Palo Alto's oldest businesses

Palo Alto's reputation runs on newness. Startups rent offices for a year and move on. Restaurants turn over fast in one of the most expensive retail markets in the country. That makes the businesses that have stayed for generations stand out. Several have been run by the same family for three generations or more. One began in a garage and became a global company that still keeps its headquarters in town.

This page lists long-running businesses we confirmed as operating in late 2026. Founding years come from the businesses' own websites unless we say otherwise. We checked each site on November 2, 2026, or relied on confirmations in our directory and restaurant guides from late October 2026. Restaurants get their own full page, our guide to Palo Alto's oldest restaurants, so they appear here only briefly.

The survivors at a glance

The 1920s: two creameries

The oldest founding dates belong to two dairy businesses from the same year. The Palo Alto Creamery on Emerson Street says that since opening in 1923 the names and faces have changed but its reputation has not. The Peninsula Creamery was founded in 1923 as a dairy and the Santana family has owned it alone since 1936. Today it runs a breakfast, lunch and milkshake counter at 900 High Street. Both survived decades when downtown had no bars at all, which helps explain why Palo Alto's oldest food businesses are soda fountains rather than taverns.

The 1930s: bikes, jewelry and books

Palo Alto Bicycles, 1930

Palo Alto Bicycles says it has been a staple of the community since 1930 and is led by the same family who founded it generations ago. The shop at 171 University Avenue sits a short walk from the train station in a city that has long been friendly to bikes. Our guide to bike shops and outdoor gear covers it alongside newer shops.

Gleim the Jeweler, 1931

Gleim calls itself Silicon Valley's first family of jewelers, in business since 1931 and now in its third generation of family ownership. Our directory notes it was founded in Palo Alto and has long been a tenant at Stanford Shopping Center, known for estate and signed jewelry and appraisals. See our jewelry guide.

Bell's Books, 1935

Bell's Books, a family-owned independent store at 536 Emerson Street, says it has served the Stanford and Silicon Valley communities with new, used and rare books since 1935. It is the oldest bookstore in Palo Alto. Our bookstores guide has more.

Hewlett-Packard, 1939

Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard began talking about a company in August 1937 and formalized their partnership in the garage behind 367 Addison Avenue on January 1, 1939. The company moved to Page Mill Road in 1940 and its successor, HP Inc., is headquartered at 1501 Page Mill Road, a site Hewlett-Packard first occupied in 1960. That makes HP the oldest major company born in Palo Alto that is still based here. Our Hewlett-Packard profile follows the company through its 2015 split.

Postwar survivors

• Kirk's Steakburgers, 1948. The first Kirk's opened on El Camino Real in 1948, with Stanford students among its early customers. The Palo Alto restaurant is now on Middlefield Road in Midtown.
• Varian Associates, 1948. The company the Varian brothers incorporated on April 20, 1948 became the first tenant of Stanford Industrial Park. Its medical business is now part of Siemens Healthineers, which completed its purchase in April 2021, so the name survives inside a larger company.
• Town & Country Village, 1953. The open-air center on El Camino Real opened two years before the first store at Stanford Shopping Center. See our Town & Country guide.
• Stanford Shopping Center, 1955. Construction began in 1954 and the first store, Roos Bros., opened in September 1955. See our Stanford Shopping Center guide.
• Rick's Ice Cream, 1956. Rick's calls itself a Palo Alto ice cream tradition since 1956.
• Hassett Hardware, 1957. A third-generation family company, family owned since 1957 and part of the Ace cooperative, with a downtown store at 875 Alma Street. Our hardware stores guide lists its neighbors.
• Saint Michael's Alley, 1959. It opened in 1959 as a coffee house named for the London alley where that city's first coffeehouse opened in 1652. Michael Sabina and Jennifer Youll bought it in 1993.

The 1970s: a second generation of survivors

A later group has now passed the 45-year mark. Sundance The Steakhouse opened in December 1974 as the Sundance Mine Company and is still run by the Fletcher family. Hobee's, the Bay Area breakfast chain with a branch on El Camino Real, dates its company to 1974. Sigona's Farmers Market, a Peninsula family produce business founded in 1975, has a store at Town & Country. Piazza's Fine Foods, a family grocery founded by John Piazza in 1979, anchors the Charleston Shopping Center and says its roots go back four generations to a grocery family in Italy. The Palo Alto Weekly also began in 1979.

Long-lived institutions

Some of the city's oldest organizations are nonprofits or schools rather than businesses, but they are part of the same story:

• Woman's Club of Palo Alto, founded June 20, 1894, the same year the city incorporated.
• Castilleja School, founded in 1907 by Mary Ishbel Lockey.
• Pacific Art League, founded in 1921 as the Palo Alto Art Club. See our Pacific Art League page.
• Palo Alto Medical Foundation, which grew from the clinic Dr. Russel Lee founded with five other physicians around 1930. Its 1932 building at 300 Homer Avenue is set to become the Palo Alto History Museum.
• Palo Alto Children's Theatre, a city program founded in 1932.

Just over the creek, Kepler's Books in Menlo Park has sold books since 1955. Our Kepler's history tells its story.

Recently lost

Longevity is no guarantee. University Art, which opened in Palo Alto in 1948, closed in 2026 after 78 years. The Village Cheese House at Town & Country Village made sandwiches from 1959 until 2019. Palo Alto Bowl closed in 2011, leaving the city with no bowling alley. If a favorite on this list matters to you, the best way to keep it is to shop there. To see the garage where HP began, combine a walk with a Silicon Valley tour.

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