Published June 14, 2025
Developed in 1963 as part of San Ramon Village, Glenoaks was the third and final Dublin housing tract to use the same floor plans Volk-McLain Communities had introduced in the San Ramon Village housing tract and continued with Brighton Circle. With approximately 137 homes, Glenoaks brought this particular series of Volk-McLain tract houses to its conclusion, refining the modest, affordable formula that had helped establish the developer's early presence in Dublin.
Volk-McLain may not have originally intended to build Glenoaks as a separately named development. The project appeared just as Monarch Construction was abandoning plans for a larger Parkwood housing tract next door. Monarch had begun building Parkwood in 1962 but constructed less than half the homes it had originally announced. As the first outside builder to purchase homesites within Volk-McLain's San Ramon Village, Monarch's early departure created an unusual interruption in an otherwise remarkably consistent building program.
The timing raises an intriguing possibility: some of the unbuilt Parkwood lots may have returned to Volk-McLain, leaving roughly 137 homesites for another phase of construction. Rather than simply continue selling the area as Brighton Circle, Volk-McLain may have given this final group its own identity as Glenoaks while continuing to use the same five-house formula. The surviving records I've found do not confirm this sequence, but it would help explain both the timing of Glenoaks and why a relatively small group of homes appeared as a distinct housing tract within the larger San Ramon Village development.
Giving the new phase its own model homes would not have been unusual. Volk-McLain had already refreshed its model complex during the 1962 Brighton Circle building program, and by 1963 the company was promoting the Glenoaks models with changes that reflected buyer feedback. The new homes retained the established floor plans but incorporated refinements such as shake roofs and marble vanity tops. In other words, Glenoaks could be new in its presentation and details without being new in its underlying design.
That may help explain why the names survive as separate tracts in historical records even though the physical boundary between them is now almost impossible to see. The model homes, advertisements, and sales names were different; the houses themselves were remarkably similar.
Glenoaks homes and architectural style
When Volk-McLain introduced Glenoaks in 1963, prospective buyers encountered the housing tract through its model homes. The models showcased the different designs, floor plans, and lifestyles the builder was offering to buyers in Dublin.
The Glenoaks models
The original model homes provide a useful cross-section of Glenoak's architecture. Volk-McLain initially selected five models for the 1963 opening on Bandon Drive, with three more opening soon after. Although buyers could choose among different elevations and options, these models document the versions Volk-McLain chose to put on display.
Although Volk-McLain relied on five underlying floor plans—Plans D, E, J, L, and M—the builder used alternate exterior elevations to create the appearance of greater variety.
The Design 1 (Plan M-?)
This model offered approximately 1,424 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The Design 1 shared its floor plan with the Design 6.
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| Original Design 1 (unknown name) model today via Google Street View. |
The Cape Cod (Plan J-?)
This model offered approximately 1,338 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The Cape Cod shared its floor plan with the Vermont.
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| The original Cape Cod model in 1963, promoted as having wide eaves to provide cooling shade. |
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| Original Cape Cod model today via Google Street View. |
The Design 3 (Plan E-?)
This model offered approximately 1,100 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The Design 3 shared its floor plan with the Catalina.
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| Original Design 3 model today via Google Street View. |
The Jamestown (Plan D-?)
This model offered approximately 1,066 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
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| Original Jamestown model today via Google Street View. |
The Coronado (Plan L-?)
This model offered approximately 1,475 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
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| Original Coronado model today via Google Street View. |
The Design 6 (Plan M-?)
This Rustic Ranch model offered approximately 1,424 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.The Design 6 shared its floor plan with the Design 1.
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| Original Design 6 model today via Google Street View. |
The Vermont (Plan J-?)
This model offered approximately 1,338 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The Vermont shared its floor plan with the Cape Cod.
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| Original Vermont model today via Google Street View. |
The Catalina (Plan E-?)
This model offered approximately 1,080 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. The Catalina shared its floor plan with the Design 3.
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| Original Catalina model today via Google Street View. |
Selling the same formula again
Volk-McLain's success came from repeating a proven formula while making each new group of homes feel distinctive. Glenoaks reused the same five Raymond Dean Conwell-designed floor plans introduced in San Ramon Village and continued in Brighton Circle. New model names, elevations, and finishes gave the familiar plans a fresh sales identity.
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| A grand-opening ad from September 1, 1963 with the Coronado model. |
That tract is difficult to appreciate from the street today. The shake roofs that once helped distinguish Glenoaks have long since been replaced, and sixty years of remodeling has obscured many of the original details. But the homes' dimensions, floor plans, and surviving historical descriptions reveal a much closer relationship between the three communities than their separate names suggest.
Glenoaks was also among the last Volk-McLain housing tracts in the area to use the fake birdhouse over the garage, a hallmark of the Rustic Ranch style, that had become a recurring feature of the company's houses.
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| Ad for Glenoaks from June 21, 1964, where just $195 move you in today. |
Legacy of Glenoaks
In early 1965, Volk-McLain sold remaining inventory to a local realty company as part of a broader retreat from homebuilding in the region. Across three named housing tracts, the company had established a recognizable vocabulary of affordable homes built from just five floor plans—changing elevations, trim, features, and marketing while keeping the underlying designs remarkably consistent.
Glenoaks represented the most polished version of that formula.
Its name, like Brighton Circle before it, gradually disappeared into the larger San Ramon Village neighborhood. Today, the boundaries between the three housing tracts are difficult to see, and the homes themselves offer few obvious clues. But the historical record reveals something the modern streetscape does not: what appear to be separate tracts were, in large part, successive expressions of the same Volk-McLain building program.
Collection
Continue exploring
- Parkwood, Dublin: Monarch Construction's 1962 housing tract
- Brighton Circle, Dublin: Volk-McLain's 1962 housing tract
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