House History

Parnell House History
Or what we know of it.

Realtor photo to sell the house in November 1999.

Originally, this was a 1400 sq.ft. 2BR-1BA farmhouse built in 1913 by Claris Rich. Mr. Rich was raised in Santa Rosa, by parents who had emigrated to California from Maine. Mr. Rich lived here with his wife, who died sometime in the 1960's, until his death in (about) 1974 -- over 60 years. They raised 3 children here, including a daughter who we were told still lived on Homestead Road nearby.

The original land parcel went all the way to Lawrence Expwy and Stevens Creek Blvd, and the house's original address was almost certainly Homestead Road. Mr. Rich raised apricot and walnut orchards, and Mrs. Rich was known for her beautiful roses.

In the 1950s, Mr. Rich sold off much of his land and annexed it into Sunnyvale, rather than Cupertino. The story is that Sunnyvale had a smaller lot size requirement than Cupertino's 1-acre minimum, and the land was more valuable for development if it was made into smaller lots. The neighborhood was developed into ranch house tract in 1958, with a 27,000 sq.ft. lot reserved for the original farmhouse, in which Mr. Rich and his wife continued to live. Several of our neighbors bought their houses new in the late 50's and early 60s, and so knew and remember Mr. Rich. (These kind neighbors have provided us with most of our historical information on the property.)

810 Parnell Place in 1971. Facing northeast, from across Kinglet Court.

When Mr. Rich died in the 1970s, the property was purchased by Harold "Red" Allen, and his wife Patricia Allen and her four daughters. Red was a contractor, and subdivided the lot into 3 parcels in 1978 (according to a survey and resulting parcel map from the county). He built a modern Mediterranean-style 2-story house on the far lot, then another large 2-story house on the lot immediately adjacent to ours.

The Rich farmhouse remained on a 11,700 sq.ft. lot -- just under the 12,000 sq.ft. minimum needed for another subdivision (for 6000 sq.ft lots now required by Sunnyvale). To the Rich farmhouse, Red added a pool room and second story with four dormers, and upgraded the wiring and plumbing, though never completed the project. Red went bankrupt and sold the house in foreclosure to the Robert Knapp and Sandra Jones, with two small children, in 1983.

The Knapp-Jones had a formidable task: the house had been abandoned for some time, and was filled with junk. During that time, we believe that the original doors and drawers for the dining room built-in hutch were stolen (based on some notes in disclosure paperwork). We realized how much work the Knapp-Jones did in the 16 years they lived here, when two of Red's stepdaughters stopped by one day in Y2000. They explained that what we know as the "family room" was just a pool room tacked onto the house, and was never integrated into the kitchen as it is today. The upstairs originally had four bedrooms (today there are 3, the Knapp-Jones apparently combined two to form a master suite), and the upstairs guest bathroom had never been finished.

The girls also explained that Red was concerned about noise from 4 little girls, and so built in a two-foot air gap between the two floors. The Knapp-Jones also replaced all the windows and doors, replaced the chimney and fireplace, and remodeled the kitchen and all 3 bathrooms, not to mention countless other items.

The Knapp-Jones tried to sell the house for a year before we bought it. Twice, contracts fell through because of all the remaining work that still needed to be done. They spent a year painting, landscaping, repairing and making numerous improvements to sell the house. It was effective -- Dave and I fell in love with it at first glance. In the crazy go-go times of the late 1990s, we closed on our house in November 1999.

Today, the house is hardly an example of Craftsman-era perfection, but it still retains some of that era's qualities, such as the 4-foot pocket door between the living room and dining room Originally, there had been a furnace in the basement that gravity-heated the house through a huge grate in the center of the house. At some point, the basement furnace was removed and replaced with a forced-air furnace upstairs, but ductwork and registers never made it downstairs.

Our next-door neighbor has one of Mr. Rich's old apricot trees in his front yard, and our yard has an old orange tree from the 1920s, a neighbor believes, as well as a highly pruned almond tree, a flowering pomegranate tree, and a mimosa tree. I've just planted some roses beside the driveway to commemorate Mrs. Rich.

Dave and I are now putting our own stamp on this house, as the fourth owners in almost 90 years. When we got the house, the Knapp-Jones had done a lot of work, but it was still a blank slate. It also still needed some basic infrastructure work, such as bolting the house to the foundation, a garage, a new roof, and heat downstairs. We built a garage intended to match the house (completed June 2001), and started numerous infrastructure projects in the house in order to incorporate some of the space upstairs. In 2006, we remodeled the upstairs, not able to wrap our heads around the whole house. In 2009, we completed a massive remodel of the downstairs and much of the upstairs again. In 2010, as of this writing, now we're embarking on a landscaping overhaul, and I hope that will be it for huge projects.

But perhaps the most important thing we'll do here is raise our three children here -- the next generation to someday look back and remember this place fondly.

Oct.2001 -- a mysterious letter arrived addressed to Lola Shearer from Rebecca Lee at the Oak Hill Funeral Home on 300 Curtner Ave 95125. Lola Shearer is Mr. Rich's daughter and hasn't lived here in decades, maybe this funeral home can help us piece more together.