Bordered by coastal hills on the west and the San Francisco Bay on the east, Menlo Park is a haven to high-tech companies, research institutions and venture-capital firms, yet it still retains its reputation as a picturesque place to live.

Encompassing 19 square miles and more than 10,000 trees, the city prides itself as a community with old-fashioned values in the center of Silicon Valley.

Nearly 60 percent of residences are owner-occupied with investments in home ownership protected by strict zoning ordinances.

Twenty-eight percent of the employed residents earn their livelihood in San Francisco; 72 percent are employed on the Peninsula.

The downtown shopping district west of El Camino Real is a great source of community pride with its sidewalk benches, cleverly decorated storefronts and bustling streetscape.

Downtown also features Kepler's bookstore, a longtime cultural and literary hub for the local community and the region. The store recently celebrated its one-year rebirth. Last year, it abruptly closed, but reopened after a grass-roots effort rescued the store from near bankruptcy.

On the east side of Highway 101, city and community leaders have spent much time and money to improve the Belle Haven district where crime and unemployment have been a concern. Menlo Park's quiet, small-town atmosphere belies a contentious political scene of recent years, in which a number of issues have been hotly debated, including how much, and in what way, the city should develop and grow.

Voters in November's council election, for instance, seemed to indicate they wanted less housing development and more retail/commercial growth when they decided to oust two incumbents from office.

The land now known as Menlo Park was originally the home of the Ohlone Indians, called by the Spaniards "Costanoans," or Coast-dwellers. Evidence of their civilization is still being unearthed on the Filoli estate in Woodside and along San Francisquito Creek.

Menlo Park was named in the 1850s by two Irishmen who called their 1,700-acre spread after their homeland of Menlough, County Galway. They erected a huge wooden gate on which the name of the estate was printed in foot-high letters about 500 feet south of the present-day Menlo Avenue on the west side of El Camino Real.

When the railroad came through in 1863, a railroad official looked over at the gates and decided "MENLO PARK" would be an appropriate name for the station. This station is now California State Landmark No. 955, the oldest California station in continuous operation.

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