Midtown walking tour

Midtown has no historic district and no famous campus. It is the part of Palo Alto that grew up fast after World War II, on orchard land between Oregon Expressway and Loma Verde Avenue. That makes it a good place to see how a postwar neighborhood was put together: a shopping strip on the main road, a ring of parks for new families, creek channels built for flood control and an early tract by Joseph Eichler.

This loop links those pieces, with a stop at the only permanent outdoor ice rink in the area. For housing, schools and the state of the shopping district, read our Midtown neighborhood guide.

Before you go

The loop is about 3 miles and takes about 1.5 hours. Both are our estimates. The terrain is flat. Start and finish at Middlefield Road and Colorado Avenue, where there is parking in the lots behind the stores. The nearest Caltrain stop is California Avenue, about a mile west across Alma Street.

• Best time: Weekday mornings are quiet. Greer Park fills with youth soccer on fall weekends.
• Winter Lodge: If you want to skate, buy a session ticket online before you leave home.
• Bring: Water and sun protection. Most of the shade is in the parks.

Coffee at the start

Palo Alto Cafe, at 2675 Middlefield Road, is a family-owned cafe founded in 1996 that roasts its own beans. Its website lists hours of 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day. Our directory confirmed it on October 29, 2026. Check the cafe's site for holiday changes. It is the natural place to begin and end the loop. Our coffee guide covers other cafes around town.

The route, stop by stop

1. Midtown shopping area, Middlefield Road at Colorado Avenue. The stores along Middlefield were built after the war to serve the new south side. Safeway at 2811 Middlefield anchors the strip. A city retail consultant flagged Midtown in 2023 as one of two commercial districts showing physical decline. Mike's Diner closed in June 2024 after about 30 years. Notice the parking lots set beside and behind the storefronts, a 1950s layout built for cars.
2. Winter Lodge, 3009 Middlefield Road. Walk south. Engineering professor Duncan Williams opened The Winter Club here on February 15, 1956. When redevelopment threatened it in the early 1980s, supporters formed a nonprofit and reopened it as Winter Lodge in 1983. In 1985 voters approved a land swap so the rink could stay. It describes itself as the only permanent outdoor ice rink west of the Sierra Nevada. Our Winter Lodge guide has session details.
3. 3191 Middlefield Road. A short way south is the gap left by a three-alarm fire in February 2023, which destroyed a row of storefronts. By June 2026 the site had been cleared and was back on the market. Council members have said they want ground-floor shops in any new project.
4. Our Lady of the Rosary, 3233 Cowper Street. Cut west to Cowper Street. This is one of three churches of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish, the city's Catholic parish. It is an active church, so view it from outside during services.
5. Herbert Hoover Park, 2901 Cowper Street. Walk north on Cowper. The 4.2-acre park became parkland in the mid 1950s, when a city bond called for recreation space south of Oregon Avenue, now the expressway. It sat beside Herbert Hoover Elementary until the school moved in 1982. The name stayed. The city notes that Hoover was a member of Stanford's pioneer class of 1895. The park has a playground, courts, a ball field, restrooms and a small fenced dog run.
6. The dry creek bed. Along the park's south side runs a watercourse lined with boulders. According to the city, it once held water, until a 1976 drought forced the city to drain it because the water could not be recycled. It has been dry ever since and children treat it as a rock garden. Our Hoover Park guide covers the rest.
7. Matadero Creek channel. Matadero Creek runs along one side of Hoover Park in a concrete channel. Upstream in Barron Park it is a willow-lined stream. Here it is built for flood control. Between 1994 and 2005 the water district rebuilt floodwalls from West Bayshore Road to Alma Street and enlarged the Louis Road bridge downstream. Stay behind the fence.
8. Henry W. Seale Park, 3100 Stockton Place. Cross Middlefield at a signal and work east through the residential streets to this 4.3-acre park, which has no frontage on a busy road. Its long shape follows the channel. The Seale brothers, Henry and Thomas, held part of a Mexican-era rancho in what became Palo Alto. Timothy Hopkins bought the land for his town site from Thomas Seale. The park has a meadow, a playground and basketball courts, but the city lists no restroom.
9. Ross Road. Walk along Ross Road for a stretch. It is part of the city's bicycle boulevard network, with traffic circles and raised crossings that slow cars. Expect a steady flow of students on bikes after school.
10. The Greer Park Eichlers, Greer Road and Amarillo Avenue. Head east to one of Joseph Eichler's earliest Palo Alto tracts. Anshen and Allen designed it in 1950 and 1951 and the city's list gives it 131 lots. Look for low roofs, mostly closed street fronts and carports. In 2018 the city adopted voluntary Eichler design guidelines to help owners remodel without losing the style.
11. John Lucas Greer Park, 1098 Amarillo Avenue. The loop's big park. The city bought the first five acres in 1963 and dedicated them as Amarillo Park in September 1965. Apartments then went up nearby and the city grew the park to 22 acres. In 1967 it was renamed for Captain John Lucas Greer, an Irish seafarer who brought the brigantine Wild Duck into San Francisco Bay in 1849 and later farmed nearby. The skate bowls date from 1991. Walk back west along Colorado Avenue to Middlefield. On the way you pass the Palo Alto Friends Meeting at 957 Colorado Avenue.

A postwar neighborhood in three layers

Midtown reads clearly once you know what to look for. The first layer is the houses. Longtime residents have recalled walnut trees and open views to the East Bay hills before the builders came in the late 1940s and 1950s. The second is the parks. Hoover opened in the mid 1950s and Greer in the mid 1960s, each in response to the families moving in. The third is the infrastructure. The creek channels and the bike boulevards were built later to manage floods and traffic in a place that filled up faster than anyone planned.

Ranch houses with pitched roofs and attached garages share most blocks with Eichlers and with two-story rebuilds. One resident told Palo Alto Online in 2019 that more than half the homes on her block had been torn down and rebuilt since the 1970s. Some tracts now have a Single Story Overlay that limits new homes to one floor. Our Eichler homes history explains how the tracts were designed and sold.

Accessibility notes

• The loop is flat. Sidewalks are continuous on most residential blocks, with some root damage under old street trees.
• Middlefield Road is busy, especially at school times. Cross only at signals.
• Restrooms are listed at Hoover Park and Greer Park. Seale Park has none.
• For a shorter, easier walk of about 1.5 miles, do stops 1 to 8 and return along Middlefield.
• The city tags Greer Park for wheelchair access.

Sidewalk etiquette

Extending the walk

South of Loma Verde, Midtown blends into the neighborhoods around Mitchell Park. Our Greenmeadow Eichler walking tour starts there and covers the National Register Eichler district. By bike, the Baylands Nature Preserve is a short ride east across Highway 101.

Sources

Park histories come from the City of Palo Alto's park pages. Winter Lodge history follows the rink and Palo Alto Online. Tract details come from the city's Eichler inventory and design guidelines. Distances and times are our estimates.

Frequently asked questions