About Our Inn

Our Story

There are two great consistencies about Stanford Terrace Inn. The hotel's proximity and relationship to Stanford University, and the family of Great 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?

Heron We think the herons took to the corner of El Camino Real and Stanford Avenue back when 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 fascinated 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 school's 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.

Ultimately the hotel showed signs of fatigue and it was clear that a significant remodeling and refurbishing was in order and at about that time (1982) the present owner group took over the hotel. We understand that the extent of the market research undertaken was to identify among the hotel's regular guests, three members of Stanford's Board of Trustees, two senior partner's of a major New York law firm, who used the hotel as a base for interviewing Law School students as their perspective associates, a Chicago based CEO of a fortune 500 company with a branch in the Research Park, and a brace of national sports writers in town to cover major Stanford sports events. Clearly the hotel is the preferred stop for Stanford's family, including of course, visiting parents of students who found they could stroll back and forth from the hotel to campus.

So, the Tiki passed into history, filed perhaps under Camp, and was reborn as the much more modern and amiable Stanford Terrace Inn, a name seeking to locate it in the public mind at Stanford (Avenue and University) and in College Terrace, the small strip of residences strung along this southern border of Stanford. We are told that some found the name an affront to the patient and beautiful herons who might have been considered for recognition. After all, they have been spectacular and consistent neighbors for a long, long time.

Written by Ryland Kelley