The 3000 block of Greer Road

The 3000 block of Greer Road is one of four blocks the Weekly profiled in its 10th anniversary edition. The neighborhood was built in the decade after World War II to house veterans and their families. While the neighborhoods of Palo Alto, as a whole, have experienced major physical transformations over the past 25 years, this block has mostly remained the same -- Eichlers on one side, stuccos on the other and nary a monster home in sight.

Part of the reason is that many long-time residents still reside here, even as they've grown land-rich while Palo Alto housing prices skyrocketed. Few cashed in and moved, preferring the area's climate and lifestyle to anywhere else on Earth. One of the few recent stucco homes that sold doubled in price in a decade, going from $345,000 in 1994 to $689,000 in 2003.

In 1989, our story featured the inhabitants of eight of the block's 16 homes. Five of those eight remain in the same spot 15 years later, like pebbles stubbornly sticking to the ground as the Matadero Creek, which cuts through the block in the south end, flows toward the San Francisco Bay. Fifteen years ago, residents said the block wasn't experiencing the monster-home madness just beginning to ebb into Palo Alto. Few homes had been vacated and few new neighbors had moved in. But the sense of community had disappeared when the children on the block moved away.

 

25th Anniversary • 1979-2004