Green Gables for kids
The Houses That Won a Prize. A true story near Palo Alto, CA, told for kids 6-8.
Read along
Look out the window. Do any houses look flat and low, like they are lying down for a nap? Those are special! A builder named Joseph Eichler built the first sixty-three of them in 1950. Here is the whoa part: they have no second floor at all.
Not one! Every room is on the same level, like a pancake. Regular families could live in cool, modern houses, and back then that was a bold idea. Magazines loved them. One magazine gave the neighborhood a prize called Subdivision of the Year.
Ding-dong, winner! Here is your job. Look for houses that are only one story tall, with no stairs up to a second floor. Can you count how many you see before we drive away?
Quiz the back seat
Which house won the neighborhood prize: the pancake-flat kind with no second floor, or a skyscraper with a hundred floors?
Show the answer
Flat houses with one story. Yes! The Green Gables houses are one-story houses with no second floor, and the neighborhood is now listed as a historic place.
Fun facts
- Joseph Eichler built the first 63 Green Gables homes in 1950.
- A magazine gave Green Gables the prize Subdivision of the Year.
- The houses in Green Gables are one-story houses with no second floor.
- Green Gables is listed as a historic place.
For grown-ups
Written with AI from public sources, then checked claim by claim against the sources below before it was published; stories that don't pass stay off the app and this site. Narration is pre-recorded, and nothing you do on this page is tied to your kids.
Sources
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gables_(Palo_Alto,_California)
- deleonrealty.com/2017/neighborhood-spotlight-green-gables-palo-alto
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gables_(Palo_Alto%2C_California)
- esquirepropertymanagementgroup.com/green-gables-palo-alto-property-management
- yourhomeinsiliconvalley.com/blog/a-residents-guide-to-palo-altos-most-cherished-eichler-neighborhoods
- eichlernetwork.com/article/historic-quest-eichlers-national-register
- ohp.parks.ca.gov/ListedResources/Detail/N2291
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Look up! Maybe you'll see a little airplane!Roads
Town and county names: GeoNames (CC BY 4.0).