Palo Alto - Encyclopedia

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES

PALO ALTO, a city of Santa Clara county, California, U.S.A., between two of the coast ranges, about 28 m. S. of San Francisco, and about 18 m. from the sea. Pop. (1906) 4515. It is served by the coast division of the Southern Pacific railway, and is the railway station for Leland Stanford Jr. University, which is about 1 m. south-west of the city. At Menlo Park is St Patrick's Theological Seminary (Roman Catholic). By all real estate deeds the sale of intoxicating liquors is for ever prohibited in the city; and an act of the state legislature in 1909 prohibited the sale of intoxicating liquor within r z m. of the grounds of the university. The name (Sp. "tall tree") was derived from a solitary redwood-tree standing in the outskirts of the city. Palo Alto was laid out in 1891, but had no real existence before 1893. It was incorporated as a town in 1894, having previously been a part of Mayfield township; in 1909 it was chartered as a city. Palo Alto suffered severely in the earthquake of 1906.