Hoover Park

Hoover Park is the kind of neighborhood park that does a lot in a small space. In 4.2 acres along Cowper Street it fits a playground, tennis and basketball courts, a ball field, restrooms, picnic tables and one of the city's four fenced dog runs. Matadero Creek runs along one side. A dry streambed lined with boulders runs along another, a reminder of a drought half a century ago.

The park is at 2901 Cowper Street in Midtown, a couple of blocks from Middlefield Road. It serves the streets of Midtown and St. Claire Gardens and pulls in dog owners from farther away. This guide covers what is there, how it got its name, what may change and how to get there.

Hoover Park at a glance

The city's park page tags Hoover as a park with athletic fields and lists these features:

• Playgrounds.
• Tennis courts and basketball courts.
• A baseball and softball field.
• Restrooms and drinking fountains.
• Picnic tables.
• Walking trails.

The fenced dog park appears on the city's separate dog park page. Hoover is open from sunrise to sunset. The dog run is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. There is no fee for anything here.

Named for a president with Stanford roots

The park honors Herbert Hoover, the 31st president of the United States, who served from 1929 to 1933. The site became parkland in the mid 1950s, when a city bond issue called for more recreation space south of Oregon, the road now known as Oregon Expressway. South Palo Alto was filling with new tract homes and young families at the time. Ramos Park on East Meadow Drive opened under the same push in 1958.

When the park was built, it sat next to Herbert Hoover Elementary School. The school relocated in 1982, but the park kept the name. The choice of namesake made sense locally. The city notes that Hoover was a member of Stanford's pioneer class of 1895. He later founded the Hoover Institution, accepted the Republican presidential nomination with a speech in Stanford Stadium and deeded his campus home to the university as the president's house. The best known reminder of him in town is Hoover Tower on the Stanford campus.

The dry creek bed

The park's most unusual feature is easy to miss. Along its south side runs a watercourse lined with boulders of different sizes. According to the city, the bed once held water. In 1976 a drought forced the city to drain it, because the water could not be recycled. It has stayed dry since. Today it reads as a rock garden that children love to scramble over. The real Matadero Creek borders the park on another side and continues toward the bay. In a wet winter it can run fast, so keep small children away from the channel banks.

The dog run

Hoover has one of four fenced dog parks run by the city, along with Mitchell, Peers and Greer. The city lists the Hoover run at about 0.14 acre with grass and mulch surfaces, seating, trash cans and lots of shade. That shade matters on summer afternoons, when a run in full sun gets hot for dogs and people alike.

It is small. A big dog can get a good sprint but not a long run. For that, the 0.84-acre run at Peers Park is a short drive away. City rules apply here as at every run: dogs licensed and vaccinated, collars with ID and license tag, no more than three dogs per person, owners inside the fence and supervising. Outside the fence, keep dogs on a leash. Our dog parks guide compares the four runs.

Courts, field and playground

The tennis courts are public and free. They are first come, first served unless the city has reserved them for a lesson or program. Basketball courts see after-school games through the school year. The ball field has a backstop for baseball and softball and doubles as open lawn when no game is on.

The playground serves younger children, with the restrooms close at hand. That combination is less common than you might think. Many of Palo Alto's small parks have play equipment but no restroom. For a comparison of play areas across the city, see our playgrounds guide. Tennis players looking for other public courts should read our tennis and pickleball guide.

Closures and planned work

The city's Hoover Park page showed no closures on October 30, 2026. A renovation is in the pipeline, though. A construction leads listing drawn from the city's capital improvement program, updated in September 2026, describes a Hoover Park Improvements project, number PE-18012, at about $1.2 million. The listed scope would replace the decomposed granite and concrete walkways, the brick wall around the children's playground, the playgrounds themselves, baseball backstops, benches, picnic tables, barbecue pits, tennis court perimeter fencing, drinking fountains and trash cans. It would also renovate the dog park. The listing shows a conceptual stage and a start date of March 2028.

Treat those dates and figures as tentative. Capital projects move with the city budget. When outreach begins, the city will post meetings on its Hoover Park page.

Getting there by bike and transit

Hoover is easy to reach by bike. Bryant Street, the Ellen Fletcher Bicycle Boulevard, runs north and south a few blocks west of the park and connects it with downtown and with East Meadow Drive to the south. Cowper Street itself is a quiet residential street.

For transit, VTA Route 21 runs along Middlefield Road and stops in the Midtown shopping area, a short walk from the park. Route 21 also links Midtown with downtown Palo Alto and Mitchell Park. The nearest Caltrain stop is the California Avenue station, about three quarters of a mile away in a straight line, or a little longer on foot.

By car, use street parking on Cowper Street and nearby blocks. Spaces are usually easy to find outside youth sports times.

What is nearby

Hoover sits in Midtown, the middle band of Palo Alto south of Oregon Expressway. The small enclave of St. Claire Gardens, three quiet streets of early 1950s homes between Cowper Street and Middlefield Road, uses it as its local park.

• Winter Lodge: the outdoor Winter Lodge ice rink at 3009 Middlefield Road is a few minutes away. Its 2026 to 2027 season runs from October 16, 2026 to April 11, 2027.
• Midtown shops: cafes, bakeries and groceries line Middlefield Road around Colorado Avenue.
• Greer Park: the 22-acre park with the skate bowls is about a mile east.

An easy family afternoon: playground and dog run at Hoover, a snack on Middlefield, then a skating session at Winter Lodge in the cooler months.

Frequently asked questions