St. Claire Gardens

St. Claire Gardens is the kind of neighborhood you only find by looking for it. Three short streets branch off between Cowper Street and Middlefield Road, lined with modest postwar houses and tall street trees. There are no shops, no through traffic and no landmarks. What it has instead is stability. Palo Alto Weekly met residents who had lived there for 40 years, raised families and stayed on to walk their dogs past the same neighbors every morning.

This guide covers where St. Claire Gardens sits, what its houses are like and the parks, schools and shops that serve it. It is a good example of how Palo Alto's named neighborhoods can be as small as a few blocks.

Where St. Claire Gardens is

Palo Alto Weekly's neighborhood guide defines St. Claire Gardens by its three streets: St. Claire Drive, St. Michael Drive and St. Michael Court. They lie between Cowper Street and Middlefield Road, a few blocks south of Loma Verde Avenue. St. Claire Drive is the main street and runs between Cowper and Middlefield. St. Michael Drive runs beside it and St. Michael Court is a short cul-de-sac.

Maps often fold the area into the larger district called South of Midtown. The neighbors are easy to place. Midtown and its shopping center lie just to the north. Palo Verde is across Middlefield Road to the east. Fairmeadow and Mitchell Park are a few blocks south toward East Meadow Drive. Alma Street and the Caltrain tracks are about half a mile west.

History and homes

Like the rest of central south Palo Alto, this area was orchard and farm land until the housing boom after World War II. Much of the land along Middlefield Road was built out in the late 1940s and 1950s. Sale records for at least one St. Claire Drive house list a 1953 construction date and a lot of about 7,000 square feet, which fits the early 1950s pattern of the surrounding blocks. Published histories of the tract itself are thin. No builder or architect is widely documented.

Today the housing is almost all single-family. Expect:

• single-story postwar ranch and tract houses, many with attached garages
• original homes that have been remodeled and expanded
• a growing number of larger rebuilds, some with second stories

Residents describe the area as tree-lined and private while still close-knit. Our real estate guide explains the Palo Alto market and our South Palo Alto guide covers the postwar story in more depth.

Neighbors and traditions

For such a small place, St. Claire Gardens has a strong social calendar. Palo Alto Weekly's 2019 profile described several traditions:

• A Labor Day picnic hosted for about 15 years by one longtime resident.
• A heritage street tree decorated for the holidays with about 1,000 LED lights.
• Monthly lunches organized by neighbors.

Older residents walking their dogs are a familiar sight. Traditions depend on volunteers and can change, so treat these as a picture of the neighborhood rather than a fixed schedule. Palo Alto protects certain large trees under its tree ordinance. Our page on trees and the urban forest explains how heritage and protected trees work.

Parks and recreation

Hoover Park at 2901 Cowper Street is the neighborhood's closest park. It has a playground, lawns and one of the city's four fenced dog parks, which our dog parks guide covers.

Mitchell Park at 600 East Meadow Drive is a few minutes south by bike. Its 21 acres include Magical Bridge Playground, sports fields, a larger dog run and the Mitchell Park Library and Community Center at 3700 Middlefield Road. See our Mitchell Park guide.

The Winter Lodge at 3009 Middlefield Road is one of the area's quirks. The outdoor ice rink has operated since 1956 and its season runs from mid October to April. Our Winter Lodge guide has the current season dates.

Schools by attendance area

A 2019 Palo Alto Weekly neighborhood guide listed these public schools for St. Claire Gardens:

Attendance areas in central Palo Alto have shifted over the years. Nearby Midtown addresses have been split between Gunn and Palo Alto High School. Confirm any home with the PAUSD school finder. The same guide noted Keys School, a private school, nearby.

Shops and getting around

The Midtown shopping area on Middlefield Road around Colorado Avenue is the everyday stop. Safeway at 2811 Middlefield Road anchors it, with pharmacies, cafes and services nearby. Charleston Center farther south has Piazza's Fine Foods. Our guide to Midtown and neighborhood shopping lists more.

VTA buses run along Middlefield Road. The nearest Caltrain station is California Avenue, a bike ride northwest. Bryant Street, the city's oldest bike boulevard, runs parallel a few blocks west and carries riders downtown. Oregon Expressway and East Meadow Drive lead to US 101.

A neighborhood loop by bike

An easy hour on two wheels shows how much is within reach. This route stays mostly on quiet streets:

1. Start on St. Claire Drive and ride west to Cowper Street.
2. Turn north on Cowper to Hoover Park for the playground or the dog run.
3. Cut over to Middlefield Road and the Midtown shops around Colorado Avenue for coffee or groceries.
4. Ride south on Middlefield past the Winter Lodge to the Mitchell Park Library.
5. Loop through Mitchell Park and Magical Bridge Playground, then head home along East Meadow Drive and Cowper Street.

The route works on foot too, at about two hours with stops. Middlefield Road has heavy traffic, so families with young riders may prefer the parallel side streets.

Neighborhood association

St. Claire Gardens appears on Palo Alto Weekly's list of the city's named neighborhoods. Its social life seems to run through informal neighbor networks rather than a large formal group. To reach current organizers, check the City of Palo Alto's neighborhood association list or the Palo Alto Neighborhoods (PAN) network.

Who does St. Claire Gardens suit? It works best for people who want a quiet street in the middle of the city rather than a walkable downtown. Errands, parks, a library and an ice rink are all close, but most trips still start with a bike or a car. Longtime owners, families with school-age children and retirees all live here. Many owners stay for decades, as Palo Alto Weekly found, so listings on these three streets are infrequent.

Families visiting relatives here sometimes prefer a house to a hotel. You can browse house rentals in Palo Alto or compare Palo Alto hotels.

Frequently asked questions