Menlo Park is a city at the eastern edge of San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, in the United States. It is bordered by San Francisco Bay on the north and east; East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Stanford to the south; Atherton, North Fair Oaks, and Redwood City to the west. Menlo Park is one of the most educated cities in the state of California and the United States, with nearly 70% of its residents having earned a degree.^[7] Menlo Park had 32,026 inhabitants according to the 2010 United States Census.^[8]

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 17.4 square miles (45 km²), of which 9.8 square miles (25 km²) is land and 7.6 square miles (20 km²) is water. The total area is 43.79% water. The main street in downtown Menlo Park is Santa Cruz Avenue, with the Menlo Center situated at its intersection with El Camino Real. The Menlo Park Civic Center is bounded by Ravenswood Avenue, Alma Street, Laurel Street and Burgess Drive. It contains the council offices, library, police station and Burgess Park which has various recreational facilities.

n the nineteenth century two Irish immigrants, Dennis J. Oliver and his brother-in-law D. C. McGlynn, purchased a 1,700-acre (6.9 km²) tract of land on the former Rancho de las Pulgas.^[9] In the 1850s they erected a gate with a wooden arch bearing the inscription "Menlo Park" at the entrance to their property (now the intersection of Middle Ave and El Camino Real).^[10][11] The word "Menlo" derived from the owners' former home of Menlo in County Galway, Ireland, and is an Anglicized version of the original Irish name of the place, meaning "middle lake".^[9] In 1863, the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Roadnamed a nearby station "Menlo Park" after the sign.^[9] The 1867 station building still stands on the platform of the current Caltrain station, used by the local Chamber of Commerce. The town of Menlo Park grew up around this station, becoming a popular home for San Francisco businessmen.^[9] A post office arrived in 1870, and the city was incorporated in 1874.^[10] The original arch which gave its name to the stations and ultimately the city survived until 1922, when it was destroyed in an automobile accident.^[9] The origin of the name of Menlo Park, California (ca 1850)^[11] pre-dates any work done by Thomas Edison (ca 1876) in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

Courtesy of Wikipedia.