1899 Map of Palo Alto

About this map

Stanford University and the emerging campus of Catholic University anchor the developing landscape of the Santa Clara Valley in the late nineteenth century. This survey documents the early physical structure of the Mid-Peninsula, where the Southern Pacific RR tracks connect established towns like Redwood and Menlo Park to the budding communities of Palo Alto and Mayfield. Along the marshy shores of the San Francisco Bay, industrial and maritime activity is evident at Cooley Landing and Guth Landing, while the vast Spanish land grant boundaries of Pastoria De Las Borregas and La Purisima Concepcion still define large tracts of the interior. To the southwest, the terrain rises sharply into the Santa Cruz Mountains, marked by Monte Bello Ridge and Black Mountain, providing a stark contrast to the surveyed grid of the valley floor.