The Story of Joseph Eichler and His Iconic Eichler Homes

Let's take a trip down memory lane to the post-war era in California, where a man named Joseph Eichler changed the game of residential real estate development. His innovative mid-century modern style, featuring clean lines and open designs that bring the outdoors in, has inspired many, including the one and only Steve Jobs! 

Eichler was born in New York City on June 25, 1900, and raised in Manhattan and The Bronx. He attended New York University (NYU) and earned a business degree. In 1925, Eichler's family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to work in the Moncharsh family wholesale butter and egg business, which closed by the mid-1940s.

In 1943, Eichler rented the Sidney Bazett House in Hillsborough, California, a Usonian-style home built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Living in the Bazett home inspired Eichler to become a residential real estate developer of modernist homes. Between 1949 and 1966, Eichler's company, Eichler Homes, built over 11,000 homes in nine communities in Northern California and homes in three communities in Southern California. Later, other firms worked with Eichler's company to build similar houses, and together, they all came to be known as Eichlers.

Joseph Eichler was a visionary who aimed to create inclusive and diverse planned communities with integrated parks and community centers. He even established a non-discrimination policy, offering homes for sale to anyone regardless of religion or race. 

The Eichler homes are marvels of modernist architecture, featuring glass walls, post-and-beam construction, and open floorplans that blur the line between indoor and outdoor spaces. The houses were so avant-garde that many potential homebuyers were initially resistant to them. But eventually, architects, artists, and academics fell in love with their modernist design and innovative features.

Today, Eichler homes are highly sought after, and many have been preserved and restored to their original mid-century modern glory. Joseph Eichler's legacy lives on in these distinctive homes and the communities he created, which remain among America's most innovative and influential residential real estate development examples. So if you're lucky enough to own an Eichler home, pat yourself on the back and know that you're living in a true piece of architectural history!