After helping establish San Ramon Village, homebuilder Volk-McLain returned in 1963 with one final new-home community based on the founding formula: Glenoaks. Built in 1963, the approximately 137-home community represented the company's most refined expression of the modest, affordable tract house that had defined its early success in Dublin.
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| A grand-opening ad from September 1, 1963 with the Coronado model. |
Volk-McLain may not have originally intended to build Glenoaks as a separately named community. The project appeared just as Monarch Construction was abandoning plans for a larger Parkwood development next door. Monarch had begun building Parkwood in 1962 but constructed less than half the homes it had originally planned. 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 new-home community 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 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 communities 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.
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.
That continuity 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 communities in the area to use the raised "birdhouse" garage gable 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. |
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| The original Cape Cod model in 1963, promoted as having wide eaves to provide cooling shade. |
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 new-home communities, 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 communities 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 neighborhoods were, in large part, successive expressions of the same Volk-McLain building program.
Exploring the original Glenoaks today
Although the sales office is long gone and the advertisements have faded, the original Glenoaks model homes remain part of the neighborhood. These homes gave prospective buyers their first glimpse of Volk-McLain's vision for suburban living in 1963.
Today, they provide a tangible connection to Glenoak's earliest days. The guide below documents the original model home complex, the homes themselves, and how they appear today.
Original advertised prices
- Sep. 1963 advertisement: From $16,595
- Jun. 1964 advertisement: $16,595 - $18,995
- 1965: From $16,595
Original model home complex
Visitors to the Glenoaks model complex on Bandon Drive at Kimball Avenue found themselves walking through a parade of cheerful, carefully staged homes. It opened in 1963 with five models (plans D, E, J, L, and M), later expanding to eight in total—each offering a distinct personality but the same promise: you can afford this.
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| Annotated aerial map of the Glenoaks model home complex on Brandon Drive. Base imagery from Apple Maps. |
Original model home designs
1. The Design 1 (Plan M-?) - This model offered approximately 1,424 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
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| Original Design 1 (unknown name) model today via Google Street View. |
2. The Cape Cod (Plan J-?) - This model offered approximately 1,338 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
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| Original Cape Cod model today via Google Street View. |
3. The Design 3 (Plan E-?) - This model offered approximately 1,100 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
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| Original Design 3 model today via Google Street View. |
4. 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. |
5. 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. |
6. The Design 6 (Plan M-?) - This model offered approximately 1,424 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
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| Original Design 6 model today via Google Street View. |
7. The Vermont (Plan J-?) - This model offered approximately 1,338 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
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| Original Vermont model today via Google Street View. |
8. The Catalina (Plan E-?) - This model offered approximately 1,080 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
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| Original Catalina model today via Google Street View. |
Collections
Dublin — the neighborhoods that built a new city
This collection explores the new-home communities, builders, and neighborhoods that shaped Dublin during its principle years of suburban growth that gradually became the modern city.
The San Ramon Village collection explores the master-planned community that transformed former ranches and orchards into today's Dublin and South San Ramon. Although the name has largely disappeared, the neighborhoods, subdivisions, schools, parks, and shopping centers built as part of the original plan continue to shape the Tri-Valley.
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