In 1878 and 1879, Eadweard Muybridge conducted photographic experiments at the Palo Alto Stock Farm on land that has since been claimed by Stanford University. The experiments, involving a series of 24 cameras erected at set intervals, were intended to depict animals in motion. As a horse passed in front of the cameras, each camera took a photograph. When viewed sequentially, the photographs showed how the horse moved. This experiment was an important precursor to motion pictures, and the site has been designated a state landmark. It is located across from the Stanford Driving Range.
In 1909, Cyril Elwell founded the laboratory and factory of the Federal Telegraph Company at the southeast corner of Channing Avenue and Emerson Street. Several years later, Dr. Lee de Forest would go on to invent the first vacuum tube, amplifier and oscillator. This research led to the development of radio and television equipment and helped give rise to the electronic age.
The Lou Henry Hoover house, located at 623 Mirada Rd, is the only national historic landmark in Palo Alto. Built in 1919 by the architects A. B. Clark, Charles Davis and Birge Clark, the residence combines local pueblo and international styles. It was the home of the family of Herbert Hoover for nearly 25 years, and was the place where Herbert Hoover received news that he had been elected president in1928. It was gifted to Stanford University after Mrs. Hoover's death.
In 1938, two Stanford students, William R. Hewlett and David Packard, began work on their first product, an audio oscillator, in the garage at 367 Addison. Hewlett Packard would go on to become a giant information technology company, and the garage would earn the title, "birthplace of Silicon Valley." In 2007, the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places, two years after the company sponsored a restoration of the property in an attempt to preserve it.
