An Era Ends For A Family At A Walnut Creek House

A new generation is taking over on a well-worn parcel of land in Walnut Creek.

The Peterson family sold their home on Warren Road late last month to another young family.

The Petersons are hoping the new family will enjoy the house and surrounding land in the city's Saranap district as much as they have the past 60 years.

"It was bittersweet for them to sell," said Linnette Edwards, the associate broker for Better Homes & Gardens who represented the Petersons. "They have a lot of good memories there."

The Peterson family bought the home in 1953. Back then, it was a brick house on a one-acre parcel with a rose garden and all types of fruit trees.

"The back field was all walnut orchards," the family wrote in a letter to prospective buyers. "(It was) an open field from Dewing Lane to Flora Avenue. Also, there were small barns with chicken coops."

It was a time when Walnut Creek was still rural and still had many of the trees that gave the city its name.

The family lived on the property for the next 60 years, except from 1960 to 1964 when they resided in Sacramento and rented out the home.

The land was subdivided in 1971 and then subdivided again in 1986. The old brick house was torn down and a new ranch house was constructed in 1987.

Mike Peterson, a son of the original owners, eventually built another home on one of the subdivided lots. His family still lives there.

Peterson's mother lived in the ranch house until July 2013, when she died at the age of 92.

The Petersons then decided to sell. They had a number of offers but decided on a family with a parent who grew up in Saranap as the ones who would get to buy their home.

"It made them happy that another family will get to start a life there," said Edwards.