Century-Old San José Japanese American Farmhouse Finds New Life

A century-old Japanese American family farmhouse deeply connected to the immigrant and agricultural roots of the Santa Clara Valley now resides at History Park in San José, after a protracted battle over what should become of the modest home.

A group of local organizations hopes to raise enough money to restore it to show younger generations what life used to be like in the Valley of Heart’s Delight.

The home, which was built around 1920 and located just off Montague Expressway on Seely Avenue, is where prominent farmer, civic figure and preservationist Eiichi Edward Sakauye lived almost his entire life and died in 2005.

The home survived in North San José through world wars, racist land laws and the forced incarceration of people of Japanese descent — but came under threat of demolition in recent years due to a housing development.

Its relocation to History Park — a miniature town of sorts that showcases historical buildings and their reproductions — in late March, following nearly two years of advocacy and fundraising, offered solace to boosters like Vanessa Hatakeyama, the executive director of the Japanese American Museum of San José.

She worried while the home sat on a construction site in North San José for roughly 18 months.

“But being at a place now where we have raised the funds to move it, where we’ve secured the house here at History Park, it really feels like a moment to celebrate and to be joyful,” Hatakeyama said Thursday, standing in front of the home.

“I know that there’s a lot ahead of us in terms of fundraising and renovation and curation. But right now, it feels like a great relief and really joyful,” she said.

It cost $700,000 to prep the house for moving and to relocate it to its new plot inside History Park, adjacent to migrant farmworker cabins that were used for decades on the Sakauye farmstead and later donated by Eiichi Sakauye.

The home’s preservation and relocation is the result of a collaboration of the nonprofit History San José, which runs History Park, the Japanese American Museum of San José, the Preservation Action Council San José and Councilmember Rosemary Kamei.

“We came together for a purpose and recognized that preserving history isn’t just about saving the structure. It’s about creating a space for cultural education, for storytelling that connects people with lived experiences of those who came before us, to the Sakauyes and their extraordinary tale of perseverance in the face of a lot of discrimination,” Kamei said during an event celebrating the home’s relocation on Thursday.

“As a daughter of immigrants, I have faced it. My family has faced it, others who may look differently have faced it, and so education is key,” she said. “That’s why relocating the farmhouse to History Park matters so much. It ensures that this home will not only survive, but will be accessible, visible and alive with meaning for generations to come.”

In August 2024, Kamei made an impassioned plea to city officials and other council members to work to preserve the home.

She and others hoped to keep the home on its original site, but the developer was opposed to changing plans to accommodate it.

Eiichi Sakauye’s daughters also wrote to the council that they didn’t think the home needed to be saved, but later endorsed the plan to preserve it elsewhere.

Hanover Company, a Houston-based developer, leveled everything except the farmhouse on the 22-acre site in 2025, but kept the home secured until it could be moved. Hanover’s plans include nearly 1,500 apartments and townhomes, as well as a 2.5-acre public park.

“We would have liked the developer to see the potential of it on-site, and you can lead a horse to water, but it just didn’t click,” Ben Leech, executive director of the Preservation Action Council San José, said.

Leech said ultimately he is very happy to see the home safely relocated, where it can become an educational resource.

“It’s rare in this business that you have a win. So I’m going to take this as a win,” he said Thursday. “It’s one thing to see it here empty. It’s going to be even better to see it here programmed and telling the story that we think it can tell.”

To relocate the home, its red-tile roof and the supporting structures had to be removed in six pieces, and the entire home had to be sawed in half to be moved by truck, according to Jim Salata, president of Garden City Construction, which moved the home.

History San José said about $300,000 more will be needed to continue the work of lowering the home — which currently is being reassembled and is perched on steel beams — onto a foundation and restoring it.

More funds will be needed to curate and execute a future gallery space in the home that will be co-curated and operated by the Japanese American Museum of San José and History San José, though a timeline isn’t clear.

The gallery could include a staging of Eiichi Sakauye’s office, space for school programs, and permanent on-site space for the museum at History Park, according to History San José.

The fundraising effort will be supported in part by the Sakauye Farm Legacy Grove, which is slated to be located next to the home. Donors can buy plaques and tree dedications in the grove, which will include seven fruit trees that were common to many Japanese American farmers, such as persimmon, Japanese apricot and varieties of plum.

Hatakeyama said the home being in History Park, where it can be displayed as part of the larger history of the area and the country, is a big change for Japanese Americans.

“As a woman of color, as a child of the diaspora, I think there’s a lot of us that can relate to not really seeing your story in many public spaces… and where you felt comfortable being your authentic self,” she said during the event.

“And so now to have this museum here… is a way that we can really tell the future generations that this history is everybody’s history,” she said. “This is American history, this is part of San José, this is an integral part of what it means to be part of San José and the Santa Clara Valley.”