Wilcox Manor

Once the grand residence of San José attorney and orchardist Edwin A. Wilcox and his wife, Stanford graduate Mary S. Wilcox, the house today sits on more than eight-tenths of an acre. It is estimated to have been constructed around 1916-1917. Edwin and Mary Wilcox began living at the property in 1917. The exterior and interior of the house at 1300 Pine Avenue suggest that it may have been designed by prominent Santa Clara architect William Ernest Higgins. In 1894, Edwin Wilcox had begun accumulating orchard land south of Pine Avenue and west of Cottle Avenue in Willow Glen. By 1913, the Wilcoxes owned close to forty acres of orchard land they called “The Ranch” and in 1917, they moved from downtown San José to live on The Ranch, residing there until Edwin’s death in 1934 and Mary’s in 1958. Mary Wilcox left most of the orchard property to Stanford University, with the condition that at least two acres was to be reserved for a public park. That park today is Wilcox Park.

The Current Stewards of this home are Penelope and Stephen Thompson.