USGS 50 Years in Menlo Park

Town of Mayfield, the Railroad, and the Two Palo Altos

Elisha Crosby bought 250 acres of land from Secundino Robles and established a farm he called "Mayfield." A large settlement was soon to spring forth on the grounds of Mayfield, built around the business of a farming and lumbering, a hotel with a saloon and stage stop, a general store, a brewery, and (eventually) a new railroad which could transport goods and passengers at 1/10th the cost of livery stage. Ground was broken at San Francisquito Creek on May lst, 1861 for a railroad to connect San Jose to San Francisco. It was designed by William Lewis in 1851 and completed by 1864. The SJ&SF RR was bought out six years later by Central Pacific. William Page made a road between Mayfield and his lumber mill in the coast range (Page Mill Road). Senator Leland Stanford (who made a fortune as a ruthless railroad baron) eyed the area half way between San Francisco and San Jose as being ideal for a university, and since Mayfield had abundant groceries, lumber, and a railroad station, plans were drawn up to build a colleges on ranchland between Page Mill Road and San Francisquito Creek. Stanford also built a beautiful manor (which later became a convalescent home, but met its eventual demise as fuel for a 1965 Big Game bonfire) and a large horse stable for his Stock Farm (the bam still exists and was awarded a historic marker--for the experimentation and development of motion picture technology accomplished there in photographing horses in movement). Beginning around 1889, a university town "on higher ground than the railroad and that commands a view of the university buildings" was being auctioned off east of the campus (one-third cash, one-third in 12 months, one-third in 18 months at 8% interest) called Palo Alto by agents of the Carnall-Fitzhugh-Hopkins Company, and another tract north of campus was "for sale at terms" by W.M. Macmillan & Co. called University Park. The Palo Alto train station was at the University Park development and the Mayfield train depot was at the Palo Alto development, (Confusing!) University Avenue (Palm Drive) would form the N-S axis of the university from the main quad to the Palo Alto (University Park) train station. The confusion of names was resolved in 1892 when the University Park development became the official Palo Alto and the other Palo Alto became College Terrace. Boozing it up was forbidden in Palo Alto. The rapid growth of the university towns enveloped Mayfield and brought an end to its bacchanal lifestyle (though the same probably can't be said for Stanford-area towns today).

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