There are two great consistencies about Stanford Terrace Inn. The hotel's proximity and relationship to Stanford University, and the family of blue Herons patrolling the grasses just across Stanford Avenue.
Those of you who make Stanford Terrace Inn your headquarters for the Palo Alto area may know something of the history of the hotel and neighborhood, or maybe you don't. Either way you should enjoy this short review of the past and our two consistencies.
Herons in Palo Alto?
We think the herons took to the corner of El Camino Real and Stanford Avenue back before the area was a huge open expanse on which Palo Alto's first airfield was fashioned. Old timers remember the field as a rough dirt runway with a small windsock on a pole, and just a lean-to storage hanger. Primitive bi-planes used the strip and back then the most important event was when famous stunt pilot George Goddard put on a spectacular air show, joining the facinated Herons were cars of spectators ringing the field. In the 30's the airstrip gave way to an expansive Polo Field for Stanford's polo team in competition with other school¹s with strings of polo ponies, mostly teams from the Southwest and military academies from Southern California, the polo field and staging area running from Churchill to Stanford Avenues.Remember the Tiki?
After World WAR II Stanford University and all the greater Palo Alto area were part of the explosive growth of population and inventive technology that propelled the economy and set up the need for hotel rooms, and thus the development of the Tiki Inn (now Stanford Terrace Inn).The Tiki was in the South Pacific post-war style trend of the day with exotic faux Polynesian décor certain to please the herons. It was a romantic setting, unusual for the peninsula, and while thus finding a niche market among romantic partners both local and travelers, its main success was in serving the growing numbers of visitors to the campus and to the Stanford Research Park which had begun to unfold on Stanford land south of California Avenue.
