College Terrace, Palo Alto, California

College Terrace is a neighborhood in the city of Palo Alto, California, adjacent to Stanford University.

College Terrace is directly adjacent to Escondido Village, a staff and student housing development on the southern edge of Stanford University.

The neighborhood features its own branch of the Palo Alto Public Library system built in 1936 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style as a WPA project.

Notable former residents of College Terrace include the architect Birge Clark, theologian Robert McAfee Brown, and folk singer Joan Baez.

[9] College Terrace as a community started in 1887 when Peter Spacher and Frederick Weisshaar, who had previously refused to sell the property to Leland Stanford who owned the land on three sides of the property, sold it to Alexander Gordon.

Part of an 1890 map of northern Santa Clara County including all or part of the communities of Palo Alto (which would soon become College Terrace), Mayfield, and University Park (which would soon become Palo Alto). Also shows Stanford University (still under construction at the time.)
Santa Clara County map