Professorville is a
registered historic district
A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from ce ...
in
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto (; Spanish language, Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree kno ...
that contains homes that were built by
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
professors. The historic district is bounded by Kingsley and Addison avenues and the cross streets of Ramona and Waverley. The community considers the district to be larger and bounded by Addison and Cowper St. to the north west and north east and Emerson St. and Embarcadero Rd. to the south west and south east.
Origins
The Professorville Historic District reflects the area's origins and its early years related to the founding of both Stanford University and Palo Alto itself. Stanford University allowed professors to build houses on Stanford land, but would only lease the land. Professorville was the closest place to the campus and downtown Palo Alto that was not owned by the Stanford. Professors who preferred to own their own land rather than lease it from the Stanfords built their homes there.
Lot sizes in Professorville vary greatly in size and location, including
flag lot
A flag is a piece of fabric (most often rectangular or quadrilateral) with a distinctive design and colours. It is used as a symbol, a signalling device, or for decoration. The term ''flag'' is also used to refer to the graphic design empl ...
s. The developer of the tract was eager to sell the land and so he sold various lot sizes including full blocks and half blocks. The owners of the large lots then sold off portions of their property, starting at the outer edges, until the original buildings themselves were on a modest sized remaining lot.
[ In June 2010, the median list price for houses in Professorville was $1.85 million.
]
Architecture
The buildings most representative of Professorville are brown-shingled houses with gambrel roofs, whose stylistic influences range from Colonial Revival
The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture.
The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...
to American Craftsman
American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. Its ...
. Dutch Colonial
Dutch Colonial is a style of domestic architecture, primarily characterized by gambrel roofs having curved eaves along the length of the house. Modern versions built in the early 20th century are more accurately referred to as "Dutch Colonial Rev ...
s are the predominant architecture on three blocks of Kingsley Avenue.
One of the largest residences, a 3-story, 14-room frame house at 450 Kingsley, is the former home of Stanford's first physics professor, Fernando Sanford
Fernando Sanford (February 12, 1854 – May 21, 1948) was an American physicist and university professor. He was one of the 22 "pioneer professors" (founding faculty) for Stanford University.
Sanford was born on a farm near Franklin Grove in Lee C ...
designed by architect Frank McMurray
Frank or Franks may refer to:
People
* Frank (given name)
* Frank (surname)
* Franks (surname)
* Franks, a medieval Germanic people
* Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang
Curre ...
of Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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. The house includes features fashionable at the time such as a Queen Anne corner tower and a Palladian
Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...
window in front.
Other former professors' houses include 1005 Bryant, built for professor Frank Angell
Frank Angell (July 8, 1857 – November 2, 1939) was an early American psychologist and the former athletic director at Stanford University.
Biography
Angell was born in 1857 in Scituate, Rhode Island. He graduated from the University of Vermo ...
who founded the university's psychology department, and 433 Melville, built for professor Charles Henry Gilbert
Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and Fisheries science, fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western Unit ...
, founding chair of the Zoology Department, and designed by Professor Arthur Bridgman Clark, an architect and art professor. The "Dead Houses" (named after the Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in 1965 in Palo Alto, California. The band is known for its eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, Folk music, folk, country music, country, jazz, bluegrass music, bluegrass, ...
) is a cooperative housing community centered in Professorville, primarily inhabited by Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...
students and recent graduates, with notable past tenants including Sean Parker
Sean Parker (born December 3, 1979) is an American entrepreneur and philanthropist, most notable for co-founding the file-sharing computer service Napster, and serving as the first president of the social networking website Facebook. He also ...
.
See also
* Ramona Street Architectural District
Footnotes
References
*
External links
Professorville, Palo Alto
Professorville Faculty have left, history remains in this island of tradition
* Professorville Historic Tour, Palo Alto Historical Association, Available at the Palo Alto Main Library
Professorville, Palo Alto - Neighborhood Tour
{{National Register of Historic Places in California
National Register of Historic Places in Santa Clara County, California
Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California
Houses in Palo Alto, California
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in California