TractTales | The neighborhoods that built the Tri-Valley

Published July 16, 2026 Set within Sunset Homes ' master-planned Granada Village (Sunset West) neighborhood, Granada Woods opened in August 1963 as Livermore's premier custom-home tract. Inspired by San Francisco's St. Francis Wood, the 65-home enclave occupies only a small portion of Granada Village, yet it represents one of Sunset Homes' most ambitious residential projects in the city. Winding streets, oversized lots, landscaped medians, and architect-designed entrance monuments created an upscale setting aimed at professionals, including many working at the nearby Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Builder Masud Mehran, president of Sunset Homes, described Granada Woods as "an oasis of urban relaxation in a world where gracious living has become almost a rarity." Rather than offering a handful of standardized floor plans, Sunset Homes encouraged architectural variety. Buyers could select one of the featured home designs or commission a custom residence, provi...

Published July 12, 2026 Oak Creek was one of the earliest housing tracts to transform former walnut orchards in San Ramon into suburbia. Developed by Tom Gentry between 1965 and 1968, it introduced a different vision of tract housing—one that emphasized craftsmanship, rustic architecture, and carefully marketed design features rather than simply square footage. Built along a seasonal creek on former orchard land, the development reflected Tom Gentry's belief that suburban homes could feel distinctive without sacrificing affordability. Many of the ideas introduced here would reappear in his later San Ramon developments, helping establish a recognizable architectural identity during the community's earliest years. Grand opening advertisement for Oak Creek, published in October 1965. The campaign introduced Tom Gentry's vision of "Old California" living, using rustic architecture and carefully crafted model homes to distinguish the housing tract from other tract de...

Published July 11, 2026 Today, Twin Creeks is one of San Ramon's most recognizable neighborhoods. Residents often simply say they live in "Twin Creeks"—a sign of the identity the community developed over more than half a century. It wasn't always that way. When the first model homes opened in April 1969, Twin Creeks stood on the western edge of suburban San Ramon, surrounded by former ranchland. It was separated from the valley's earlier neighborhoods by both geography and infrastructure, and many of the services residents now take for granted had yet to arrive.  Over the following decade, Twin Creeks expanded across the hillsides west of San Ramon Valley Boulevard, transforming a quiet corner of the valley into one of the city's largest residential communities. The Twin Creeks area began developing in 1969 and continued expanding southward in successive phases through the late 1980s. Mapping Twin Creeks Annotated aerial map showing the extent of the Twin...

Published July 2, 2026 When Morrison Homes arrived in Pleasanton during the early 1960s, the city was still a quiet agricultural community surrounded by ranches and orchards. Over the next two decades, Morrison would build thousands of homes across several major neighborhoods, helping transform Pleasanton into one of the Tri-Valley's defining suburban communities. This isn't the story of a single subdivision. It's the story of how Morrison's neighborhoods reflected Pleasanton's changing identity—from small country town to modern commuter city. Pleasanton before suburbia When the 1960s began, Pleasanton was still defined more by ranches, orchards, and open countryside than by subdivisions. The historic downtown served as the community's commercial heart, while only limited residential development had begun in the hills east of town. Although the city had been incorporated for decades, it retained much of its rural character. Elsewhere in the Tri-Valley, howev...