Browsing Category History

The stately manor at the corner of Minnesota and Newport, well known among Willow Glenners, has been recognized by the city as a historic landmark.

Click here to read the entire application which includes a complete history of the house, and detailed description of the specific architectural attributes and features that make the house historically significant. We’ve cut it down to the good stuff, but the complete application and response are available at the city’s site.

The home was constructed in its present form in the early 1890s following a fire that had destroyed much of a house that had been built in the early 1870s. It is not clear how much of the original house was affected by the fire or left intact, as the interior features many design elements common to the 1870s.

The land is part of what was an original 19th century agricultural site of about 65 acres, until a 9.5 acre plot was sold to William W. Cozzens in 1873. The house was constructed for Cozens, and the land was home to a fruit drying operation known as the Cozzens Fruit Company of San Jose.

As noted in the historical landmark application, the house is an extremely ine example of a Victorian-era rsidence built during San Jose’s period of historical expansion which lasted from 1870-1919.

William Cozzens was born in Sacramento in 1853. He first worked as a miner in the 1870s until the family moved to San Jose in 1873 and settled in the area known as The Willows. Cozzens himself worked as hay and grain dealer with his son, residing on Minnesota Avenue. His sister Kate worked as a teacher at the San Jose Normal School (which eventually became San Jose State University). His older half-brothers Joshua and John were prominent orchardists who established a 500-acre orchard at Dry Creek and Kirk roads.

The Garden Theatre opened on June 22, 1949 and it’s name echoed the old term for San Jose as “The Garden City.” The architect was Otto A. Deichman. It was operated for most of its life by General Theatrical as a first run house, and was very successful as the theater for San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood. In 1989 the theater was gutted and converted to commercial space, and today it hosts a number of restaurants, salons and office-based businesses.

Read on for more history compliments of CinemaTreasures.com, and check out
Bud Lima’s Garden Theater for the first-person perspective of local author Cookie Curci who grew up in Willow Glen when the theater was an important part of the community.
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Built in 1935, Graham Field was a baseball park located along Willow Street a few blocks east of Highway 87 — Willow Street on the north, Mastic on the east, Goodyear to the south, and Almaden Road on the West. The intersection of Graham and Goodyear was near home plate, and Graham Ave. runs right through what would have been center field.
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The Goosetown Lounge is inarguably Willow Glen’s most famous drinking establishment, but few people know there’s a lot of history behind the unusual name.

According to Gary Rovai, who with his wife Lynn owns Goosetown Lounge and Goosetown Mercantile, a long time ago the residents of the area, who were mostly Italian immigrants, would catch geese that stopped in as part of their migration, clip their wings and keep ‘em around for their big holiday dinners. (not as guests…)

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When Valerie Evans recently remodeled The Grapevine, the property owner gave her a few old pictures of the building to hang on the wall. They are the coolest historical pictures of Willow Glen that I’ve ever seen and if you’re into the historic side of Willow Glen you really need to go see them for yourself. Until then click the pics to zoom in, and enjoy the WhatWasThere sliders that let you compare the old pic with what’s there today.
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The Bergmann's building before
the 2011 renovation of its façade.

According to this article in the Merc, the Bergmann’s building, which now houses Le Boulanger, Siena Bistro and Paris Flea, has changed hands in response to an unsolicited ‘offer he couldn’t refuse.’

While the news itself might not be interesting to many, the article includes some interesting historical info:
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Lots of Willow Glenners have noticed that the Chase Bank (formerly Washington Mutual and Home Savings of America before that) is a beautiful building decorated with some amazing artwork.

We recently learned that the great mosaics were created by a prominent mid-century American artist named Millard Sheets. Sheets was a painter, teacher and architect, and among his many projects he designed and decorated dozens of banks for Home Savings of America, which originally built that bank building. There are two more pieces of Sheets’ work inside the branch. Sheets also painted a 20-by-30 foot mural depicting more than 1,000 years of Santa Clara Valley history that was hung in terminal C of San Jose Airport in 1977 until it was recently relocated as part of the airport renovation.
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We just found this very cool article about the history of Willow Glen article as part of an old web site of the North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association.
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Willow Glen’s first history night was a huge success. Mon., Feb 6, 2012 the WG library community room was packed with  a well organized crowd of 60+ people who love Willow Glen! Don’t worry, apparently there was a waiting list of 50 other residents that could not get in, so they will likely do it again.
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For many years a family on Willow Street, across from Bramhall Park near Meridian, would turn two giant Willow trees in their front yard into a wonderfully festive display, as you can see below. According to long-time Willow Glenner Mark Bowlby, one of the trees died shortly before they moved, and the new owners were advised that stringing lights along all the branches, while beautiful, was quite harmful to the trees.
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