Charleston Gardens

Charleston Gardens proves that a neighborhood boxed in by busy roads can still feel calm. Middlefield Road, East Charleston Road and San Antonio Road carry heavy traffic around it. Inside, the streets are short, the houses are single story and neighbors wave to each other on evening walks. Its history is a small drama of postwar building. The first developer went broke and Joseph Eichler bought the rest of the lots, which is why ranch houses and Eichlers sit side by side today.

This guide covers where Charleston Gardens is, how it was built, what the homes look like and the parks, schools, shops and services within walking distance.

Where Charleston Gardens is

Charleston Gardens is in the southeast corner of Palo Alto near the Mountain View border. Palo Alto Weekly describes it as bounded by three busy streets: East Charleston Road, Middlefield Road and San Antonio Road. Its neighborhood facts box gives tighter edges of Middlefield Road, East Charleston Road, Montrose Avenue and Sutherland Drive. Inside are short residential streets such as Seminole Way, Maplewood Avenue and Maplewood Place.

The neighbors are easy to place:

• Greenmeadow, the National Register Eichler tract, is across Middlefield Road to the west.
• Adobe Meadow and Meadow Park are across East Charleston Road to the north.
• Cubberley Community Center borders the neighborhood along Middlefield Road.
• Mountain View begins near San Antonio Road. US 101 is a short drive northeast.

Do not confuse it with Charleston Meadows, a separate Eichler tract across the city between El Camino Real and Alma Street.

History: a builder's bankruptcy and Joseph Eichler

Like the rest of south Palo Alto, this was farmland until the postwar housing boom. Palo Alto Weekly reports that Charleston Gardens was first named and developed in 1951. The original builder put up ranch-style houses and then went bankrupt before finishing the tract. Joseph Eichler bought the remaining building sites and completed them with his own modern designs.

An Eichler-focused real estate site counts 78 Eichler homes in the tract, with construction completed around 1954. That fits the peak years of Eichler's Palo Alto building, when he was also finishing Fairmeadow and starting Greenmeadow nearby. For a time the area was folded into the larger Charleston Terrace name before residents went back to Charleston Gardens, according to the Weekly.

Our South Palo Alto guide explains how orchards and farms across the south side became tract neighborhoods in the 1950s.

Housing in general terms

Single-story homes are the norm in Charleston Gardens, as residents told Palo Alto Weekly. The mix includes:

• Early 1950s ranch houses from the first builder, with pitched roofs and front-facing windows.
• Eichlers with low roofs, closed street fronts, glass walls facing the backyard and in some models a central atrium.
• Remodels and rebuilds, including some larger homes.

Residents told the Weekly that the midcentury architecture still feels up to date. The neighborhood also has a substantial share of renters. In 2011 residents estimated about 40 percent of homes were rentals, which keeps the population varied. For prices and buying advice, see our real estate guide.

Cubberley and the parks

Cubberley Community Center at 4000 Middlefield Road is Charleston Gardens' backyard. The former Cubberley High School campus closed in 1979. The school district still owns the 35-acre site and the city runs it as a community center, with rooms, gyms and studios for classes, sports, dance and meetings. Residents use its playgrounds, athletic fields and running track. The Friends of the Palo Alto Library hold large used book sales there most months.

Mitchell Park at 600 East Meadow Drive is a short walk or bike ride away across Charleston and Middlefield roads. It has the Magical Bridge Playground, a dog run and the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center at 3700 Middlefield Road. See our Mitchell Park guide and our libraries guide.

Schools by attendance area

Palo Alto Weekly's facts box listed these public schools for Charleston Gardens:

Hoover Elementary is on East Charleston Road and Fairmeadow is on East Meadow Drive. Attendance areas follow specific streets and change over time, so confirm any address with the PAUSD school finder. Several private schools are on or near San Antonio Road. Our private schools guide lists them.

Shops and services

Few south Palo Alto neighborhoods are as close to daily errands. Residents can walk to groceries, cultural events and a library, as the Weekly noted. The Charleston Shopping Center on Middlefield Road is anchored by Piazza's Fine Foods at 3922 Middlefield, a locally owned grocery. Our groceries guide has more on it. The Oshman Family Jewish Community Center on San Antonio Road runs fitness programs, classes and community events. Just across the city line, the San Antonio shopping area in Mountain View adds big grocery stores, restaurants and a cinema.

Getting around

The San Antonio Caltrain station in Mountain View is the closest train stop, a short bike ride southwest across Alma Street. VTA buses run on Middlefield Road and San Antonio Road. Drivers reach US 101 quickly at the San Antonio Road interchange. Charleston Road and Middlefield Road are busy at school times. The inner streets are the better choice for kids on bikes.

Neighborhood association

Charleston Gardens has an informal but active residents' network. Palo Alto Weekly described how neighbor Jean Wilcox began organizing residents and how later leaders focused the group on emergency preparedness, with an email tree to share neighborhood news. Volunteer contacts change, so use the City of Palo Alto's neighborhood association list to find the current one.

A walk around the neighborhood

A loop of about 40 minutes shows how much is packed into this corner of town. Start at the Charleston Shopping Center on Middlefield Road and pick up picnic supplies at Piazza's. Walk east along East Charleston Road and turn into Seminole Way and the Maplewood streets to compare the first builder's ranch houses with the Eichlers that followed. Look for the low rooflines, the carports and the closed street walls that mark an Eichler. Circle back along Montrose Avenue to Cubberley, whose fields and track residents use for exercise. Finish by crossing Middlefield Road into Greenmeadow, the National Register Eichler district. Every house on the route is a private home, so stay on the sidewalk.

The neighborhood suits people who value convenience over grandeur. A grocery, a library, a community center and a train station are all within a short ride. The trade-off is traffic noise on the edges and a busier feel than the cul-de-sac tracts farther west.

Families visiting relatives here can browse house rentals in Palo Alto or compare hotels in Palo Alto and nearby.

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