[9] It is one of the most educated cities in California and the United States; nearly 70% of residents over 25 have earned a bachelor's degree or higher.

The name "Menlo Park" was given to a ranch purchased by Irish settlers in honor of their home village in Ireland.

[13] In 1795, the Rancho de las Pulgas Spanish land grant was made that included the area of the current city.

In 1851, two Irish immigrants, Dennis J. Oliver and his brother-in-law, D.C. McGlynn, purchased a 1,700-acre (690 ha) tract of land on the former Rancho de las Pulgas.

[11] In 1854, they erected a gate with a wooden arch bearing the inscription "Menlo Park" and the date "August 1854" at the entrance to their property (now the intersection of Middle Ave and El Camino Real).

[9] The town of Menlo Park grew up around this station, becoming a popular home for San Francisco businessmen.

[14][17] The original arch, which gave its name to the stations and ultimately, the city, survived until 1922, when it was destroyed in an automobile accident.

It did not last long (the camp was dismantled after the war), but army engineers paved the first streets in Menlo Park and laid the first water and gas lines.

[22] At the start of World War II, the US government bought the 260-acre (110 ha) estate of Timothy Hopkins from his widow and created the Palo Alto General Hospital, later renamed the Dibble General Hospital (after Colonel John Dibble, who was killed in 1943).

[23][24][25] Sunset magazine moved to its headquarters in Menlo Park in 1951, designed by architect, Cliff May, with a similar layout to a California ranch-style house.

[26][27] The development of leading Internet search engine provider Google occurred in 1998 in the garage in a Menlo Park home owned by Susan Wojcicki.

[28] Wojcicki's Menlo Park garage was used as the office for Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin for $1,700 a month.

West Menlo Park (unincorporated area) along Alameda de las Pulgas nearly separates the southwestern part of the city (known as Sharon Heights) from the rest.

The intersection of El Camino Real and Santa Cruz Avenue is considered the heart of the city.

Between Middlefield and El Camino Real are the Caltrain track and Felton Gables, Linfield Oaks, and Park Forest.

Several other neighborhoods are closely associated with Menlo Park but are actually in unincorporated San Mateo county; these include Menlo Oaks and Fair Oaks (latter part of the North Fair Oaks census area) between Bayshore and Middlefield, University Heights (also known as West Menlo Park) between Sharon Heights and most of the rest of the city, and Stanford Weekend Acres, which is somewhat near Stanford Hills.

[39] On the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, Menlo Park is split between Supervisorial District 3 (west of El Camino Real) and Supervisorial District 4 (east of El Camino Real),[40] currently represented by Ray Mueller and Warren Slocum, respectively.

Much of Menlo Park's economy revolves around the companies on Sand Hill Road, consisting of venture capital, private equity, financial services, law firms, and other professional service companies and investment vehicles focusing on technology.

Meta Platforms moved its headquarters to the former campus of Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park in December 2011.

[63] According to the city's 2023 annual comprehensive financial report,[64] the city's top employers were: Santa Cruz Avenue runs as the "Main Street" within Menlo Park; terminates at El Camino Real which runs concurrently with California State Route 82.

Menlo Park's eastern ends were previously considered for a short-lived BART extension along the Bayshore Freeway.

[65] BART and Caltrain are also the primary transit modes for Menlo Park's connections to the San Francisco Bay Area's airports.

Oakland Airport is the farthest of the three major Bay Area airports from Menlo Park, with drivers having to cross the Bay through one of the three bridges across it, and transit users needing to use either the Dumbarton Express, SamTrans, or Caltrain to connect to BART services..