Palo Alto, CA

Palo Alto is located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, on the San Francisco Peninsula. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It got its name from a stand of redwood trees called El Palo Alto on the banks of the San Francisquito Creek. One of these trees can still be found by the railroad trestle near Alma Street. Palo Alto has a population of approximately 65,000 residents.

Palo Alto is 25.8 square miles in size, but until 1927 the land was occupied by two towns, Palo Alto to the north, and Mayfield (now referred to as South Palo Alto) in the south. Mayfield was originally the larger of the two towns, but because of its relationship with alcohol (at one time Mayfield had at least 12 saloons), it developed a poor reputation and to restore that, it agreed to be annexed by Palo Alto.Palo Alto is probably most well-known for its proximity to Stanford University, founded by Leland Stanford in honor of his son, who died of typhoid at the age of 15. Stanford originally wanted to put the university in Mayfield, but one of his requirements was that the town no longer allowed alcohol. Mayfield refused, so Stanford developed the university just to the north, in Palo Alto.