers to oppose it. He was the first large-tract builder to sell to minorities, including building a home on his own lot for a National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People leader. Eichler Homes quietly ruled out racial restriction on its sales, noting that Asian families bought Eichlers in 1950 and the company made its first sale to a black family in 1954. His son Ned, who joined the business in 1954, shared dad’s beliefs.
The developer resigned from the National Association of Home Builders in 1958 when the vice president of the San Francisco branch said: "It was a generally accepted that minority races depreciate property values". There may have been no statistics to prove it, but as the representative of home builders, it was the theory under which he had to operate. Eichler promptly offered to buy back homes from any home owners troubled by their minority neighbours.
How ironic that California’s Fair Housing Legislation was introduced in 1959.
How ironic that California’s Fair Housing Legislation was introduced in 1959.
Atrium of a twin gable,
Sunnyvale California, 1962
A triangular window was often placed between the horizontal joists and the roof,
increasing the grandness of the large window walls.
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An Eichler home was sold to a black family and a neighbour complained.
So the company bought the neighbour’s home back and promptly resold it. Palo Alto, 1954.
So Dwell magazine publicly highlighted Eichler’s long commitment to undoing racist housing policies by selling homes to anyone who could afford it, regardless of their race, ethnicity or religion. Racist housing policies continued to persist, even when racist policies were later deemed illegal by legislation. 
So the company bought the neighbour’s home back and promptly resold it. Palo Alto, 1954.
For a while their non-discrimination policy was not broadcast to prospective buyers and local governments; instead the builders quietly sold to anyone who was qualified. But activism on a larger scale began when the Co. pushed for widespread fair housing laws in California and for the federal government; Eichler even accepted an invitation to testify before the U.S Civil Rights Commission of 1960. Eichler Homes demonstrated that housing could be integrated without fundamentally altering the character of the suburbs, instigating battles with municipalities, or hurting profits.
While housing discrimination remained across the country, the Civil Rights Act of 1968 officially illegalised housing discrimination; the social activism of the Eichlers had played a major role in helping such legislation to be passed. Read Prof Ocean Howell’s book, “The Merchant Crusaders: Eichler Homes and Fair Housing 1949–74” online.
Joe Eichler passed away in 1974, at 73.