- Former resident
- Eliza Donner Houghton
- The Houghton Donner House
- 156 E. St. John Street
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The Houghton Donner house, also known as the Allen Apartments in a later incarnation, was located in the path of San Jose’s ever-expanding downtown Civic Center project and had been targeted for either demolition or relocation so that a six-story apartment building could be erected on site next to a seventy-five foot free-standing parking garage for City employees.
The large Victorian Italianate style structure had been home to two historically important San Joseans, early mayor Sherman Houghton and his wife, Donner Party survivor Eliza Donner Houghton, who wrote some of the earliest and most authoritative accounts of the tragic 1840s wagon train party.
Landmarks Commissioners called the Houghton Donner house “the most historic building in San Jose” and stated that it should remain at its present location at 156 E. St. John St.
The threat to the historic house engendered significant public outcry not only from PAC*SJ and Landmarks Commissioners. On January 31, 2001 the San Jose Mercury News editorialized: “[I]t’s beginning to look as if [the City’s] preservation strategy is mainly Buildings on Wheels. . . . [N]ow the homestead of a Donner party survivor . . . stands in the way of a housing and parking garage project at Fourth and St. John streets. Movers, start your engines! “The trick to real historic preservation isn’t putting buildings on wheels. It’s noting where they are — and not planning to build something else on the spot.”
In response to concerns the City revised its plan, shifting the site for the parking garage complex south, and leaving some room between it and the Houghton Donner House. Unfortunately, this new location now called for demolition of the Fox-Markovitz building.
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The Houghton family in a late 1800s family portrait. Photo courtesy of Ann Smith, granddaughter of Sherman and Eliza Donner Houghton |
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The house, which has twelve-foot ceilings throughout the first and second floors and at one time was broken into nine different apartment units, has about 10,000 square feet of space, including a full basement and a spacious attic. The attic has a staircase leading to a widow’s walk with commanding views of downtown — unobstructed by any railing.
While the building seems structurally sound throughout, renovation work had barely commenced when it was halted by the uncertainty of the house’s fate in light of the City’s plans for the site. Several of the rooms could use work just to return the floors and walls back to a useable condition. A back section of the second floor sustained fire damage a few years back and is in the worst condition of all . Owner Keith Watt, estimates that the costs of restoring the Houghton Donner house to its original Victorian granduer could approach $1 million. Watt hopes to put the building back in service, possibly for offices in the basement and ground floor and overnight accomodations above.
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