Skip to content

Stanford University

Stanford University History

Stanford Lands | Campus Plan | Off-Campus Opportunities

Stanford Lands

When David Starr Jordan arrived in the summer of 1891 to be the first president of Stanford, he found the countryside enthralling. He wrote in his autobiography:

"The Santa Clara Valley, averaging about six miles in width, extends southward 50 miles and more from near the head of San Francisco Bay. Bounding it on the southwest rises an irregular series of Coast Range ridges, known collectively as the Sierra de la Santa Cruz - a misty camp of mountains pitched tumultuously. Immediately behind the University estate, and forming its higher background, is the wooded Sierra Morena, 1,300 feet high, its cloak of redwood, oak and madrono diversified by thickets of chemisal. On the east stretches the innermost or land-ward bulwark of the Coast Range - the long, relatively barren and tree-less Sierra del Monte Diablo."

In this sheltered area 30 miles south of San Francisco, nestled in the ideal weather zone between the bay and the ocean, its meadows patterned with ancient oaks, Stanford and his wife established their suburban Palo Alto home. The first parcel, bought in 1876, was 650 acres along San Francisquito Creek. Purchase of adjoining parcels ran the total to 8,180 acres, the whole of which was given to the University in the 1885 Grant of Endowment with the stipulation that it never be sold.

Senator Stanford brought Francis A. Walker, president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the prominent landscape architect, Frederick Law Olmsted, to Palo Alto in the summer of 1886. The Senator asked his coachman to ready "a good, steady team and the large carriage." They drove up into the foothills of the ranch and gave serious thought to building the main campus there, taking advantage of the magnificent view of the Bay. But finally they returned to the grain field below and drove in a stake at a point that marks one corner of the Inner Quad. The Senator felt the flat site was more practical for later expansion.

Olmsted worked out the general concept for the grounds and the buildings. It remained for the brilliant young Boston architect, Charles Allerton Coolidge, to develop this concept in the style of his late mentor, Henry Hobbs Richardson, considered the most eminent architect of his time. The style is called Richardsonian Romanesque. It follows the European Romanesque which, preceding the Gothic, evolved during the growth of abbeys and monasteries as cultural centers. It is characterized by rectilinear stone buildings joined by covered arcades formed of successive half-circle arches supported by short columns with decorated capitals. Though the original Stanford style, both are derived from the Romanesque.

Senator Stanford told a reporter in 1887,

"I have sent a body of men in search of the proper kinds of stone."

They found an even textured, buff sandstone in a quarry south of San Jose and soon rough-cut blocks were being freighted directly to the building site on a special spur line. There a small army of stonecutters fashioned the intricate decorations.

"These long corridors with their stately pillars," Dr. Jordan said at the dedication, "will have their part in the students' training. Each stone in the quad shall teach its lesson of grace and genuineness."

Construction was complete on the Inner Quad of 12 classroom buildings plus three engineering buildings, Encina Hall for men and Roble Hall for women, by the University's opening October 1, 1891. And within a short time a professor had composed the Stanford hymn, revering "the red roofs that rim the blue" and the "arch-spanned vistas."

President Andrew D. White of Cornell pronounced the Stanford buildings the most beautiful college architecture in America. Years later, when asked the source of his inspiration, Mr. Coolidge said simply, "It was the work of a young man who put his heart into it."

Lands That May Never Be Sold

Leland and Jane Stanford wisely decreed in their Founding Grant that the lands which they were giving to the University should never be sold. The result of this endowment, together with additional acreage purchased subsequently, increased the University's land-holding to the current size of 8,180 acres.

The Founders intended that the land should be used to further the University's academic objectives. When the Board of Trustees gathered for the first time in the library of the San Francisco home, Senator Stanford told them,

"The endowment of lands is made because they are, in themselves, of great value, and their proper management will insure to the University an income much greater than would be realized were their value to be invested in any reliable, interest-bearing security."

Income was limited to grazing and agricultural leases until after World War II, when the population exploded and the electronic industry boomed on the San Francisco Peninsula. At the same time, Stanford enrollment had nearly doubled its pre-war figure. To meet national and University opportunities, the trustees turned to the land development program envisioned by Mr. Stanford so many years before.

The Board of Trustees has reserved some 6,200 acres for educational uses. This is the heartland of the Farm, composed for the most part of the central portion running from El Camino Real to the back boundary in the foothills. About 1,980 acres are under lease for light industrial, commercial and other income-producing uses.

Campus Plan

Leland and Jane Stanford intended that the university be a fitting tribute to their only son. Having traveled extensively in nineteenth century Europe with its Beaux Arts formalism, the Stanfords decided that the general character of the main quadrangle and the Palm Drive main entrance would reflect a grand, imposing style. This was against the advice of Frederick Law Olmsted, the foremost American landscape architect of the period. Olmsted had argued for a more naturalistic plan of buildings nestled into the folds of the foothills, with meandering road surrounded by forest. The Stanfords' collaboration with Olmsted and the architecture firm of Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, the heirs to the practice of the famous American architect Henry Hobson Richardson, was fitful and marked by many disagreements. The resulting composition, however ­California Mission inspired buildings of local sandstone and red tile roofs surrounding a cloistered quadrangle with Memorial Church as its focal point - is now world renowned.

The original construction was dominated by a huge memorial arch at the entrance to Memorial Court, and by a massive octagonal tower on the church both of which were destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. It is now generally agreed that thesealterations by natural occurrence actually improved the strength of the overall architectural ensemble.

The rectangular plan and its placement on the flat plain rather than in the foothills, were intended to provide for expansion of the university through a series of quadrangles laterally from the original main quadrangle. In the decades between the 1906 earthquake and World War II, as series of buildings were designed by the San Francisco architecture firm of Bakewell and Brown to the east of the main quadrangle­Green Library West, Cubberley, the Art Gallery, and the Hoover Tower­which were intended to be joined by covered arcades into a second quadrangle. Interrupted by World War II, the connecting arcade plan was subsequently abandoned. In the post-war period, building plans attempted to mimic the historical architecture while taking on more modern designs and materials: Stern and Wilbur residence halls, for example, were built around smaller scale quadrangles of similar proportion to the main quadrangle, although in a starkly modern style. Landscaping design has also continued to reflect a balance in the contrast of the rugged natural plan palette of the oak savannah with the formal planting in developed courtyards and malls.

As the university continues into its second century, campus planning and development returns to the original concept of quadrangles and connecting malls as in the designs for the new science and engineering quadrangle and the Serra Mall, which will be built over the next three years adjacent to the main quadrangle.

Within the 6,200-acre academic reserve are several major areas. The 2,300-acre central campus includes the Quad and other classroom buildings, laboratories, libraries, residence halls, the golf course, athletic facilities, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and faculty-staff housing subdivisions.

Outside of the main campus center, much of Stanford land is rural, with ecosystems ranging from working farms and pasture land to the 1,190-acre Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve set aside for biological studies and used extensively for research in population biology, ecology, plant physiology, and anthropology. Some of the research projects in this preserve date back to the days of President-Biologist David Starr Jordan. Some 2,700 acres are open or lightly used lands, such as the agricultural lands along Highway 280 and the rolling hills along Page Mill and Sand Hill Roads.

Approximately 800 acres of Stanford's real estate holdings have been commercially developed to produce income to support the academic goals of the university.

Land Use and Location Statistics

Total Acreage

Off-Campus Opportunities

The University also maintains the Hopkins Marine Station , which was established in 1892. It is the oldest marine laboratory on the Pacific Coast and the second oldest in the U.S. It is situated on 10 acres of picturesque, rocky headland called Cabrillo Point overlooking Monterey Bay. The station, a division of Stanford's Biological Sciences Department , has earned an international reputation for its teaching and research. Its program is primarily for research and graduate study, but there are also special classes for undergraduates.

Stanford in Washington, D.C. offers Stanford undergraduates an opportunity to live, study and learn in a residential program in the nation's capital. The program includes seminars, tutorials and internships and provides students with a comprehensive experience working with people in public service, and with Stanford faculty. Students also have opportunities to use and enjoy Washington's vast educational and cultural resources.

About a third of all undergraduates participate in the Bing Overseas Studies programs that Stanford offers. Many students report that it is the highlight of their Stanford experience. Each program offers introductory courses which cover a range of academic disciplines and are taught by Stanford faculty. In addition, there are opportunities for more advanced research.

Back to Stanford History