As has been written elsewhere, Mayfield had been in existence before the University started. In 1892 when my parents arrived, it was the Mayfield Station at which they disembarked, as there was no station at Palo Alto. College Terrace, a tongue of land extending out into Stanford owned lands, was the nearest piece of private land to the Stanford Quad, and as its name implies, was laid out as a subdivision, hopefully catering to faculty and fraternities. A few professors did build or acquire homes there, and at least one fraternity house was built. Senator Stanford, who was in no sense a prohibitionist, still felt that the 14 saloons in Mayfield made it too disreputable a place to be a college town, and hence not only was Palo Alto started, but the present Escondido Road, which was the main entrance to Stanford from the southeast, was closed and fenced up at Stanford Avenue, much to the inconvenience of those people who lived in College Terrace and who had to climb a stile, lifting their bicycles over it.

When my father, Professor A. B. Clark of the Art Department, built his home at 2257 Hanover Street, it, and the house at 2390 were the only houses on Hanover Street, and in fact there were only about half a dozen houses between Hanover and Amherst as late as 1900. Most of these were so-called "Come On" houses, built by the real estate developer of College Terrace, and were of the gay '9Os gingerbread type and were reputed to have been selected from an English plan book for corner houses, as they all had a large amount of gables, bay windows, and fancy cornices on three sides, but the fourth side was a shear plane, devoid of windows, presumably to be a common wall with another house.

Up at least until 1906, College Avenue was the only avenue which had been improved by the addition of gravel to the adobe. It had a board sidewalk along one side only. Most of the cross streets were merely graded, and remained part of the fields. From College Avenue to our house on Hanover Street, there was a one-foot wide board sidewalk elevated some 3-feet across one shallow swale which in the wintertime was full of water.

The lower end of College Terrace near El Camino, which was then known as "The County Road," had a little heavier coverage, but not much. Until about 1904, the corner of El Camino and Stanford Avenue was occupied by a "China Town" consisting of two rows of board shanties. The fraternities and the Union at Stanford had Chinese cooks. There were also still some Chinese laborers around Stanford. The cooks used to ride their bicycles down Escondido in the afternoon and then spend a couple of hours in China Town gambling, and rumor had it that they also smoked opium, and then ride back to Stanford in time to prepare dinner. There was at least one small "shrine" covered with red and gold paper in front of which incense sticks burned; all very exciting to small boys who were forbidden to go closer than The County Road. The whole place became somewhat of a scandal as it was rumored that several white and bad men were going there to smoke opium, and in the early 1900s they were forced to move to the general area now occupied by the warehouse beyond the Maximart Store, where they later developer a cannery which eventually was taken over by the Sutter Packing Co. I believe that the houses in the 2200-2300 area on Yale were built before this "China Town" was moved away. There was also enough vacant land within a block of The County Road so that once a year there was an encampment of soldiers which fascinated all the small boys of the area. These were a company of soldiers en route from the San Francisco Presidio to Yosemite Valley, where they did "guard duty" every summer, and Mayfield was regarded as a one day march from the Presidio. This seems a trifle long for a one-day march, but the men were accompanied by horse drawn wagons that carried their packs, and since they had to go all the way to Yosemite thirty miles per day would seem within reason.

Obviously, the fenced yards were merely dots in otherwise open fields. The cross roads were rarely distinguishable and one of today's visitors would have thought its general aspect extremely rural. Since there was no city water, sewer, or electricity, for water most houses had a tank and a windmill; the tank was on an elevated tower high enough to furnish water to the second floor. By today's standards, the wells were very shallow - the first water was at about 40-feet, but this was regarded as potentially contaminated, and most wells had gone on to the second level at some 60-feet. Most of the first houses did not have inside plumbing, but privies in the back yards. It should not be thought that this meant that College Terrace was some sort of a slum, as the first houses built in 1891 at Stanford on Alvarado Row were equally without inside toilets, and the alley was lined by privies. In fact, Stanford had another problem. Searsville water had been piped into the houses, but it turned out to be undrinkable, so up until 1900, a horse drawn tank wagon went along and filled barrels along the alley from which professors had to dip out their drinking water with a bucket.

Anyone driving or walking up College Avenue from the County Road to Amherst would have seen half a dozen horses and at least twenty cows grazing in the fields between houses. These could have been secured by a rope or chain about 50-feet long, anchored by an iron stake driven into the ground. While some of these cows belonged to individuals who had one cow to provide milk for the family, many constituted two to four cow "dairies," although probably only one of the owners thought of himself as being in the dairy business. As it is obvious if anyone wants to provide year around milk for the family, and since a cow gives milk for about eight to ten months after having had a calf, then goes "dry" until the next calf arrives, it is necessary to have two cows, or else buy milk part of the year; hence several people would have small unofficial dairies and sell milk to their neighbors. In those days there were no laws regulating the sale of milk, and this was a very simple thing to do.

The largest of these dairies was operated by a Mr. Peacock, an Englishman, who had a large yard and barn between Harvard and Oberlin, College and Cambridge. All traces of this house and barn have now disappeared, except for large trees in the center of the block. He delivered milk standing, while riding in a vehicle which somewhat resembled a two-wheeled Roman chariot, the floor only a few inches above the ground, so that he could step off with a can of milk, going into the purchaser's kitchen where he would pour a measured amount of milk into a pan. To encourage his horse, he carried a length of hose with which he sometimes belabored the horse, more often bringing it down with a large crack against the side of his chariot. I had often heard my mother say that his wife made the arduous trip back to England so that his first child could be born a British subject.

Another small two to three cow dairy was operated on the other side of College Avenue from the Peacock establishment by an unfortunate woman who had had her teeth worked on by an itinerant dentist who visited Mayfield about 1898 and operated in a tent. His specialty was killing the nerves of his patient's teeth, removing the upper half, setting a screw in the base, and then putting on some form of porcelain "cap" which eventually broke. I well recall the gruesome smile of this woman who had nothing but screws projecting up and down where front teeth should have been.

College Terrace was also the site of eight or nine student "eating clubs." At that time for men (other than fraternity men), there was only one large eating establishment on the campus called the "Stanford Union" located where the new Art Building has just been built. Many students considered the prices were too high, or the food too poor, and so many groups varying from 10 to 15 formed eating clubs. These existed in private homes and the cooking was usually done by the owner. One of these was housed at 2151 Harvard, another one at 2150 Dartmouth, and a third at 2390 Hanover Street. Several of these were later relocated by the university just east of Encina Hall, and are still in existence. Three times a day you could see several hundred students, some on bicycles, mostly on foot, going down Escondido Road.

Partly because of the lack of roads or pavement and sidewalks, and other methods of transportation, many of the Stanford students, even from the first day, and up to as recently as 1910 wore heavy laced boots of the type that is popular now for mountain climbing. Actually, the unimproved muddy roads would be quite impassable to autos today, and in fact probably most of them were unpaved until after WWI. The same was true of some streets in Palo Alto, particularly in the vicinity of "Professorville;" as even in January of 1921 I could not drive an automobile onto Lincoln Avenue between Bryant and Waverley Streets, as it was a quagmire of mud.

This lack of individual transportation was partly obviated by the merchants all coming to their customers. The grocer came around with a one-horse surrey and took orders in the morning, delivering his orders in the afternoon. The butcher came around with a covered wagon, I think three times a week, carrying quarters of beef, and was prepared to saw or cut up your order right on the tail gate, although sometimes he also delivered standing orders, i.e., a ten pound roast every Friday. A fish wagon, a small one horse enclosed wagon, with a driver blowing a horn, came on Fridays. The ice man came about three times a week with a large covered wagon pulled by a team. He sawed off blocks of ice to fill the customer's refrigerator, and there were always small slivers of ice for the inevitable small boys who loved such chips. Of course, ice was still being delivered by trucks well into the 1930s. There was also a small bread wagon which came from a "home" bakery and which I believe delivered bread in Palo Alto until the early '20s.

And, in addition to the small informal dairies, every morning a team arrived with many large milk cans, driven by Billy, a well-liked driver, who came from the Wildwood Dairy on Page Mill Road, and delivered milk to College Terrace and the campus, going into homes with a 5-gallon milk can and pouring out the designated amount into pans. I was sometimes allowed to get up early and ride with Billy onto the Stanford campus where we could see the three or four monkeys which Dr. Jordan, the President of Stanford, had chained in his yard. This dairy was later found to be the source of a typhoid epidemic which caused the Tower House to be converted into an improvised hospital, and which also brought about the starting of the Health Department at Palo Alto.

There were two sources of vegetables - one a horse drawn large open vehicle with fruit and vegetables arranged in very much the same way as can still be seen with the one remaining vegetable truck that "works" the Palo Alto area. In addition to such horse delivery, there were two Chinamen, who with large baskets balanced on 2 long poles carried on their shoulders, made bi-weekly routes of their regular customers - presumably these Chinamen raised the vegetables themselves in nearby vegetable gardens, one of which was located where the present main Library now stands.

Following is a list of specific houses:

1487 College Avenue was one of the original "Come On" houses and was known for years as the "Red House," both because of its color and because it seemed to have a series of tenants who did not remain long enough to have their name given to the house.

1585 College Avenue is presumably of about the same 1811-92 date. It was occupied by the Coffin family, whose daughter Bessie graduated from Stanford in '98, her brother James Coffin, a year or two later. James was for years a prominent New York City Stanford alumnus. The senior Coffin ran a small 4-cow dairy from which many families obtained milk, and instead of having a windmill, had the only gasoline engine to pump water. This engine when running could be heard several blocks away.

1528 College Avenue was a house across College from the Coffins and of about the same age, and for awhile was occupied by a family named Gray.

1021 College Avenue was the Christopher Ducker house built in 1899. Mr. Ducker operated Mayfield's only brewery - a brick building on California Avenue at what I believe is now Birch Street.

1281 Stanford Avenue is probably the oldest house in College Terrace above the County Road. As it was built as a small store to serve workmen when the university was being built in the late '8Os, it had a square false front covering the gable which persisted until just a few years ago, and it should be noted that it comes right up to the sidewalk, although it has been a residence for many years. The four houses between this house and Harvard Street were all built as a speculative venture about 1905, but I have no idea who owned them.

2151 Hanover Street is a large two-story house built around 1891-92, and I believe for a family named Perry, but from about 1900 on it was occupied by one of the Stanford eating clubs and was operated as a sort of informal rooming house and had the name on a small sign hanging on the front porch "Wellakhow Club" (spelling?). This house had an unusually large tank on an elevated tower behind it, which was thrown down in the earthquake of '06. One of the students who ran out of the back door just in time to be knocked off his feet by water from the tank, and shouting "tidal wave", started out running up College Avenue to the hills. I believe this story is authentic, not apocryphal.

2257 Hanover Street was the A. B. Clark house, built in '92-'93. It was the first professor's house built on the Terrace. Originally a small four room cottage with an unfinished attic, costing $900. Now, with several two-story additions and divided into flats, it still bears a slight resemblance to the original form.

2390 Hanover Street. This house was built between 1901 - 1909 and was lived in for years by a Mr. Meier, I believe the head gardener at Stanford.

2275 Amherst Street. This large house has been little changed and was built about '92-'93 for Professor Walter Miller, one of the original professors selected by Dr. Jordan who was present at the opening of the University. He and his wife and two daughters lived in this house until he left Stanford in 1902. This house is almost a museum piece and exhibits without change practically all of the little embellishments, characteristics, and extravagances prevalent of the houses built in the '80s ant '90s. It will merit careful observation.

2280 Columbia. A large 2-story house still exhibits some of the florid features of its type, was occupied for many years by the father of Professor Hans Blichfeldt, who received his A. B. at Stanford in '96, and who lived there for many years after his father's death, while a professor of mathematics at Stanford.

1185 College Avenue was probably built about 1904-05 and was occupied by a Miss Griffis, who was a seamstress who made dresses and clothing for many of the neighboring women. This house is very typical in appearance of the small one-story cottages being built at that period.

1800 College Avenue is another house of the 1904-05 date.

2790 Yale , the Frank Miniker house, and several adjacent houses also belong to this period, quite certainly built before the earthquake of '06. Frank Miniker was Mayfield constable and pound man up until '06.

591 Stanford Avenue was built by Bert Holsten in 1904-05. Mr. Holsten was the Southern Pacific agent at the Mayfield Station for many years.

613 Stanford Avenue , directly across Yale from the Holsten House was occupied in the late 1890s or early 1900s by Dr. Elliot, Mayfield's only permanent dentist at that time. There was no electricity and his drill was operated by a foot pedal as the writer can well remember.

2150 Dartmouth was built about 1904 by a widow and retired school teacher, Mrs. Coburn, who later became a member of the Palo Alto High School Board at a time when there were two districts - both the high school and the elementary. She had a son attending Stanford.

948 California Avenue. The Boitanos' house may well have been built before 1900.

250 Leland and 390 Leland . Both of these houses are no doubt early 1900, or possibly earlier. They are both typical of the architecture of that period.

411 Stanford Avenue . This house is very much in the era of the two on Leland and exhibits the characteristic use of bay windows and stained glass even in a modest bungalow.

2060 and 2040 Amherst Street. Both of these houses are more recently constructed, having been both built by Professor and Mrs. David Snedden - 2060 in 1935 and 2040 in 1947. Professor Snedden attended Stanford and graduated before 1900 and spent four or five years as a graduate student and T. A., living in a rented house at the head of Amherst, approximately opposite College Avenue. They felt this was the most desirable place in the U. S. to live, and after retiring from Columbia University returned to build the house at 2060. In 1947 they turned 2060 over to a married daughter and built 2040.

2020 Amherst. This house was built by a Miss Chapman about 1920. She was a painter of miniatures, who had lived in Paris until after WWI. OLD MAYFIELD

The area between Page Mill Road and California Avenue, El Camino and the Southern Pacific tracks appears on a map drawn in 1867. The streets are there, but not there the way they are now. The names were not the same. The Historical Society, however, has an 1892 map in which the area between California and Page Mill Road is shown thoroughly built up with the names of the property holders written in pencil. By 1903 through 1909, I can remember very well that on Sherman, Grant, and Sheridan Streets there were very few vacant lots, and many small white one-story houses. These houses, as can be seen from the four remaining examples, were nearly always of white rustic siding, shingle roofs, and nearly always possessed a front porch and calla lilies growing in the yard.

331 and 351 Sherman are two of the typical ones that remain. #331 even has calla lilies still growing in the front yard.

Looking backward, it seems to me that practically every house had calla lilies, as they seemed much more exotic to the people arriving from the east, and practically everyone came from the east or Europe, and even most of the "old timers" in Mayfield had been born in the east or Europe, and in College Terrace the many Stanford connected people were all easterners. There were also several Frenchmen and Germans and half a dozen or more Englishmen. By 1900 many "Swedes" had arrived and found employment helping finish Stanford buildings. Many horse-drawn wagons went up daily along College Avenue from some area east of the County Road. They went on College Avenue and into Stanford by the "back way" which was Lasuen Street which, until recently, curved down and became an extension of Stanford Avenue at Amherst Street. These horses and wagons were owned by a Swede named Anderson. He and his brothers, and I guess sons, continued for many years to own horses, and did teaming and hauling in the area.

June 1970

Return to the CTRA Home Page