About our town

According to the Wolfram Alpha computational engine, the population of Menlo Park was 29,661 in 2004. Neighboring Atherton was home to 7177. The U.S. Census Bureau breaks that down as 12,387 households and 7,122 families. Median family income was $133,251. Menlo Park has a total area of 17.4 square miles, 42% of which is water (must be the baylands marsh area?), also according to the Census Bureau.

According to Wikipedia, Menlo Park was founded by two Irish immigrants in the 1850s – the name derives from their former home of Menlough in County Galway. Our city was founded some 25 years before Menlo Park, New Jersey, where Thomas Edison built his famous labs.

Some interesting tidbits: Menlo Park station is the oldest operating train station in California, Google was founded here in 1998 and the original Round Table Pizza shop is still open for business on El Camino Real. In 1963, Menlo Park instituted an ordinance prohibiting residential street parking from 2 AM to 5 AM, one of the nation’s strictest.

Famous residents have included Joan Baez, Sergey Brin, Jerry Garcia, Stan Getz, Shirley Temple Black, professional poker player Isaac Baron and Phar Lap, the racehorse.