A history of Menlo Park,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Menlo Park from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The area of Menlo Park was inhabited by the Ohlone people when the Portolá expedition arrived in 1769.
In 1795, the Rancho de las Pulgas Spanish land grant was made that included the area of the current city.
Before and during the 1849 Gold Rush, successful businessmen from San Francisco, like Faxon Atherton and George C. Johnson began investing in real estate on this portion of the peninsula located midway between San Francisco and San Jose.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Menlo Park’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
2 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old view12th Infantry at, 1918: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Famous people from Menlo Park
See all 19 →
Menlo Park, decade by decade
1950s
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as 12th Infantry at (1918) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.