Palo Alto - Stanford University

Palo Alto owes its fame mainly to the fact that in 1891 the college, originally called Leland Stanford Junior University, came into being with 559 students (one being the future president Herbert Hoover). Stanford established the college in memory of his precocious son who, before he died in Rome at the age of 16, had undertaken archaeological expeditions on his own.

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