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The Victorian-style Red Barn, constructed in 1878-79,
is one of the few surviving structures on campus that predates
the university's establishment. Prior to the university's
existence, Leland and Jane Stanford, founders of the university,
used their land in Santa Clara Valley as an experimental horse
farm. The barn itself was once part of a network of nine such
buildings that housed roughly 550 horses, from champion trotters
to thoroughbred racers. The Red Barn, situated alongside the
Stanford Golf
Course, still houses horses, and the Department of Athletics
uses the facility and the surrounding stables to conduct equestrian
classes.
The Red Barn is listed in the National Register
of Historic Places, and the stock farm site is a California
Registered Historical Landmark. Here, photographer Eadweard
Muybridge set out to prove Leland Stanford's theory that a
horse in motion has all four feet off the ground at one point
in its gait. The 1878-79 photographic experiment led to the
development
of motion pictures. |
