Menlo Park ( MEN-loh) is a city in San Mateo County in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. Located at the eastern edge of the county, It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; and Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City to the west. It had 33,780 residents at the 2020 United States census. Part of Silicon Valley, it is home to the corporate headquarters of Meta Platforms, and is where Google, Roblox Corporation, Round Table Pizza, and SRI International were founded. The train station holds the record as the oldest continually operating train station in California. It is one of the most educated cities in California and the United States; nearly 70% of residents over 25 have earned a bachelor's degree or higher.
Name "Menlo" is derived from Menlo (the anglicized spelling of Irish Gaelic 'Mionloch', meaning 'small lake') in County Galway, Ireland, today an outer neighborhood of the city of Galway. The name "Menlo Park" was given to a ranch purchased by Irish settlers in honor of their home village in Ireland (c. 1850). Menlo Park, New Jersey, was named after Menlo Park, California, predating any work done there by Thomas Edison (who relocated there c. 1876); Menlo, Washington, also derived its name from the California community.
History
The area of Menlo Park was inhabited by the Ohlone people when the Portolá expedition arrived in 1769. In 1795, the Rancho de las Pulgas Spanish land grant was made that included the area of the current city. Before and during the 1849 Gold Rush, successful businessmen from San Francisco, like Faxon Atherton and George C. Johnson began investing in real estate on this portion of the peninsula located midway between San Francisco and San Jose.
Original Menlo Park gate In 1851, two Irish immigrants, Dennis J. Oliver and his brother-in-law, D.C. McGlynn, purchased a 1,700-acre (690 ha) tract of land on the former Rancho de las Pulgas. In 1854, they erected a gate with a wooden arch bearing the inscription "Menlo Park" and the date "August 1854" at the entrance to their property (now the intersection of Middle Ave and El Camino Real). The wooden gate was modeled after the stone gate that stands at the entrance to the Menlo Castle estate in Menlo, Ireland.
Railroad In 1863, the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road had built the railroad from San Francisco to as far as Mayfield (now California Avenue station in Palo Alto) and started running trains to the area. They named a nearby station "Menlo Park" after the sign. The 1867 station building still stands on the platform of the current Caltrain station, used by the local Chamber of Commerce. It holds the record as the oldest, continually operating train station in California. The town of Menlo Park grew up around this station, becoming a popular home for San Francisco businessmen. A post office was established in 1870, and the city was incorporated in 1874 (it dissolved after two years, but later was permanently incorporated in 1927). The original arch, which gave its name to the stations and ultimately, the city, survived until 1922, when it was destroyed in an automobile accident.
Camp Fremont In 1917–18, a large portion of Menlo Park was the site of Camp Fremont, a training camp for, at its height, 27,000 men being sent to fight in World War I. Army engineers paved the first streets in Menlo Park and laid the first water and gas lines. In the autumn of 1918, a flu pandemic hit Camp Fremont and killed 147. Although the camp was dismantled after the war, its hospital was retained, today the site of a Veterans Administration Hospital off Willow Road in Menlo Park.
SRI International At the start of World War II, the US government bought the 260-acre (110 ha) estate of Timothy Hopkins from his widow and created the Palo Alto General Hospital, later renamed the Dibble General Hospital (after Colonel John Dibble, who was killed in 1943). After the war ended, some of the land was sold to the city and became the sites of the main library and city hall. More of the land was bought by Stanford University to house the increase in students due to the G.I. Bill; the area was known as the "Stanford Village", which existed as student housing until the mid-1960s. This land also was the site of the Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) starting in 1947; between 1955 and 1968, SRI bought the rest of the Stanford Village.
Sunset magazine headquarters Sunset magazine had its headquarters in Menlo Park from 1951 to 2015, designed by architect, Cliff May, with a similar layout to a California ranch-style house. Sunset referred to its Menlo Park headquarters as the Laboratory of Western Living.
Sharon Heights In the 1960s, the former 600-acre (240 ha) estate of Frederick W. Sharon (1859–1914) (son of Senator William Sharon) and his wife, Louise Tevis Breckinridge Sharon (1858–1938; daughter of Lloyd Tevis and divorced wife of John Witherspoon Breckinridge), in the hills of south west Menlo Park was developed and called "Sharon Heights".
Development of Google The development of leading Internet search engine provider Google occurred in 1998 in the garage in a Menlo Park home owned by Susan Wojcicki. Wojcicki's Menlo Park garage was used as the office for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin for $1,700 a month.
Replica of Menlo Park gate In 2015, the Menlo Park Historical Association (MPHA) began a project to raise funds for and build a replica of the original Menlo Park gates. The completed gate was placed in front of the Menlo Park public library at 800 Alma Street, and officially dedicated on March 17, 2019, by Menlo Park Mayor Ray Mueller.
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