Santa Clara County CA Archives History - Books .....Chapter XXXII 1922
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Book Title: History Of Santa Clara County

CHAPTER XXXII.

Palo Alto and Leland Stanford Jr. University-The Rapid Growth of One of the
Progressive Towns of Santa Clara County-The Location and Uses of a Great
Educational Institution.

  Palo Alto, nineteen miles northwest of San Jose, is a city of homes. It has
that air of solid, substantial, quiet comfort which is the ideal atmosphere of
the home-loving. At the same time it is enlivened by the presence of a great
university. Its beautiful lawns and trees, its gardens of flowers, fruits and
vegetables, its clean, shady streets, are elements that contribute generously to
the delight and satisfaction of the citizens. Within driving distance of Palo
Alto are many points of particular interest, which are reached by roads through
valley or over mountains and foothills. To these advantages are added others: an
even and comfortable climate, enabling one to live out of doors practically the
year through; educational opportunities that are not excelled anywhere; nearness
to San Francisco (only one hour's ride) ; a variety of religious, civic and
social relationships.

  Palo Alto is located on the Peninsula, twenty-eight miles from San Francisco,
^n the northern part of the famed Santa Clara Valley. The southern arm of the
Bay of San Francisco is two miles to the east, and on the west, twenty miles
distant, is the Pacific Ocean, with the Santa Cruz Mountains rising in forested
beauty between and protecting the valley from ocean fogs.

  The average summer temperature is seventy degrees; that of the winter is
fifty-five degrees. The nearness to the ocean prevents extremes of cold in the
winter and of heat in the summer. The skies are habitually sunny and bright all
months of the year; there are not many days when the sun is hidden longer than a
few hours at a time. The average rainfall is 19.5 inches. The city of Palo Alto
owes its existence to Stanford University. With the opening of University Avenue
from the quadrangle to the Southern Pacific Railway, it was recognized that here
was the location for the college city. The first house was built in 1891, the
year the university opened for instruction.

  From the beginning Palo Alto has grown steadily. Its municipal policies have
always been progressive and its affairs have been conservatively administered in
a most thoroughgoing, businesslike fashion. As a result a beautiful city has
been built, and all that is good in a modern municipality is here. The
businesslike methods of administration are shown by the low tax rate and the low
cost of public-service products.

  Palo Alto was incorporated in 1894 and soon installed a municipal water
system, a municipal power plant, and a complete sanitary sewer system. These
enterprises have been conducted with marked success and for some years gave a
large net income. Then the policy was adopted of furnishing water, light and
power at cost, which has resulted in the lowest rates charged by any city in the
bay region. The bonds issued for these enterprises are cared for from the gross
income and require no tax upon property. The actual bonded indebtedness of the
city (aside from the self-sustaining bonds) is only one per cent of the assessed
valuation, and the tax rate is exceptionally low. The city has acquired a
municipal garbage destructor and now owns a municipal gas system.

  The city government is based upon a special charter granted by the state
legislature. The power is centralized in the hands of a council of fifteen
members holding, office for six years, five retiring every two years. They are
the only elective officers, thus insuring a short ballot. This council appoints
a board of works, a board of safety, and a library board, also such
administrative officers as city clerk, auditor, treasurer, police judge,
attorney, and tax collector. The board of public works selects a city engineer,
who, because of the wide extent of his jurisdiction, is virtually a city
business manager. The board of public safety appoints the chief of police and
the health officer. In the charter are provisions for the initiative, referendum
and recall.

  The fire department is provided with an auto fire and chemical engine of the
latest design. Besides the principal fire houses at the city hall, there are
four outlying stations, each furnished with fire-fighting apparatus and manned
by volunteer companies. The Gamewell fire alarm system covers the entire
municipal territory. The insurance companies recognize the efficiency of this
department by establishing low rates.

  A modern health department is conducted by a full-time health officer holding
a university degree in public health. The department has a well equipped
laboratory for diagnosis, and analysis of milk, water and foods. Dairy cows are
tuberculin-tested, and the milk supply is exceptionally clean and wholesome. The
death rate has steadily declined, in 1918 reaching the very low rate of 6.3 per
1,000 of population.

  A large part, about seventy per cent, of the streets of the city are well
paved, and sidewalks are provided on all the streets. All sewer and water pipes
are laid in advance of street work, so that streets are not torn up after paving
is done. A model system of street lighting serves the entire city. The spaces
along the sidewalks are parked, and along the front of the city the railway is
bordered for a mile with a mass of blossoms. Nooks that form natural parks exist
along San Francisquito Creek, which half encircles the city, and a beautiful
strip of twenty-five acres between Palo Alto and Stanford campus is leased by
the city.

  At least two important manufacturing concerns have already recognized the
town's signal advantages, and at present the Boden Automatic Hammer Company is
operating a successful plant in the Stanford Irrigating Tract, one of the
suburbs of Palo Alto; and the Federal Wireless Telegraph Company has erected a
large building on the strip of land between Palo Alto and the State Highway to
house the growing business of its manufacturing enterprise, which has been in
operation for several years. The famous Palo Alto Stock Farm has been reopened
on Stanford land adjoining the university, for the rearing of thoroughbred
cattle instead of horses.

  Soon after the United States declared war against Germany, Palo Alto was
selected as one of the training camps for the national army. After the war the
camp was abandoned and in 1920 the land was cut up into lots and offered for
sale. From Palo Alto southward extends that wonderful fruit belt of California
known as the Santa Clara Valley. In this territory are raised one-half of all
the prunes produced in the United States; no other county in the United States
raises so many cherries or so many apricots. Besides these leaders are produced
grapes, peaches, pears, apples, plums, olives and berries on a commercial basis.
From this splendid source the resident of Palo Alto has, at producers' prices,
the best that California grows. All along the peninsula from San Francisco
southward, are great vegetable gardens that are worked summer and winter. Thus
vegetables are plentiful and fresh, and their cost is low.

  Palo Alto is on the Coast line of the Southern Pacific railway, fifty to sixty
minutes from San Francisco, and has over twenty trains each way daily. There are
at the present time about two hundred commuters, who do business in San
Francisco and with their families make their homes in Palo Alto. The town is
also the terminus of the Peninsular interurban electric line, with its main line
to San Jose and branch lines to Stanford University, Saratoga and Los Gatos, by
way of Los Altos.

  Inside the present city limits there are 7,000 people; the immediately
contiguous suburban centers of Stanford campus, North Palo Alto, Ravenswood and
Stanford Acres have not less than 3,000 more; the country tributary to Palo
Alto, north, south and west, will number at least 5,000. Here, then, is the
center of a population of 15,000 people. The population may be divided into two
general classes-those who are permanently or temporarily located at Palo Alto,
to enjoy its educational and climatic advantages, and those who are permanently
engaged in business or agricultural enterprises. In this latter class are a
great many whose business or professional interests are in San Francisco, but
whose homes are in Palo Alto.

  The State Highway has brought about automobile transportation both for freight
and passengers, operating between Palo Alto and San Jose and San Francisco a
regular hourly schedule.

  The land between Palo Alto and the Bay of San Francisco has great advantages
for the raising of strawberries, celery and garden seeds. Strawberries ripen
from April to December and the yield is from $600 to $1,000 per acre. Celery is
shipped in carloads. Palo Alto celery and Palo Alto strawberries have a special
rating for quality in the San Francisco market reports. There are immense
possibilities for developing market gardens in the vicinity of Palo Alto, as it
is one of the rare spots in the world where the best grades of vegetable and
flower seeds can be grown. The production of onion seed is one of the most
profitable industries; sweet peas, radishes, celery and other seeds are grown
near the city. Farming and dairying are successfully carried on. Much fertile
land is already in orchards, averaging about ten acres to a family. Poultry
raising is often combined with the fruit industry.

  The public school system of Palo Alto is one of the chief interests of the
people, with the result that the schools are among the best in the state. The
city has forty-nine in its teaching force, twenty-two of whom are employed in
the high school. Five teachers serve as supervisors in drawing, music, manual
training, domestic science and penmanship. There is a magnificent series of new
buildings, costing $250,000, for the Palo Alto Union High School District, which
includes Stanford and Mayfield. The high school, located as it is, adjacent to
Stanford, emphasizes preparation for the university. In addition to this,
however, provision is made for vocational subjects, such as commercial studies
and the manual and household arts. Four years of instruction are afforded in the
fine arts, giving four complete university credits. The courses in languages,
history, English, mathematics and science are thorough and complete.

  The high school is fully accredited by all the universities and normal schools
on the coast, and also by such Middle West and Eastern institutions as the
University of Michigan and Smith College. The activities fostered by the high
school consist of athletics, dramatics, debating, and the school paper-The Madrono.

  Palo Alto has a Carnegie library containing over 10,000 volumes, selected by
discerning and well-trained librarians. Any person can borrow these books upon
practically the same basis as those who live within the city limits.

  The saloon and the blind pig have never existed, so that the police department
does not occupy a prominent position in the city's administration. In addition
to provisions in Palo Alto's city charter, every deed to land contains a clause
prohibiting the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. All leading
Christian denominations are represented: Baptist organized 1893, Presbyterian
organized 1893, Methodist Episcopal organized 1894. All Saints (Episcopal)
organized 1894, Christian organized 1896, St. Thomas Aquinas (Roman Catholic)
organized 1900, First Congregational organized 1900, First Church of Christ,
Scientist, organized 1900, Unitarian organized 1905. There is an active
inter-church federation of the six evangelical churches.

  Palo Alto has many clubs and organizations. Among them might be mentioned The
Woman's Club of Palo Alto, the oldest of them all, organized in 1894. Another
strong organization, whose membership consists of women, is the Civic League.  
It has been very active in all plans and projects that have had for their object
the preparation of women for their new duties as voters and electors. The
Peninsula Club is an organization for business and professional men; it owns its
own club house and athletic courts. The Faculty Club is a similar institution on
the Stanford campus.

  Palo Alto maintains a live Chamber of Commerce made up chiefly of business
men. There is also a Merchants' Credit Association. Of the fraternal orders the
following list will speak for itself: Knights Templar, Royal Arch Masons, Free
and Accepted Masons, Order of Eastern Star, Knights of Pythias, Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, Degree of Rebekah. Foresters of America, Improved Order of
Red Men, Degree of Pocahontas, Independent Order of Good Templars, Independent
Order of Foresters, Modern Woodmen of America, Fraternal Aid Union, Woodmen of
the World, Native Sons of the Golden West Grand Army of the Republic, Relief
Corps, Fraternal Brotherhood, P. E. O., Daughters of the American Revolution,
Ladies of the Maccabes. Most of these fraternal orders are housed in the Masonic
Temple, a massive structure of artistic design, representing an outlay of $50,000.

  Palo Alto is the center of a group of colleges and schools other than the
Stanford University. The chief of this group is St. Patrick's Seminary, an
institution of collegiate rank, whose object is to prepare for the Catholic
ministry. This institution represents an outlay of $1,000,000 or more. It is
situated on a 100-acre site almost continguous to Palo Alto's northern boundary,
the tree-lined San Francisquito Creek. Its noble old oaks, great palms, rose
gardens, green lawns and winding ways, furnish a never-ending source of
inspiration to its students. This seminary is the leading Catholic institution
of its kind on the Pacific Coast. There are five buildings of the Renaissance
style of architecture.

  A short distance from Palo Alto to the northwest, is the Sacred Heart Academy,
a Catholic preparatory school for young ladies. This is one of the best known in
California. There are more than twenty teaching sisters on its faculty list.
Like the other educational institution of the region, it has a most pleasing
site among the great green oaks.

  Palo Alto has three large private schools, each representing investments from
$40,000 to $100,000. Two are girls' schools and one is for boys. All the girls'
schools are accredited by universities and colleges. All these schools are
provided with fine playground facilities.

  Long ago Palo Alto outgrew its original city boundary lines, so that now there
is a North Palo Alto, South Palo Alto, a Stanford Acres, a Stanford Park, and
from the eastern line to San Francisco Bay lies the territory of Runnymede.
These suburbs are each growing surely and steadily under the foster care of the
mother town.

  South Palo Alto is a beautiful home spot. The echo of the woodman's axe has
never resounded among the live-oaks of this green domain. Here they are in
groups, or standing alone with gnarled and weathered trunk and huge, wide
protecting branches. In common with all of the territory in and around Palo Alto
the character of the soil is such that gardening or fruit-raising is a delight.
One can get results that make worth while the time and effort spent. There are
at present over eighty residences in this tract. A region of small farms adjoins
South Palo Alto. Water distributed under pressure for irrigation and domestic
use, is piped to each tract. The roads and streets are macadamized, shade trees
are set out on either side of the roads and there is electricity for lighting
purposes. The soil is rich and capable of great production, drainage is good and
there are building restrictions requiring substantial residences to be built.
There are several fine homes built and being built on these tracts. Acreage here
ranges from $500 to $1,000 an acre.

  One of the most interesting economic experiments in intensive agriculture in
the country is now being carried out successfully on the northern boundary of
Palo Alto. This is the Charles Weeks poultry colony called Runnymede. A large
tract of fertile, alluvial bay shore land has been subdivided into acre tracts
and on these colonists have settled chiefly for the raising of poultry under a
system worked out as the result of fourteen years' experience by Mr. Weeks. With
fertile land, artesian water, fine climate, good markets and nearness to all the
advantages of high civilization these colonists are working out the problem of
making comfortable and enjoyable living as "little landers." With an unlimited
market for food products the extension of this colony idea is only limited by
the amount of suitable land available for the purpose.

  North Palo Alto is a newer suburb than South Palo Alto. It lies northeast on a
tract that is gently sloping, sunny and attractive. It has all the advantages
that are necessary to [sic]

  In April, 1922, the contract was awarded for the erection of a U. S. Veterans
Hospital for $861,868. There will be eighteen buildings. The cost of the
equipment will be $292,400.

Leland Stanford Jr., University

  The highly favorable climatic and soil conditions found in a beautiful
landscape of green mountains, rolling foothills, oak-bedecked valley and blue
and green waters of a world-famed bay, were leading considerations in the minds
of Senator Leland Stanford and Mrs Jane Stanford, his wife, when in the 70s they
selected, from all of California's magnificent domain, 8000 acres to serve as
their home estate. This great farm they named Palo Alto (Spanish for "tall
tree") from a huge redwood tree standing on one corner of the estate. The 8,000
tree-dotted acres of this Stanford farm include land partly level, the rest
rising into foothills of the Santa Cruz Range. Immediately on its northeastern
border is Palo Alto and just to the east of Palo Alto lies San Francisco Bay
with its miles of undeveloped water front. Across the Bay towers the Mt. Diablo
Range and Mt. Hamilton, the latter rising to a height of 4400 feet and crowned
by the Lick Observatory. Here was opened in 1891 the university founded in the
memory of Leland Stanford, Jr. "The children of California shall be my
children," said Senator Stanford.

  As preliminary to the definite planning of buildings and grounds the Stanfords
traveled the world over to obtain ideas and inspirations. As a result, there has
been produced at Palo Alto in California, a group of university buildings and a
campus equal to the loveliest and best the world can show. Mr. McMillan, of
McMillan's Magazine, London, uses this expression: "Stanford University, the
finest group of buildings in the world."

  Located on a campus that is co-extensive with the original 8,000-acre farm,
the buildings are compactly grouped in a quadrangle form. From the group wind
macadam avenues, streets and drives. Palo Alto, the arboretum, and the farm
lands, while paths ramble into the ever-beckoning, rolling hills. In general
effect the immediate setting is semi-tropical; red-tiled roofs, buff-colored
sandstone walls, long arcades and colonnades, Romanesque pillar-supported
arches, waving palms, mammoth evergreen oaks, tall eucalyptus, bamboos, palms,
green-swarded courts, and lawns and flowers everywhere.

  The central group of buildings, consisting of two quadrangles, the one
completely surrounding the other, is an adaptation of mission architecture and
reproduces on an imposing scale the open arches, long colonnades and red-tiled
roofing of the old Spanish Missions of California.

  The inner quadrangle consists of twelve one-story buildings and the Memorial
Church, connected by a continuous open arcade and surrounding a court 586 feet
long and 246 feet wide, or 3 1/4 acres.

  The fourteen two-story buildings of the outer quadrangle are of the same
general style as the inner quadrangle, with arcades on the outside. The extreme
length of the outer quadrangle is 894 feet. The main entrance through the outer
quadrangle is through the Memorial Court. Leading to Palo Alto, in the opposite
direction is University Avenue. This broad, palm-lined thoroughfare passes
through one of the world's most famous arboretums, comprising about 600 acres
and containing many thousand varieties of trees and shrubs, among them many rare
specimens.

  The Leland Stanford Jr. Museum contains the archaeological and art collections
of the university. The chemistry building, located north of the quadrangle,
consists of two separate structures, the main building and the assaying
laboratory. South of the quadrangles are the workshops of the engineering
departments, experimental laboratories and power houses.

  The boys' dormitory, Encina Hall, is located east of the quadrangles and
accommodates 300. The girls' dormitory, Roble Hall, is west of the quadrangles
and has accommodations for 100. This is to be used in the future as a boys'
dormitory also, a larger dormitory for women having been built near the lake.
Between Encina Hall and the main quadrangle, an art gallery and the magnificent
new library building have just been completed.

  The men's gymnasium is a new structure of brick, with an open-air swimming
pool, just opposite the football bleachers and athletic fields. The athletic
fields are as complete and certainly as beautiful as those of any college in the
world. They include three football fields, three baseball diamonds, a
quarter-mile cinder path, and a great number of tennis courts. Lagunita affords
opportunity for boating and swimming.

  Along the edge of the near foothills, just beyond the outer quadrangle to the
southeast, are the homes of the college community. It is a little city by
itself, with attractive streets and comfortable houses, encompassed by luxuriant
trees, shrubs, flowers, and lawns. Alvarado Row, facing Encina Hall, Salvatierra
Street, with its leafy protection of over-spreading elms, and Lasuen Street,
known as Fraternity Row, are the principal streets. In addition to these main
thoroughfares, there are several short streets that lead up into the foothills,
where attractive homes have been built on sightly knolls.

  The Leland Stanford Jr. University is unlike oher great universities of the
world in many other ways than its architectural and campus features. With an
endowment estimated at about $30,000,000, not forced to depend upon any
political system nor upon tuition fees of students for its supporting funds, the
trustees and faculty are peculiarly free to establish and maintain high
standards of scholarship and conduct among its students.

  The university is thoroughly non-sectarian in its religious influence. Yet the
spiritual and moral welfare of its students is made the object of a regularly
organized department. The world-famed Memorial Church is the central and most
beautiful building of the group. It is equipped with one of the best pipe organs
in America. The Hopkins Marine Station is located at Pacific Grove. A new site
of nearly five acres, at Almeja Point, was secured in 1916. A concrete building
specially planned for the uses of the Marine Station was erected in 1917.

  The Stanford Union is a club house for men, first projected by Herbert C.
Hoover of the class of 1895, and built by contributions from students, alumni,
faculty, trustees, and friends of the university. The Union was opened in
February, 1915, and is in charge of a board of trustees made up of two faculty
members, three alumni, and two undergraduates. The Women's Club House provides a
social center for the women of the university, and is similar in plan and
construction to that of the Union. The club house was opened in February, 1915.
The University Inn is a frame building, operated as a cafeteria primarily for
students living on the campus.

  The Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery, the first building of the second
quadrangle group, was completed in 1917. This building, which sets the
architectural style for the new quadrangle, has the same arched arcades as the
original quadrangle, but the arched entrances, of which there are three, are
higher and more elaborate in detail.

  The Library Building, the central unit in the second quadrangle group, was
completed in 1919. The ground floor provides a reading room for books set apart
for collateral reading, a department of public documents, and administrative
work rooms. On the main floor are the delivery hall, the large reference and
reading rooms, a browsing room, a periodical room, the card catalogue, and the
administrative rooms; on the mezzanine and top floors, a large study room, and
smaller rooms of varying sizes for seminary and special research work.

  The main buildings of the Medical Department in San Francisco occupy four
fifty-vara lots bounded by Clay, Sacramento, and Webster streets. The Clinical
and Laboratory Building, including Lane Hall and Lane Hospital, is a modern
building in brick and stone, with a capacity of one hundred and eighty beds. The
Lane Medical Library is situated on the corner of Sacramento and Webster
streets, opposite the Clinical and Laboratory Building. The library is a
fireproof structure of Colusa sandstone, three and a half stones high, with
steel stacks accommodatings 60,000 volumes. The Stanford University Hospital,
completed in 1917, is a concrete structure with a capacity of one hundred and
thirty beds.

  The use of alcoholic liquors is absolutely prohibited in all student
lodging-houses whether on the campus or elsewhere. The health department
enforces stringent regulations as regards the sanitary arrangements in all
places where students live. Hospital service for a nominal fee is available for
those who may need such service.

  There were 2135 students and 310 members of the faculty at Stanford, according
to the 1920 registration. Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur is the president and there are
over 300 members of the faculty and instructors.

  In 1921 a stadium-capable of seating 65,000 people was built.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORY OF SANTA CLARA COUNTY CALIFORNIA
WITH
Biographical Sketches
OF
The Leading Men and Women of the County Who Have Been Identified With Its Growth
and Development From the Early Days to the Present

HISTORY BY
EUGENE T. SAWYER

ILLUSTRATED COMPLETE IN ONE VOLUME

HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
1922


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