Menlo Park

 

Menlo Park sits on the eastern edge of San Mateo County, surrounded by the San Francisco Bay, Stanford (and the surrounding Palo Alto), Atherton, and Redwood City. The name comes from two Irishmen who purchased land in the area in 1854 and labelled their estate's gate with "Menlo Park," after their hometown of Menlough on Lough Corib, County Galway, Ireland. By the 1900s, the city had become a summer retreat for San Francisco's elite. While many large homes remain from that era, Menlo Park is now also home to fine public and private schools, an upscale downtown, Facebook, and the Stanford Linear Accelerator.