The Unsung Story of Eichler Homes and How They Helped Integrate American Neighborhoods
Joseph Eichler not only defined the middle-class home of the midcentury period, but also worked to dismantle racist housing policies.
Joseph Eichler not only defined the middle-class home of the midcentury period, but also worked to dismantle racist housing policies.
Joseph Eichler’s name is synonymous with the stylish, midcentury homes that his development company brought to the suburbs of California. His role in fighting for fair housing policies and integrated neighborhoods, however, is lesser known.
Developer Joseph Eichler consulted with members of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, Federal Housing Administration, Housing and Home Finance Agency, and Housing and Urban Development about how to craft and promote anti-discrimination laws. This 1962 home designed by A. Quincy Jones & Frederick Emmons is in the Fairhaven tract in Orange, California.
Photo courtesy of Darren Bradley
Born in 1900 in New York City to German Jewish immigrants, Eichler founded the eponymous Eichler Homes, which built more than 11,000 residences concentrated in Northern and Southern California. He worked with leading architects of the day—Anshen & Allen, Oakland & Associates, Jones & Emmons, A. Quincy Jones, and Raphael Soriano—to design the distinctive dwellings that are now simply known as Eichlers and still coveted today.
This four-bedroom, 1960 home was designed by Anshen & Allen in Orange, California’s Fairmeadows tract. The original brochure advertised "a separate parlor and dining room that gives complete privacy to the adult area of the home" and "a huge pantry that provides abundant storage space for the conveniently planned kitchen." It also highlighted the enormous atrium and rear patio for indoor/outdoor living.
Photo courtesy of Darren Bradley
Eichler was not unfamiliar with housing discrimination; at the time, there were developers of suburban communities who refused to sell homes to the Jewish middle class. He believed, however, that if a buyer was qualified, there was no good reason not to sell them a home. "I really do think Joe may have been motivated by discrimination against Jews back in New York," says Dave Weinstein, features editor at CA-Modern Magazine and the Eichler Network—and overall Eichler expert. "It was common not just in housing, but in society in general."
Eichler’s son Ned, who worked alongside his father at Eichler Homes, was recorded as saying that the company began selling to Asian Americans as early as 1950 or ’51. The exact date is unclear as the Eichlers never kept statistics on the "racial characteristics of their clients." However, in the early 1950s, selling to a Black family was a more controversial issue and could be potentially risky for a developer.
In 1958, Eichler resigned from the National Association of Home Builders when they refused to support a nondiscrimination policy. This 1964 home in the Fairhills tract in Orange, California, was designed by Jones & Emmons with Claude Oakland.
Photo courtesy of Darren Bradley
See the full story on Dwell.com: The Unsung Story of Eichler Homes and How They Helped Integrate American Neighborhoods
