Horace Mann & Julian-St. James, San Jose Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide

This is the stretch east of N. and S. 4th St where the university, the civic center and two old residential grids meet. The state landmark record for the First Normal School says the school began in 1857 as a private evening normal school, became a public institution in 1862, and that its trustees chose Washington Square in San Jose as the permanent site in 1868. The record adds that the school was rebuilt after an 1880 fire and again after the 1906 earthquake. Today San Jose State University's main campus fills the blocks from E. San Fernando St to E. San Salvador St between S. 4th and S. 10th St.

North of E. Santa Clara St, Horace Mann Elementary fills the block at N. 7th St. A photograph record in the public library's California Room says the first school building on that site was finished in 1868, was badly damaged in the 1906 earthquake and was torn down; the present building is the third on the site. A 2000 San Jose Unified environmental filing describes rebuilding and expanding the school on a 2.96-acre site at 7th and Santa Clara. San Jose High also stood near here: a historical marker and a California Room record say the high school sat on E. San Fernando St next to the college until 1952, when the college needed the land and the high school moved east to N. 24th St.

The civic buildings came later. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library, run jointly by the city and SJSU, opened in 2003 at E. San Fernando and S. 4th St. San Jose City Hall, designed by Richard Meier's firm with an 18-story office tower, was completed in 2005 at 200 E. Santa Clara St. North of Santa Clara St the city's historic inventory lists about 230 buildings in the outline, most from the 1890s and 1900s, and the city's association map shows the Horace Mann and Julian/St. James neighborhood associations covering these blocks.