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University Avenue

Downtown Palo Alto’s main street, with the 1941 train station at its foot and shops, restaurants, the Stanford Theatre and Lytton Plaza along its blocks.

University Avenue was opened from the Stanford quadrangle to the railroad, and the town grew up on the far side of the tracks. An 1896 guide described the broad avenue that “leads without a waver straight to Palo Alto”.

Today it is the route of the May Fete Parade and the Festival of the Arts. The Streamline Moderne station of 1941 stands at its foot, and the Stanford Theatre has shown films at number 221 since 1925.

Sources

Questions people ask

What is on University Avenue?

Downtown Palo Alto’s shops and restaurants, the Stanford Theatre, Lytton Plaza and the Caltrain station at the western end.

Related terms

  • Stanford TheatreThe 1925 movie palace at 221 University Avenue, restored by the Packard Foundation, that shows films from Hollywood’s golden age.
  • Lytton PlazaThe small public plaza at University Avenue and Emerson Street, built in 1964 and long the town’s traditional place of protest.
  • Ramona StreetA downtown block between University and Hamilton Avenues of Spanish Colonial shops and offices, a National Register historic district since 1985.
  • Palo Alto stationThe Caltrain station at the foot of University Avenue, a Streamline Moderne building of 1941 and the second-busiest stop on the line.

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