Built to Belong: Eichlers, Inclusion, and the Hidden History of Fair Housing

Postwar Suburbia: Segregation and Inequality

In the post-World War II housing boom, most American suburbs were built on a foundation of exclusion. Across the country – including California – banks, government agencies, and developers systematically kept non-white families out of new neighborhoods. Federal policies like redlining (grading minority neighborhoods as “high risk” for loans) made it nearly impossible for Black families to get mortgages in many areas dwell.com. At the same time, racially restrictive covenants written into property deeds forbade selling homes to non-white buyers, a practice especially common in California npr.org. These covenants, alongside discriminatory lending, ensured that new suburban tracts remained exclusively white even as minority veterans and workers also sought homes.

Developers and real estate boards openly defended these practices with a belief that integrating neighborhoods would lower property values. For example, William Levitt – creator of the famous Levittown suburbs – refused to sell to Black buyers for years, claiming that “if we sell one house to a Negro family, then ninety to ninety-five percent of our white customers will not buy into the community” njdigitalhighway.org. California’s builders were no different: many embraced the “whites-only” suburb as the industry standard. In fact, California led the way in using covenants to keep communities white npr.org. Even after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1948 that such covenants were legally unenforceable, much of the real estate industry found informal ways to continue segregation. By the 1950s, African Americans and other minorities in the Bay Area were largely confined to older urban neighborhoods or a few segregated enclaves, barred from most new housing tracts by unwritten rules and widespread prejudice. This was the hostile housing landscape in which one developer – Joseph Eichler – chose a radically different path.

A Builder Apart: Joseph Eichler’s Inclusive Vision

Joseph “Joe” Eichler was a prominent mid-century California real estate developer, best known for the stylish modernist homes (dubbed “Eichlers”) that his company built for middle-class families. Eichler’s reputation in design circles comes from his innovative mid-century modern architecture – open floor plans, post-and-beam construction, walls of glass facing courtyards – which brought high design into mass-produced housingdwell.com. But equally groundbreaking was Eichler’s stance on who could live in those homes. In an era when the vast majority of builders excluded non-white buyers, Eichler instituted a non-discrimination policy: he would sell to any qualified buyer, regardless of race or religionmotc.orgmotc.org.

Eichler’s commitment to inclusion was partly personal. As a Jewish American, he was familiar with discrimination – at the time, some housing developments even refused to sell to Jewish families dwell.com. He believed that if a buyer was financially qualified, “there was no good reason not to sell them a home” dwell.com. This principle set Eichler Homes apart. Starting in the early 1950s, Eichler quietly began selling homes to minorities who had few other avenues into suburbia. His son, Ned Eichler, later recalled that the company sold houses to Asian American buyers as early as 1950 in its first Palo Alto subdivisions, at a time when segregation was still the norm dwell.com. In 1954, Eichler’s firm made its first sale of a tract home to an African American family – years before any fair housing laws required integration dwell.com. Notably, Eichler never kept formal statistics on buyers’ race; to him, these were just families purchasing homes dwell.com. But by quietly opening the doors, Eichler was pioneering a new, inclusive model of homebuilding in California.

Hidden History: An Evolving Stance. Eichler’s journey toward full inclusion evolved over time. Early on, even he felt some pressure to “play it safe” in the segregated market. When his friend Franklin “Frank” H. Williams – a prominent Black attorney and NAACP leader – expressed interest in an Eichler house around 1951, Eichler at first hesitated to integrate an entire tract dwell.com. According to historical accounts, he proposed a separate development for Black buyers, a misguided attempt at a “separate but equal” solution motc.org. Williams objected, telling Eichler this idea was ridiculous and unacceptable motc.org. Eichler got the message. Instead of segregation, he ultimately built Williams a home on a single lot in Palo Alto (outside of a tract) – a cautious workaround that still honored Williams’ request dwell.com. More importantly, the experience became a turning point for Eichler himself. When nearby white landowners learned Eichler had planned a Black housing tract, their backlash threatened his land deals motc.org. Eichler saw firsthand that the real threat to his business was prejudice itself, not integration. From that point forward, he committed to an open sales policy across all Eichler developments motc.org. As historian Ocean Howell noted, Eichler “began to risk his own position in the pursuit” of his egalitarian ideals after this period beautifulmusings.me. The stage was set for Eichler Homes to openly defy the segregationist housing norms of the 1950s.

Integrating the Eichler Neighborhoods

A mid-century Eichler home with characteristic modern design. In the 1950s, Eichler’s subdivisions like this one became some of the first genuinely integrated neighborhoods in suburban California.
Once Joseph Eichler adopted an open-door policy, he applied it consistently, even at risk to his business. By the mid-1950s, integrated Eichler communities were quietly taking shape in the Bay Area. In Palo Alto, for instance, Eichler developed a tract known as Greenmeadow – an idyllic neighborhood of modern homes, parks, and a community center. In 1954, an African American family purchased a home in Greenmeadow, becoming the first Black household in the tract dwell.com. A white neighbor complained bitterly about the integration. Eichler’s response was swift and principled: the company offered to buy back the complaining neighbor’s house at full price dwell.com. In effect, Eichler told the homeowner that if they objected to living next to a Black family, he’d rather have them leave than lose his inclusive vision. Eichler reportedly quipped that he “sold [them the house] too cheap anyway,” underscoring that he had no qualms about removing an prejudiced neighbor motc.org. Eichler Homes then promptly resold that house to a new (presumably more tolerant) owner dwell.com. The message was clear: bigotry had no place in an Eichler tract.

A year later, in 1955, a similar scenario played out in San Rafael’s Terra Linda development. Eichler sold a home to a Black family in the Terra Linda Eichler subdivision of Marin County. This time a group of about twenty alarmed neighbors banded together in protest beautifulmusings.me. Joe Eichler personally went door-to-door to confront the protesting residents beautifulmusings.me. He told them that anyone uncomfortable with integration could sell their home back to Eichler Homes – he was willing to purchase their houses if they truly couldn’t tolerate an integrated neighborhood beautifulmusings.me. Faced with Eichler’s resolve (and perhaps realizing the financial hit of selling in protest), not a single neighbor accepted his buy-back offer beautifulmusings.me. The Black family moved into their new Eichler, and none of the surrounding homeowners ended up moving out. In fact, once the initial furor died down, life in Terra Linda continued normally and property values held firm. These episodes in Palo Alto and San Rafael demonstrated Eichler’s unwavering stance: he would back up his non-discrimination policy not just with words, but with bold actions, even if it meant repurchasing homes to uphold the principle of fairness.

By the late 1950s, Eichler’s non-discriminatory sales policy had become an “open secret” in the industry beautifulmusings.me. Eichler sales agents didn’t trumpet the policy in advertisements, to avoid stirring controversy, but they quietly sold homes to any qualified buyer who walked through the model doors beautifulmusings.me. During a time when no law required it, Eichler Homes had likely the most diverse client base of any builder in California. Ned Eichler estimated that by 1964 the company had sold 30–40 homes to Black buyers (and many more to Asian American and other minorities) across various Eichler tracts beautifulmusings.me. Those families found themselves living in neighborhoods – from the Greenmeadow subdivision of Palo Alto to developments in San Mateo, Oakland, and Orange – where they were often the first non-white residents on the block. Yet, thanks to Eichler’s careful efforts, these pioneers were largely able to settle in without the rampant turmoil that often accompanied integration elsewhere. Eichler had proven that a integrated suburbia could work, even before the civil rights movement reached its peak.

Taking a Stand Against Industry Discrimination

Eichler’s inclusive approach set him dramatically apart from other developers, and he did not shy away from challenging the housing industry’s racist status quo. The defining moment came in 1958 at a gathering of the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). That year, the NAHB publicly stated its opposition to a proposed anti-discrimination rule in housing, effectively siding with continued segregation motc.org. Richard Doyle, the NAHB’s executive vice president at the time, defended the association’s stance by repeating the common belief that “minority races depreciate property values” – even admitting there were no statistics to prove it, yet insisting this was the theory under which builders operated motc.org. Hearing this, Joe Eichler was furious. He stood up at a San Francisco chapter meeting of the NAHB and denounced his own trade association’s policy. “I wish to state emphatically that Eichler Homes in no way practices any kind of discrimination,” Eichler declared, directly rebutting the NAHB’s position motc.org. As the most prominent homebuilder in the room, Eichler made it known that he wanted no part in policies that perpetuated racism.

When NAHB refused to retract its discriminatory stance, Eichler took unprecedented action: he resigned from the organization in protest motc.org. Breaking with the powerful NAHB was a bold move for any developer, let alone one whose business still depended on industry goodwill and bank financing. Eichler’s resignation made national news in the housing press motc.org. He even wrote open letters to Bay Area newspapers explaining his decision and urging his fellow builders to reconsider their practices motc.org. In one such letter, Eichler admonished colleagues that homebuilders carry a responsibility for the broader community. “Builders cannot evade the fact that what they are doing is going to have an impact on the whole community, even the nation, for a long time,” he wrote, “and they cannot simply say, ‘Well, I’m just a businessman, I’m here to make a buck’”motc.org. In Eichler’s view, making a profit did not excuse moral blindness. He revealed that his own company had never suffered financially from selling to minority buyers – a direct refutation of the fear driving others motc.org. Indeed, Eichler had found that integrated, well-built neighborhoods were not only morally right, but economically successful, undermining the very premise of housing segregation motc.org.

Eichler’s stance was virtually unique among large developers of his era. Most builders either quietly adhered to discriminatory practices or actively fought against fair housing measures. By contrast, Eichler became a one-man vanguard within the industry – a “courageous class” member, proving that integration could work motc.org. “Joe’s commitment to nondiscrimination and his liberal views are very well known. You’d be surprised how often people told me they bought the homes because of that,” noted one Eichler expert dwell.com. Eichler’s ethical stand even earned grudging respect from some competitors over time motc.org. Through both example and advocacy, he pressed the notion that the housing industry need not perpetuate segregation, and that doing the right thing could also be good business.

Fair Housing and Civil Rights in California

Joseph Eichler’s inclusive housing efforts intersected with the broader civil rights movement, especially the push for fair housing laws in the 1960s. As Eichler was integrating his developments, civil rights organizations were mounting campaigns against housing discrimination in California and beyond. Eichler found himself both influenced by and contributing to these currents of change. He formed alliances with civil rights leaders – not only by selling homes to them (as with NAACP lawyer Frank Williams), but by joining them in advocacy. The Eichler family helped organize a major California conference on housing discrimination, bringing stakeholders together to discuss solutions beautifulmusings.me. Joe Eichler also lent his expertise to lawmakers: he was instrumental in helping draft California’s early fair housing legislation in the early 1960s beautifulmusings.me. This effort culminated in the Rumford Fair Housing Act of 1963, which outlawed racial discrimination in home sales and rentals in California. Eichler’s voice was an important one in that fight, as he could point to his own subdivisions as evidence that fair housing was both practical and beneficial.

Developer Joe Eichler (right) meets with representatives of a U.S. Civil Rights Commission in the early 1960s. Eichler leveraged his success with integrated housing to push for broader fair housing policies motc.org.
On the national stage, Eichler similarly used his platform to advocate for change. In 1963 – as the Civil Rights Movement gained momentum – Eichler testified before a U.S. Congressional committee about housing equality motc.org. He presented data from Eichler Homes developments to show that integrated neighborhoods retained their property values and community stability, countering the scare tactics of segregationists motc.org. Eichler also worked with federal agencies like the Housing and Home Finance Agency (a predecessor of HUD) to craft and promote anti-discrimination measures beautifulmusings.me. He volunteered Eichler neighborhoods as case studies to prove integration could succeed in practice beautifulmusings.me. By advising the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and other bodies, Eichler made sure the lessons from his “experiment” in fair housing were heard by those writing policy beautifulmusings.me.

The push for fair housing was not without backlash – in California, after the Rumford Act passed, realtors sponsored Proposition 14 in 1964 to overturn it, and federal fair housing law would not arrive until 1968. But Eichler’s work in the 1950s and 60s laid important groundwork. He had shown remarkable foresight by dismantling segregation in his own little corner of suburbia well before it became law. This hidden history of Eichler’s activism reveals how he and like-minded allies in California’s housing sector contributed to the broader civil rights struggle. Eichler proved that integrated housing was possible and helped normalize the idea, giving ammunition to reformers pushing for anti-discrimination laws. When the Fair Housing Act finally passed in 1968, it codified on a national scale the principles Eichler had embraced from the start – that housing opportunity should not be denied on account of race or religion. Eichler’s mid-century stand thus resonates as an early victory in the long campaign for fair housing.

Architectural and Social Legacy of Eichler Communities

Eichler homes today are celebrated for their architectural brilliance – the clean lines, open atriums, and floor-to-ceiling glass that define California modern style. Yet just as significant is the social legacy that these communities embody. Eichler’s developments became architectural and social alternatives to the exclusionary suburbia of their time. Physically, the tracts were often designed to encourage neighborly interaction: common parks and community centers were integrated into some Eichler neighborhoods, and the houses’ glass-walled courtyards subtly invited a sense of openness. Socially, because Eichler welcomed diverse buyers, the typical Eichler tract was more heterogeneous (and perhaps more cosmopolitan) than other 1950s suburbs. Many original Eichler buyers were young professionals, academics, and forward-thinking families – people attracted not only by the design, but also by the progressive ethos. They liked the idea of living in a neighborhood where fairness and inclusion were part of the community’s DNA. Indeed, Eichler’s fair housing stance became a selling point for some. Historian Dave Weinstein notes that Eichler’s liberal values were well-known, and some buyers specifically chose Eichler communities because of that reputation dwell.com. Living in an Eichler meant more than owning a modern home; it meant belonging to a community that quietly rejected the prejudices of the day.

Over time, the “Eichler model” – quality modern homes in integrated neighborhoods – helped inspire other developers and architects to consider both design and social inclusion. While no other tract homebuilder of the 1950s fully matched Eichler’s policies, his example stood as proof of concept. It demonstrated that one could build beautiful homes, maintain property values, and also do the right thing morally. This legacy influenced later efforts in fair housing and urban planning that sought to promote mixed communities. Today, Eichler’s subdivisions have stood the test of time, both in their physical form and community character. Many Eichler neighborhoods remain highly desirable, tight-knit communities – some even have active Eichler homeowner associations that celebrate the history of the tract and its inclusive beginnings. The homes themselves, now decades old, are “still coveted today” by design enthusiasts and homebuyers alike dwell.com. Enthusiastic owners lovingly restore Eichler houses, recognizing them as mid-century gems with a soul and story behind them.

Conclusion: Eichler’s Vision in the Present Day

Joseph Eichler’s bold experiment in inclusive housing left an indelible mark on California’s landscape and helped pave the way for fair housing nationwide. His belief that neighborhoods should be “built to belong” – welcoming all people, not divided by prejudice – was ahead of its time in the 1950s, but it resonates powerfully today. In an age where diversity and good design are both prized, Eichler’s communities represent the harmonious blending of both. Contemporary real estate professionals, such as the Boyenga Team at Compass, continue to carry the torch of Eichler’s vision in the present day. Specializing in Eichler and mid-century modern homes, the Boyenga Team champions Eichler’s legacy by fostering appreciation for these design-forward, inclusive communities. Through their work with Eichler home sales and neighborhood engagement, they don’t just market houses – they educate new generations of buyers about why Eichler homes matter, both as works of modern architecture and as symbols of a fair housing ideal. In doing so, they advocate for communities that reflect Eichler’s ethos: welcoming, diverse, and architecturally distinctive.

The hidden history of Eichler’s non-discrimination policy and fair housing crusade is a story that continues to inspire. It reminds us that the choices of one determined builder half a century ago can ripple outward, helping to change attitudes and laws. From the integrated Eichler tracts of mid-century California to the ongoing efforts of today’s housing advocates, the principle endures that great communities are those where everyone has an equal place. Joseph Eichler built houses that were modern in style – and he also built neighborhoods that were modern in spirit, embracing inclusion long before it was commonplace. That dual legacy of design excellence and social justice remains relevant as ever, encouraging architects, developers, and realtors to ensure that our communities, new and old, are truly “built to belong.” dwell.com motc.org

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