Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

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XvtW»;WWW«WM ' aWMWMBMlM!»WlWlMltwaW Situated on El Camino Real, that somber highway which stretches its tawny length for hundreds of miles along the coast — once the narrow footpath beaten by P ' ranciscan sandals, now the throbbing thoroughfare of a modern commonwealth — the estate on which Stanford University now stands has seen much of California history. It is closely identified with the significant events of the Golden State, chiefly 1)ecause I.eland Stanford is an outstanding figure in the development of the state from a pastoral province to the most advanced of economic, political, and intel- lectual entities. Not only is Stanford University significant as the great in.stitution which lived after a great man to carry on his ideals, but its very spirit, suggested by the architecture of its buildings, is typically Californian. In a number of progressive color paintings, an attem]5t has been made to depict the relation of Stanford University to California history. From the day, three hundred and eighty-two years ago, when Cabrillo, the first white man to see California, beheld Point San Luis from his caravel, down to the ])re.sent time, the history of the land now occupied by the Univer- sity has been closely related to the history of the state. It was from beneath the huge branches of the Palo Alto tree that Portola first caught sight of San Francisco bay. A few years later Santa Clara mission was founded, its domain e.xtending over all of what is now the University estate. The vast oak-studde l plain was the grazing i)lace of the cattle of the Spanish rancheros. Through its boundaries marched the doughty b ' remont and his staunch ])atriots. Soon followed the gold ru,sh, and the fertile plain became the bone of contention among squatters. .Attracted by the sudden prosperity in the far west. Leland Stanford came to California in 1852, and amassed a fortune in business. He became identified with California politics, was elected governor in 1861, senator in 1885, and. more than any other, made jMssible the linking of east and west bv the first trans-continental railway. He was a lover of nature and thL- out-of-doors. T-ured by the jilacid Palo ; lto countryside, in 1870, he purcha.sed the country residence of James Ciordon. who ten years before had come to live on the verdant plain between the foothills and the bay. In 1884 the Stanfords ' only child, a boy of fifteen years, died, and Stanford University, as the most fitting memorial to young Leland, was founded — destined to become the west ' s great privately endowed institution of learning. lA