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Greenmeadow, Palo Alto Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide
Eichler's 1954-55 Greenmeadow: 243 Jones & Emmons houses and their own community center and pool, listed on the National Register in 2005, between Alma Street, Charleston Road, Middlefield and San Antonio.
Greenmeadow by the numbers
greenmeadow by the numbers · live from the mls
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Calculated in your browser from MLS data for Greenmeadow: Alma St, Charleston Rd, Middlefield Rd and San Antonio Rd (approximate). Sales are single-family homes, townhomes and condos.
homes in greenmeadow · live from the mls
Homes for sale, for rent and recently sold in Greenmeadow
Every active listing, rental and closed sale in Greenmeadow from the MLS, updated automatically, with a map of the neighborhood outline.
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Listings come from MLSListings and other MLSs through IDX and show their listing brokerage; confirm details with the listing agent. The map outline is the neighborhood boundary used by our listing search (Greenmeadow: Alma St, Charleston Rd, Middlefield Rd and San Antonio Rd (approximate)); it may not match every local definition.
the story
How Greenmeadow came to be
Greenmeadow is the Eichler tract with paperwork. In 1954 and 1955 Eichler Homes built 243 single-story houses and a community center on about 73 acres of its own land, to designs by A. Quincy Jones and Frederick Emmons. The district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 28, 2005, under Criterion C for architecture, with 220 of its buildings counted as contributing; the nomination notes that 92 percent of the buildings still conveyed the original design after nearly five decades.
It was also Eichler moving up-market. The nomination says Greenmeadow introduced a fourth bedroom or an all-purpose room, two-car garages instead of carports, built-in kitchen appliances, indoor laundry areas and light-toned ceilings. Jones & Emmons placed the six models lot by lot with paper cutouts, aiming for sun and privacy, and turned the streets inward with broad cul-de-sacs so through traffic stayed out.
The community center is the other half of the story. Eichler, the city and the architects carved a 2.9-acre common area out of small slices of the house lots, with zoning exceptions to shrink the minimum lot size, and built a multipurpose building, a pool building, a swimming pool and a park planted with redwoods to a Thomas Church landscape plan. The homeowners bought it from Eichler, and the Greenmeadow Community Association still runs it at 303 Parkside Drive. In 1961-62 Eichler added 27 more houses to the south, Greenmeadow No. 3, designed by Claude Oakland according to the city; they sit outside the Register district.
streets and homes
The streets and the houses
The Register district's streets include Nelson Drive and Nelson Court, El Capitan Place, Adobe Place, Creekside Drive, Parkside Drive, Greenmeadow Way, Tioga Court, Diablo Court, Shasta Drive, Scripps Avenue and Scripps Court, Ben Lomond Drive and part of Mackay Drive; several are named for California peaks and passes. Greenmeadow No. 3 is on Briarwood Way, Ferne Court and part of Ferne Avenue. Elsewhere inside the four boundary streets are 1953-56 single-story homes on Duncan, Ely and Mumford places, Dake and Ferne avenues and Calcaterra Place, the Cubberley campus and Greendell School along Middlefield, and the Charleston Center at the Middlefield/Charleston corner.
The nomination describes six models with deliberately plain street faces: few or no street-facing windows, clerestory and transom glass, two-car garages faced in the same vertical-grooved redwood siding, and floor-to-ceiling glass across the back. Inside, the original finish was exposed tongue-and-groove redwood roof decking, mahogany paneling and a radiant-heated slab; roofs are flat or about a 2:12 pitch with no attic. Model Five, with a single low center-pitch roof across the front, is the most common. Lots run 6,000 to 7,000 square feet, with side setbacks of about six feet on one side and ten on the other.
Greenmeadow keeps that look through two layers of rules. The 2005 nomination credits an active architectural review committee, and the city's 2018 Eichler design guidelines say Greenmeadow's Architectural Control Committee still reviews projects under the neighborhood's CC&Rs. Zoning adds a hard limit: Greenmeadow I and II (249 lots) and Greenmeadow III (27 lots) carry the R-1(S) single-story overlay, which allows one habitable floor and a 17-foot height. The city's parcel layer also shows the overlay on several 1953 streets near Charleston Road, while Dake Avenue, Calcaterra Place and most of Ferne Avenue are plain R-1(8000).
streets in greenmeadow
- Nelson Drive
- Nelson Court
- El Capitan Place
- Adobe Place
- Creekside Drive
- Parkside Drive
- Greenmeadow Way
- Tioga Court
- Diablo Court
- Shasta Drive
- Scripps Avenue
- Scripps Court
- Ben Lomond Drive
- Mackay Drive
- Briarwood Way
- Ferne Avenue
- Ferne Court
- Duncan Place
- Ely Place
- Mumford Place
- Carlson Court
- Dake Avenue
- Calcaterra Place
- Christopher Court
- Lundy Lane
- Dixon Place
- East Charleston Road
parks and places
Parks, shops and landmarks near Greenmeadow
- park
Greenmeadow Community Center and park
The private 2.9-acre center at 303 Parkside Drive, owned by the Greenmeadow Community Association, has the original Eichler multipurpose building, a pool building, a heated pool open year-round and a redwood-shaded park. The association's website says membership is open to Greenmeadow residents and to people from outside the neighborhood.
- landmark
Cubberley Community Center
The Cubberley campus at 4000 Middlefield Road, about a quarter mile east of the middle of Greenmeadow. The City Council adopted a conceptual master plan for its rebuild on May 18, 2026 (a recreation and wellness center, a theater complex and a new education building in phase one), and a half-cent sales tax measure to help fund it, Measure J, is on the November 3, 2026 ballot.
- park
Mitchell Park
Across Charleston Road, about half a mile north: the city's 21.4-acre district park at 600 East Meadow Drive, designed by Robert Royston and opened in 1957, with tennis and pickleball courts, soccer fields, a water play structure, the Magical Bridge Playground and a dog park.
- landmark
Mitchell Park Library and Community Center
The branch library at 3700 Middlefield Road, about half a mile north.
- shopping
Charleston Center
Neighborhood shopping at the southwest corner of Middlefield and Charleston roads, inside the neighborhood's northeast corner, about 0.3 mile from the center. Across San Antonio Road in Mountain View is The Village at San Antonio Center.
schools and commute
School districts and getting around
School districts
Greenmeadow is in the Palo Alto Unified School District. Greendell School, a PAUSD campus at 4120 Middlefield Road, is on the neighborhood's Middlefield side, and Hoover Elementary's website says it is temporarily operating there. Fairmeadow Elementary and JLS Middle School are across Charleston Road on East Meadow Drive, about half a mile north. High school (Palo Alto High or Gunn) is assigned by address. Attendance boundaries change, so check the exact address with PAUSD.
Getting around
- Caltrain: San Antonio station (Showers Drive, Mountain View) is about half a mile from the middle of Greenmeadow, straight line; California Avenue station is about 2 miles.
- Alma Street runs along the west edge and becomes Central Expressway at San Antonio Road.
- VTA Route 21 runs on Middlefield Road between Stanford Shopping Center and Santa Clara Transit Center.
- US 101 at San Antonio Road is about 1 mile northeast, straight line.
- Charleston Road crosses the Caltrain tracks at grade at the neighborhood's northwest corner; in December 2025 the City Council chose an underpass design for that crossing, with construction not expected before the 2030s.
nerd notes
Buying or selling in Greenmeadow: what we check
Buying here
- Check the zoning on the parcel report. Most Eichler lots here are R-1(S): one habitable floor and a 17-foot height limit, so plan any added space at ground level. A few nearby blocks are plain R-1(8000).
- Get the recorded CC&Rs and talk to the Greenmeadow Architectural Control Committee before you plan exterior changes; the committee reviews projects under the CC&Rs in addition to city permits.
- Look up the house's National Register status. The city parcel layer flags each district house as contributing or non-contributing, and the 2018 Eichler guidelines recommend the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for major projects on contributing houses. The nomination counted features like visible rooftop ducts, atrium covers that change the roofline, and second stories against a house's integrity.
- Inspect the Eichler systems: radiant heating pipes in the slab, the low-slope roof (originally tar and gravel), single-pane glass and insulation. Adding air conditioning without rooftop ducts takes planning.
- Ask the Greenmeadow Community Association how membership and dues work for the specific house; the pool and center belong to the association, not the city.
Selling here
- Know your model (One through Six), your contributing status, and your permit history; Greenmeadow buyers often ask for all three.
- Show what's original and what's upgraded: siding, garage door, roofline, mahogany paneling, plus permitted radiant heat, roof and glazing work.
- Have the CC&Rs and any Architectural Control Committee approvals ready for the buyer's review.
- Use measurable location facts: San Antonio Caltrain about half a mile, Cubberley about a quarter mile, the community center pool a short walk inside the tract.
nerd noteCommissions are always negotiable, and we offer bundled services, so ask us what's included.
faq
Greenmeadow questions, answered
Is Greenmeadow a historic district?
Yes. Greenmeadow (Units I and II) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 28, 2005, as a district of 243 Eichler homes and a community center built in 1954-55.
Can a Greenmeadow house add a second story?
Not on most Eichler lots. Greenmeadow I, II and III are zoned R-1(S), the city's single-story overlay, which allows one habitable floor and a 17-foot height. Check the zoning for the exact parcel.
Does National Register listing restrict what owners can do?
As of the city's 2018 Eichler guidelines, the Register listing had not put Greenmeadow on the city's local Historic Resource Inventory. In practice the single-story overlay, the CC&Rs and the neighborhood's Architectural Control Committee shape most projects, and the city's Eichler guidelines recommend the Secretary of the Interior's Standards for major work on contributing houses. Confirm current review rules with the Planning Department.
How many Eichlers are in Greenmeadow?
243 in the 1954-55 Register district plus 27 in Greenmeadow No. 3 (1961-62), about 270 in all.
Who owns the Greenmeadow pool?
The Greenmeadow Community Association, which bought the community center from Eichler and runs it at 303 Parkside Drive. Its website says membership is open to residents and to people from outside the neighborhood.
What is the closest Caltrain station?
San Antonio station in Mountain View, about half a mile from the middle of Greenmeadow in a straight line.
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