Historic Farmhouse Seeks $300K Renovation Funds

A farmhouse is easy to miss if you only look at the wood and roofline. But this one carries a whole slice of Santa Clara Valley history. The Sakauye farmhouse — now sitting at History Park in San Jose after being hauled from North San Jose on March 30 — was saved from demolition, but not fully saved yet. The move is done. The harder part starts now: the groups behind the rescue say they still need about $300,000 to turn it into a public place with exhibits, community space, and the kind of context that makes the building mean something. ### What is this house, exactly? It is the longtime home of Eiichi “Ed” Sakauye, a Japanese American farmer and civic leader whose family bought land in the early 1900s, before California’s 1913 Alien Land Act blocked Japanese immigrants from owning agricultural land. Sakauye was later incarcerated during World War II at Heart Mountain with other Japanese Americans. The house itself dates to around 1920, and preservation groups describe Eiichi’s rebuilt or expanded farmhouse as tied to the 1930s and postwar years of his life there. ### Why was it almost lost? Because the land was approved for a huge housing redevelopment. The 23-acre Seely Avenue site is being turned into a 1,472-home project with a 2.5-acre public park, and most of the old farmstead was cleared. Advocates originally wanted the farmhouse preserved on-site as part of that new development, but that did not happen. So the fight shifted from “keep it here” to “at least don’t let it disappear.” ### Who actually saved it? Basically, a local coalition did. History San José, the Japanese American Museum of San José, and the Preservation Action Council San José worked together, with support from Councilmember Rosemary Kamei, to negotiate time, raise money, and find a permanent landing spot at History Park. That took nearly two years of advocacy and fundraising before the house could finally be moved. ### Why wasn’t the move the finish line? Because moving an old house is like saving a book from a fire — you still have to restore the pages before anyone can read it. The coalition says it raised roughly $750,000 for the relocation, while KQED put the prep-and-move cost at about $700,000. Now the building still needs roof reconstruction, exterior work. ### Why put it at History Park? Because History Park gives the house a public audience. It sits next to Happy Hollow and already draws school field trips, and the farmhouse is being placed near migrant worker cabins from the Sakauye property. That lets the site tell a fuller story — not just one family house, but the wider history of Japanese American farming, labor, exclusion, incarceration, and return in the Valley of Heart’s Delight. ### Why does the $300,000 matter so much? Without that last chunk of money, the farmhouse risks becoming a rescued shell instead of a working historical space. The plan is not just to preserve walls. It is to create exhibits and programs that younger visitors can actually use. History San José says the goal is to open the farmhouse to the public in October 2027. ### What changed this week? The big shift is that the story moved from emergency rescue to phase-two restoration. At an April 30 event, the coalition celebrated the successful relocation and publicly framed the next ask: fund the interior and finish the job. That is a different kind of campaign. The demolition threat is over. The memory fight is not. ### Bottom line? San Jose did not keep the Sakauye farmhouse where it stood. But the city did not lose it entirely either. Now the question is whether a saved house becomes a living public memory — or just an artifact parked on new ground.