To the south of the Sotos , the brothers Secundino and Teodoro Robles in 1849 bought Rancho Rincon de San Francisquito from José Peña , the 1841 grantee . The grant covered the area south of Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito to more or less present day Mountain View . The grant was bounded on the south by Mariano Castro 's Rancho Pastoria de las Borregas grant across San Antonio Road . This later became the Robles Rancho , which constitutes about 80 % of Palo Alto and Stanford University today . In 1863 , it was whittled down in the courts to . Stories say the grand hacienda was built on the former meager adobe of José Peña near Ferne off San Antonio Road , midway between Middlefield and Alma Street . Their hacienda hosted fiestas and bull fights . It was ruined in the 1906 earthquake and its lumber was used to build a large barn nearby , which was said to have lingered until the early 1950s . On April 10 , 1853 , , comprising the present day Barron Park , Matadero Creek and Stanford Business Park , was sold for $ 2,000 to Elisha Oscar Crosby , who called his new property Mayfield Farm . The name of Mayfield was later attached to the community that started nearby . On September 23 , 1856 , the Crosby land was transferred to Sarah Wallis to satisfy a debt he owed her . In 1880 , Secundino Robles , father to twenty-nine children , still lived just south of Palo Alto , near the location of the present-day San Antonio Shopping Center in Mountain View
1906 earthquake
1906 San Francisco earthquake
Palo Alto, California