1953 C. E. Hunt Map of Palo Alto, California and Environs, Silicon Valley

A detailed c. 1953 city plan or map of Palo Alto and surrounding communities, including Stanford, Los Altos, Atherton, and Menlo Park. It was prepared by C. E. Hunt and printed by Slonaker's Printing House for the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce.

A Closer Look

With Palo Alto shaded green for emphasis, the map also covers Stanford (a distinct census-designated place consisting of the eponymous university) and large portions of Atherton, Menlo Park, and Los Altos. Streets are labeled throughout and indexed to correspond with a grid surrounding the map. The downtown portion of Los Altos, beyond the scope of the main map, appears in an inset at right. Schools, hospitals, parks, sporting facilities, churches, and the main halls of Stanford University are labeled.

City and county boundaries are also marked. The main thoroughfares of the region are highlighted, including the Southern Pacific Railroad (now Caltrain), the U.S. 101 Highway (along the route of the historic El Camino Real, with this section now designated as CA SR 82), and the Bayshore Highway (U.S. 101 Bypass, now redesignated as U.S. 101). The Palo Alto Airport appears near the top-right. The verso includes promotional text and illustrations for Palo Alto Transfer and Storage, a local moving company.

Early Days of Silicon Valley

Around the time of this map's publication, the earliest green shoots of Silicon Valley's later growth were just sprouting. Thanks in large part to the coordination of Frederick Terman, dean of the Stanford School of Engineering, several electronics and technology firms, including Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, and Lockheed, established operations at the Stanford Industrial Park (opened 1951, not labeled here), located off Page Mill Road at bottom near center (Hewlett-Packard eventually moved their world headquarters to the industrial park). Graduates from Stanford's engineering programs were funneled into these companies' offices, helping to build a culture of innovation that has defined Silicon Valley ever since.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by C. E. Hunt using records of San Mateo and Santa Clara County and was printed by Slonaker's Printing House for the Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce. It is undated, but from the features present it likely dates to the early-mid 1960s. The OCLC includes nine listings of maps with this title made by Hunt, most of which are undated and have presumed dates between 1941 and 1966. It is likely that there are at least two and perhaps more editions of the map. However, listings mentioning Slonaker's are typically dated to the early-mid 1950s, which also corresponds with the features present (or lacking) on the map. In any event, the map is quite rare regardless of edition, with listings dated to the early-mid 1950s held by the University of California Santa Barbara, Stanford University, Dartmouth University, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.