About ten were built. How many are left?

Q: How do I know whether my roof is a butterfly?

Stand at the kerb and look at the roof edge. A butterfly roof is high at the outer walls and falls inward to a valley in the middle of the house. A gable does the opposite. If you are not sure, the giveaway is where the water goes: a butterfly drains through a single interior valley rather than off the perimeter.

Q: Why does it matter whether the roofline is original?

Because there is no way to add one. A butterfly roof is the least replaceable feature in Redwood City's Eichler stock, and Redwood City has no design guidelines or overlay zoning protecting it. Once a butterfly is replaced with a conventional roof, that house is out of the count permanently.

Q: Will you publish my address?

No. We will publish a count and a street-level summary. We will not publish addresses, names or photographs without asking you first and getting a yes in writing.

Nobody has counted. Not the city, not the county, not us — not yet. If you own a house on Atherwood, Parkwood, Cedarwood or Oakfield, you can settle a piece of this in about thirty seconds.

Report your roof What a butterfly roof is

A single-storey Redwood City mid-century house with a long low roofline and a deep overhang across the front. — One of the ones we need you to checkEvery Atherwood roof is either a butterfly or it is not, and nobody has the list. Thirty seconds at the kerb settles it for your house.Virtually altered

Why we are doing this

A number nobody actually has.

Eichler Network records roughly ten butterfly roofs at Atherwood, built in 1950 — the largest collection in Eichler's body of work, and per Wikipedia the first in any California housing tract. That is the number built. The number standing today is a different number, and we have not found anyone who knows it.

Redwood City has no Eichler design guidelines, no single-storey overlay, no homeowners' association and no historic designation. Nothing prevents a butterfly roof being replaced with a conventional one during a re-roof, and a roofer who has never seen one has no reason to preserve it. Some have almost certainly already gone.

So we are counting. Not as a marketing exercise — as the thing a specialist ought to be able to tell you before you buy or sell one.

What we will do with it

Publish the count and a street-level summary on this page, and keep it updated. We will not publish your address, your name or your photographs unless you tell us in writing that we may. If you would rather just tell us and stay out of it entirely, say so in the notes and that is the end of it.

Built: ~10, in 1950
Standing today: [unknown — that is the point]
Streets in scope: Atherwood Ave, Parkwood Way, Cedarwood Way, Oakfield Ave
Protection: None of any kind
Reported so far: [count]
Last updated: [date]

There is no way to add one. Every butterfly roof that comes off is gone from the total permanently.

Why a count is worth having before it is too late to take one.

The census

Tell us about your roof.

Four fields are required and the rest are optional. You do not need to be selling anything, and we will not treat this as a lead unless you ask us to.

Name

Street

House number, if you are happy to give it

What is on the roof now

Anything else — re-roof dates, what the roofer found, whether we may publish your address

Questions

Before you fill that in.

How many butterfly roofs were built at Atherwood?

Eichler Network records roughly ten, built in 1950. Per Wikipedia they were the first butterfly roofs in any California housing tract — seven years before William Krisel's Twin Palms in Palm Springs. Eichler Network also describes Atherwood as holding the largest collection in Eichler's entire body of work.

How do I know whether my roof is a butterfly?

Stand at the kerb and look at the roof edge. A butterfly is high at the outer walls and falls inward to a valley in the middle of the house; a gable does the opposite. If you are unsure, follow the water: a butterfly drains through a single interior valley rather than off the perimeter.

Why does it matter whether the roofline is original?

Because there is no way to add one, and nothing here protects it. Redwood City has no Eichler design guidelines, no overlay zoning and no historic designation. Once a butterfly is replaced with a conventional roof, that house leaves the count permanently.

Will you publish my address?

No. We will publish a count and a street-level summary. Addresses, names and photographs are only published if you tell us in writing that we may.

I am not selling. Will you chase me?

No. Say so in the notes and we will thank you and leave you alone. The count is worth more to us than a mailing list is.