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Stanford University

The university Leland and Jane Stanford founded on their Palo Alto farm in memory of their son; it opened on October 1, 1891, and borders the city.

The Stanfords’ only son died in 1884, and they founded the university in his memory on the Palo Alto estate. The cornerstone was laid in 1887 and the first students arrived on October 1, 1891.

The town of Palo Alto grew up to serve it, and a county history of 1922 said the city “owes its existence to Stanford University”. The campus itself is mostly outside the city, but Stanford Shopping Center, the medical center and the research park are within it.

Sources

Questions people ask

Is Stanford in Palo Alto?

The main campus is in the separate community of Stanford, next to Palo Alto, but some Stanford lands, including the shopping center and research park, are inside the city.

Related terms

  • Palo Alto Stock FarmLeland Stanford’s horse farm of the 1870s and 1880s, where Electioneer stood and Muybridge photographed horses in motion; its land became Stanford University.
  • University ParkThe first name of the dry townsite laid out beside Stanford in the late 1880s; it incorporated as Palo Alto in 1894.
  • Stanford Research ParkThe technology park on Stanford land along Page Mill Road, begun in 1951 as the world’s first university research park.
  • El Palo AltoThe coast redwood on San Francisquito Creek that gave Palo Alto its name: about 110 feet tall, more than a thousand years old, and pictured on the city logo and Stanford’s seal.

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