The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Robert Scheer

One-year-old Katie Garcia hangs out with her dad, Kelly Garcia, on Oak Court.

Court Side

Residents of the first cul-de-sac in Sunnyvale tell its history

By Justin Berton

Jack Ewbank returned from World War II without a hand. The then 27-year-old Marine from Oklahoma came to Sunnyvale after the war to take a job at Libby's cannery. He lived in a small house across the street from a cherry orchard on Sunset Avenue with his wife, Lois, and their two young sons, Scott and Gary.

Jack and Lois wanted to move their new family into a larger home, but after the war, finding a house in Sunnyvale was difficult.

The city was booming, nearing 10,000 residents.

Jack went to the cannery one day in September 1949 and heard a rumor: A captain in the Navy stationed at Moffett Field was being transferred to the East Coast.

The captain needed to sell his house in a hurry.

Jack came home from work and told Lois that a larger house was up for sale--but they had to act quickly.

Louis and Jack got into their car, a 1944 Chevrolet, and drove past the Murphy Mansion on California Avenue and into one of Sunnyvale's elite neighborhoods.

When they arrived at Oak Court, Lois got out of the car, took one look at the single story house and thought to herself, "It's a jungle."

The house was surrounded by bushes and weeds.

But what Lois didn't like about the outside, she loved on the inside. She walked through the front door and into a spacious living room that faced the back yard. She looked out the window and saw a quarter of an acre of open space.

The archways were curved, like domes.

The structure was solid, built with redwood, and had a smaller house out back, known as a granny house, with a window in the attic.

Before the captain lived there, a cartoonist used the attic as a studio.

What also caught the interest of the young couple was the configuration of the street.

It certainly was unique.

Instead of being on a straight street that turned the corner, the other nine houses were arranged in a horseshoe shape, facing one another.

In the middle of the horseshoe was a lamppost.

At night, the shine from the lamppost reached each of the houses and made it look as if it were day. Kids in the neighborhood would pick green apricots from the nearby orchard and use the lamppost for target practice.

Lois counted 13 other children in the court. They all knew each other, it seemed.

It was, though they were unaware of it at the time, the first cul-de-sac in Sunnyvale--and, in the estimation of some historians and city planners, the first cul-de-sac in Santa Clara County.

Lois and Jack went to the Bank of America, took out a loan and purchased No. 8 Oak Court for $11,500.

A man named Enoch Oxendine and a contractor named Drysdale had built two of the homes just before WWII. Oxendine wanted to build a neighborhood that was safe for kids, away from traffic, according to Lois.

Burr "Monte" Matthews built the rest of the homes.

Matthews showed his flair for inventiveness when two newlyweds, Raymond and Laverne Burke, asked him to design their house on the court using nothing more than an illustration from a magazine.

He designed a two-story, woodframed house with a stucco surface, the first of its kind in Sunnyvale.

To complete the cul-de-sac concept, Matthews had a lamppost built by Joshua Hendy Iron Works and installed in 1937 in the middle of the homes.

The cul-de-sac concept has proved so popular that the prices of homes in the valley today are increased if they are in a court.

It goes without saying, then, that very few people have moved into or out of Sunnyvale's oldest cul-de-sac, Oak Court.

Kelly Garcia and his wife, Sandy, are among the newest residents. They lived in Felton in Santa Cruz County and drove over Highway 17 every working day for eight years.

Their home was a paradise in the woods.

But after their daughter, Kayla, was born, they didn't like the idea of leaving her on the other side of the hill while they worked.

They wanted something more convenient, something that didn't keep them away from their 1-year-old daughter.

But getting a good price on a home in Silicon Valley during the mid-'90s seemed impossible.

Kelly heard through his parents, who heard from a friend, that a home in Sunnyvale would be available.

In December 1994, Kelly and Sandy drove in their red 240 Volvo down California Avenue past Murphy Park and looked at the house in Oak Court.

Sandy got out of the car and cringed.

Weeds overtook the yard and the inside of the home had been neglected for years. Nevertheless, the Garcias grabbed it.

Kelly, an electrician with the city of Santa Clara, called on friends to help with restoring the house. They rewired the insides, installed a new sewage system and put up new walls.

He put in hardwood floors and curved the arches, like domes.

Ann Zaffarano across the street in home No. 7 let the Garcias live in her granny house for four months as the renovation dragged on.

After $100,000 worth of renovations and months of eating out each night the Garcias moved into No. 3 Oak Court--but construction continued for two years.

One evening last week 4-year-old Kayla Garcia ran into her new home just after 6 p.m.

Lois Ewbank was just leaving the Garcias' home after telling a visitor the story of Oak Court.

"Are you leaving?" Kayla looked up to ask Lois.

Lois reached out her hand and cupped the young girl's chin.

"Yes, I am," she said, as she playfully wiggled Kayla's face.

Kayla laughed and wrapped both arms around Lois' thigh.

Lois said goodbye and walked out the front door, past the lamppost and into her home.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, April 1, 1998.
©1998 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.