Palo Alto, California

The same ground, surveyed 100 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

1897 1997

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 12 of 21 shown

• Hanna-Honeycomb HouseNational Historic Landmark · listed 1978
• Theophilus Allen Houselisted 1999
• de Lemos, Pedro, Houselisted 1980
• T. B. Downing Houselisted 1973
• Dunker Houselisted 1982
• Fraternal Hall Buildinglisted 1990
• Green Gableslisted 2005
• Greenmeadowlisted 2005
• Hewlett-Packard House and Garagelisted 2007
• Hostess Houselisted 1976
• Kee Houselisted 1985
• Norris Houselisted 1980

Every listing in Santa Clara County

Palo Alto grew from 58,598 to 68,572 between 2000 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

• 1897 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
• 1899 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500, 11 printings
• 1902 USGS Santa Cruz quadrangle1:125000, 9 printings
• 1941 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
• 1943 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
• 1947 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1948 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500
• 1948 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1953 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1955 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1956 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000, 4 printings
• 1957 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1960 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1961 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
• 1961 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 4 printings
• 1961 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1964 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1971 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1982 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
• 1985 USGS San Francisco quadrangle1:250000
• 1991 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
• 1997 USGS Palo Alto quadrangle1:24000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 182 fires within 5 miles of Palo Alto between 1992 and 2020, burning about 136 acres in total. None started naturally. 13 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

• Crescent Park
• Embarcadero Oaks
• Leland Manor
• Alta Mesa
• Barron Park
• Charleston Meadows

Every fire recorded in Santa Clara County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 10 workings within 5 miles of Palo Alto: 4 producers, 3 unknowns, 2 past producers, 1 occurrence. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Gold, Silver, Phosphorus-Phosphates, Copper, Tin, Palladium, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Every working recorded in Santa Clara County

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Palo Alto in 6 storm reports between 1998 and 2026: 3 flood, 1 funnel cloud, 1 hail, 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

Every storm recorded in Santa Clara County

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 277572. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.