Palo Alto - Stanford University

Must-see attractions nearby: Stanford University Cantor Center for the Visual Arts Barbie Hall of Fame (closed) Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Palo Alto Cultural Center Museum of American Heritage Lucie Stern Theater

The original site covered an area of 8,250 acres/3,300 hectares, the driveway lined with palms and the rest of the parkland being the creation of Frederick Law Olmsted (known especially as the designer of Central Park in New York). By way of Palm Drive you come to the inner courtyard, bordered on one side by arcades and on the other by the Memorial Church; its stylistic forbears are to be found in the Romanesque and the Californian mission style.

Although the 1906 earthquake caused considerable damage to the slowly developing campus, including the collapse of the Memorial Church, this could not stop the growth of the university which, in its relatively short period of existence, showed itself equal to those eastern universities which were centuries older (especially Harvard and Yale), and in some disciplines, such as medicine, engineering and English literature, it even outstripped them.

The students, numbering some 15,000, attend lectures by 1200 professors. These include or have included no less than ten Nobel Prize winners and 75 members of the National Academy of Science.