Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto Neighborhood Explorer
Select any of the 17 mapped neighbourhoods to see when it was built, what it was built in, where its edges run and which streets define it.
Click a neighbourhood on the map, or use Tab and Enter to move through them.
All mapped neighbourhoods
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Part of the original 1889 townsite laid out on land sold by Timothy Hopkins, Downtown North sits between the University Avenue commercial core and San Francisquito Creek. Small lots and a tight block grid survive from the first decades of settlement, though many parcels now carry apartments and offices.
- Architecture
- Queen Anne, Craftsman bungalow, Colonial Revival
- Notable streets
- Hawthorne Ave, Lytton Ave, Everett Ave, Bryant St, Waverley St
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The other half of the original townsite grid, running south from University Avenue to Embarcadero Road. It mixes early bungalow blocks with the downtown edge, and contains the Professorville historic district in its south-eastern corner.
- Architecture
- Craftsman bungalow, Colonial Revival, Shingle
- Notable streets
- Ramona St, Emerson St, Cowper St, Homer Ave, Channing Ave
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Palo Alto's first historic district and its oldest surviving residential enclave, built up by Stanford faculty from the mid-1890s onward — the source of the nickname. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and is also a locally designated district. Houses here include work attributed to Bernard Maybeck and to Greene & Greene.
- Architecture
- Shingle, Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Prairie
- Notable streets
- Ramona St, Bryant St, Waverley St, Addison Ave, Kingsley Ave
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Curving, tree-lined streets laid out in the 1920s along San Francisquito Creek, a deliberate break from the townsite's rigid grid. Lots are large and the Period Revival housing stock is unusually intact.
- Architecture
- Spanish Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Monterey Colonial
- Notable streets
- Center Dr, Crescent Dr, Hamilton Ave, Newell Rd, Woodland Ave
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Named for the cluster of civic buildings at its western edge — the Rinconada library, art centre and Lucie Stern complex. Housing is mostly interwar Period Revival, filling in toward Newell Road.
- Architecture
- Spanish Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Early Ranch
- Notable streets
- Newell Rd, Walnut Dr, Hamilton Ave, Melville Ave
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A post-war subdivision reaching north-east from Newell Road toward the Bayshore Freeway, named for Duveneck Elementary School and, in turn, for Frank and Josephine Duveneck of Hidden Villa. Wide streets and single-storey ranch houses on generous lots.
- Architecture
- Ranch, Mid-century Modern
- Notable streets
- Alester Ave, Edgewood Dr, Channing Ave, Louis Rd
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Despite the name, Old Palo Alto was subdivided after the original townsite, from roughly 1905 onward. Deep lots, mature street trees and large Period Revival houses make it one of the city's most expensive districts.
- Architecture
- Period Revival, Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival
- Notable streets
- Waverley St, Bryant St, Cowper St, Seneca St, Coleridge Ave
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A group of small linked tracts — Leland Manor, Garland Drive and the 'Triple El' streets — filling the block between Middlefield Road and the freeway south of Embarcadero. Development spans the late 1930s through the post-war boom, so styles shift street by street.
- Architecture
- Ranch, Minimal Traditional, Mid-century Modern
- Notable streets
- Garland Dr, Louis Rd, Greer Rd, Embarcadero Rd
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A compact 1920s subdivision of roughly two hundred houses wedged between the Caltrain tracks and El Camino Real. Its small, highly consistent Period Revival housing stock and short blocks give it a distinct character from the larger neighbourhoods around it.
- Architecture
- Spanish Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Storybook
- Notable streets
- Wellesley St, Castilleja Ave, Churchill Ave, Pine Hill Rd
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Subdivided in 1888, a year before the Palo Alto townsite itself, and laid out with streets named after American colleges — Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Cornell, Amherst, Oberlin, Dartmouth. Hemmed in by Stanford land and El Camino Real, it kept its small-lot bungalow scale.
- Architecture
- Craftsman bungalow, Queen Anne, Colonial Revival
- Notable streets
- College Ave, Yale St, Harvard St, Princeton St, Oberlin St
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A small early-20th-century bungalow neighbourhood immediately behind the California Avenue business district, on land that was once part of the separate town of Mayfield, annexed by Palo Alto in 1925.
- Architecture
- Craftsman bungalow, Colonial Revival
- Notable streets
- Park Blvd, Grant Ave, Sherman Ave, Ash St, Birch St
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A mixed residential and light-industrial district west of El Camino Real, historically one of Palo Alto's more affordable neighbourhoods. The large former Fry's Electronics site on Portage Avenue has been the focus of long-running redevelopment planning.
- Architecture
- Bungalow, Minimal Traditional, Ranch
- Notable streets
- Ventura Ave, Portage Ave, Lambert Ave, Olive Ave, Park Blvd
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The large post-war tract belt between Oregon Expressway and Loma Verde Avenue, built out rapidly as Palo Alto's population roughly tripled between 1940 and 1960. Single-storey ranch houses on regular lots, anchored by the Midtown shopping centre at Middlefield and Colorado.
- Architecture
- Ranch, Minimal Traditional, Mid-century Modern
- Notable streets
- Colorado Ave, Louis Rd, Ross Rd, Waverley St, Moreno Ave
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A 1950s tract neighbourhood in south Palo Alto with a substantial concentration of Eichler homes — post-and-beam construction, flat or low-pitched roofs, glass walls facing private rear yards and, often, an interior atrium.
- Architecture
- Eichler, Mid-century Modern, Ranch
- Notable streets
- Louis Rd, Ross Rd, Amarillo Ave, Greer Rd, Colorado Ave
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A planned Eichler tract designed by Anshen & Allen and built in 1954–55, laid out around a shared community centre and pool rather than a plain street grid. Greenmeadow was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005, one of the earliest post-war subdivisions in the country to be listed.
- Architecture
- Eichler, Mid-century Modern
- Notable streets
- Greenmeadow Way, Nelson Dr, Kendall Ave, Creekside Dr
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A semi-rural pocket west of El Camino Real that stayed unincorporated Santa Clara County until it was annexed by Palo Alto in 1975. Many streets still have no sidewalks and drain to open ditches, and the neighbourhood keeps a long-running tradition of resident donkeys pastured beside Bol Park.
- Architecture
- Rural vernacular, Ranch, Eclectic infill
- Notable streets
- Barron Ave, Josina Ave, La Donna Ave, Laguna Ave, Matadero Ave
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Two adjoining 1950s tracts — Green Acres I and II — in the south-western corner of the city, developed alongside the schools and parks that served the post-war population surge. Gunn High School and Terman Park sit at its edges.
- Architecture
- Ranch, Mid-century Modern, Eichler
- Notable streets
- Amaranta Ave, Georgia Ave, Louis Rd, Arastradero Rd