When Mayfield refused to close its saloons, the Stanfords backed a new temperance town at the university’s gate. Their friend Timothy Hopkins bought 740 acres in 1887, and the new community was at first called University Park.
At the time the name Palo Alto belonged to the tract now called College Terrace. Its developer gave up the name at Leland Stanford’s request, and the new town took it when it incorporated on April 16, 1894.