Willow Glen, California
| Willow Glen | |
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| — Neighborhood of San Jose — | |
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 Willow Glen
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| Coordinates: 37°18′13″N 121°53′50″W / 37.30357°N 121.897345°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | California |
| County | Santa Clara |
| City | San Jose |
Willow Glen is a neighborhood of San Jose, California, in Santa Clara County. Geographically speaking, the Willow Glen neighborhood is centered around Lincoln Avenue, which was renamed from "Willow Glen Road" in 1865 shortly after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.[1]
By 1863 the small unincorporated community needed its first school. Willow Glen Elementary School was founded in 1863. Willow Glen continued as an unincorporated community until the 1920s, when the City of San Jose ordered the Southern Pacific Railroad to re-route the Southern Pacific Railroad trunk line which at that time was going down Fourth Street. The Southern Pacific then proposed to re-route down Lincoln Avenue. In order to forestall that attempt, Willow Glen was incorporated as a city in 1927.[2] The railroad was instead re-routed to its current route through a then-unincorporated area now known as North Willow Glen,[3] where its principal user is now Caltrain.
Being a city, however, required thinking about issues such as sewage. Willow Glen had no sewer system – individual homes had their own cesspools or septic systems. Because the area was marshy before being drained for Willow Glen,[4] the high water table resulted in raw sewage often spilling above-ground from flooded cesspools. Rather than build their own very expensive sewage treatment system, in 1936 Willow Glen's residents opted to be annexed to San Jose and be linked to San Jose's sewage system, the measure passing by a vote of 978 to 871.[1]
Today Willow Glen's historic downtown on Lincoln Avenue between Willow Street and Minnesota Avenue is a well-known "walkable" downtown community, with a variety of restaurants and shops.[5] Willow Glen is located in zip code 95125 and part of 95124.[6] Rough boundaries
Annual events [edit]
Christmas Tree Lights
Willow Glen residents have a distinct Christmas tree decoration tradition, often called the "Charlie Brown Trees". This tradition involves buying similar, very small, Christmas Trees and placing them in the front yard 10 feet from the sidewalk with multicolored lights. The uniform look is striking. People and businesses in the neighborhood generally make significant decorations every year, both within the neighborhood and in the Lincoln Avenue business district.
The tradition of a Christmas tree on each residence's lawn was started by Frank Badagliacca Jr. in 1952 on the 1000 block of Camino Ramon. He was often called "Mr. Rebar" for using a stake made of construction rebar to hold up each tree. Dolores Badagliacca, his wife, came up with the idea of putting a single white light on the top of each tree. The tradition started as a competition between 3 consecutive streets, to see whose street had better participation. The tradition now stretches to over 200 streets in the greater San Jose area. [7]
References [edit]
- ^ a b Willow Glen History, willow-glen.com
- ^ Willow Glen residents think of their community, rather than their history, on Founders Day 1998, willow-glen.com
- ^ [1], mysite4now.com
- ^ The History of San Jose's Willow Glen District, downtownwillowglen.org
- ^ Downtown Willow Glen Business Directory, downtownwillowglen.org
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3], A Christmas Tale: Family that started the tree tradition
External links [edit]
- Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen A listing of businesses and organizations on and around Lincoln Avenue in the neighborhood of Willow Glen
- Willow Glen History interesting historical facts about Willow Glen, California
- Willow Glen Business Association business directory
- Willow Glen Neighborhood Association neighborhood association
- Willow Glen Branch Library library and community center
- Willow Glen Resident newspaper
- Willow Glen Times newspaper
- Willow Glen Backfence e-mail list, community recommendations
- Willow Glen Charm blog
- Willow Glen 2.0 Ning group
- "A Christmas Tale: Family that started the tree tradition" history
- North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association neighborhood association
Coordinates: 37°18′13″N 121°53′50″W / 37.303570°N 121.897345°W
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