Seale Park

Seale Park is one of those Palo Alto parks you find by accident. It has no frontage on a busy road. Its entrances open off quiet residential streets in east Midtown. Its long shape follows the concrete channel of Matadero Creek. Inside is a broad meadow, a playground, a basketball court and enough elbow room that it rarely feels crowded, even when Greer Park up the road is packed with soccer families.

The official name is Henry W. Seale Park. The address is 3100 Stockton Place. The city's park page gives its size as 4.3 acres. Our playgrounds guide uses that figure too. This guide covers what is in the park, the planned renovation, the Seale family behind the name and the parks, streets and shops around it.

Seale Park at a glance

The city describes Seale as a "4.3 acre neighborhood park tucked between houses and Matadero Creek" with a "large open meadow for active sports." Its feature list names picnic tables, basketball courts, soccer fields, bicycle trails, walking trails and playgrounds.

• Meadow: a large open lawn that the city lists as a soccer field. Older city listings also mention volleyball.
• Playground: play equipment that older listings describe as aimed at toddlers and young children.
• Courts: basketball courts, listed by the city.
• Picnics: picnic tables, first come, first served.
• Paths: walking and bicycle trails through the park and along its creek side.
• Restrooms: the city's page lists no restroom. Nearby Greer and Hoover parks have them.
• Dogs: on leash only. No fenced run.
• Fees: none.

Check the city's Seale Park page for notices before you go.

A park shaped by the creek

Matadero Creek starts in the foothills, runs past Bol Park in Barron Park as a shaded stream and then turns into a very different waterway. From El Camino Real to Highway 101 it runs in a concrete channel behind houses in Ventura and Midtown. Seale Park lies along that channel, which is why the park is long and fairly narrow rather than square.

The channel is there for flood protection. A federal review once found that the Louis Road bridge downstream of the park could pass only a 50-year flood. Between 1994 and 2005 the water district replaced that bridge with a larger one, rebuilt floodwalls from West Bayshore Road to Alma Street and added an overflow bypass channel below Highway 101. Our Matadero Creek guide tells the full story.

For visitors, the practical point is simple. The creek is fenced and fast in a storm. Keep small children on the park side of the fence, especially after heavy winter rain.

Planned renovation

Seale Park is on the city's long list of parks due for an update. A construction leads listing drawn from the city's capital improvement program, updated in September 2026, describes Seale Park Improvements, project PG-14003, at about $869,400. The listed scope covers upgrades for safety and accessibility, replacing park amenities and playground structures, repairing pathways and renovating turf and irrigation. The listing shows the project at a conceptual stage with a start date of March 2029.

Treat those numbers as tentative. Capital projects move with each year's budget. Dates often slip. When design work starts, the city usually holds community meetings and posts them on the park's page. Recent projects at Ramos and Boulware parks went through several rounds of public input before construction.

Henry W. Seale and the rancho

The Seale name is woven through north Palo Alto. Seale Avenue runs through Old Palo Alto. The city's historic survey calls the blocks around Coleridge Avenue the Seale Addition. The park in Midtown carries the same family name.

The story begins with a Mexican land grant. Rancho Rinconada del Arroyo de San Francisquito belonged to the Soto family, whose claim was rejected at first by the federal Land Commission after California became a state. According to Wikipedia's history of the rancho, the Sotos agreed to give Thomas Seale, an Irish immigrant who had come to San Francisco in 1850, half the land if he could secure confirmation of the grant. He succeeded. The Seale brothers received about 1,400 acres.

Henry W. Seale was Thomas's brother. The two ran a contracting business in San Francisco. In 1864 Henry sold 60 acres to Dr. William Newell, whose name survives on Newell Road. In 1887 Thomas Seale sold land to Timothy Hopkins, who laid out the townsite of University Park, the start of today's Palo Alto. Wikipedia gives that sale as 697 acres, while other sources say 740. The rest of the Seale property was farmed until 1888, the year Henry died. For the wider story, see our history of the founding of Palo Alto and our guide to the Spanish and Mexican era.

When to visit

Weekday mornings are the quietest time. Parents with toddlers have the play area mostly to themselves. The meadow is open for a ball game or a picnic blanket. After school the park fills with neighborhood kids. Weekends are busier but still calm next to Greer, where youth leagues book the fields in spring and fall.

The meadow gets full sun. In summer, come early or late in the day and bring water. In winter the grass can stay soft for days after a storm, so leave the stroller on the paths.

Hours and rules

The city's Seale page shows no posted hours. The municipal code sets a 10:30 p.m. closing for city parks, with parks closed until sunrise. Seale has no sports lighting. The usual city rules apply: dogs on a leash of no more than six feet, no drones and no feeding wildlife. Group picnic reservations are not offered here. The picnic tables are first come, first served.

Getting there

Seale is a bike park. The city's neighborhood bike boulevard program runs along Louis Road and Ross Road nearby, two lower-traffic routes that cross Midtown north to south. Our guide to Palo Alto bike boulevards explains the network.

Transit is limited. VTA Route 21 runs along Middlefield Road through the Midtown shopping area, which is under a mile west of the park. The nearest Caltrain stop is California Avenue station, too far for a comfortable walk with small children. By car, use street parking and respect driveways. These are narrow residential streets.

Nearby parks, schools and food

Seale sits in a cluster of Midtown parks. Each one does something different:

Ohlone Elementary sits on Amarillo Avenue near Greer Park. Depending on the address, Midtown homes have also been assigned to El Carmelo, Fairmeadow, Hoover and Palo Verde elementary schools. Always check the district's school finder for a specific home.

For food, the Midtown shopping area on Middlefield Road around Colorado Avenue has cafes, a grocery store and takeout. Our guide to where to eat in Midtown lists current picks. In the cooler months, the Winter Lodge outdoor ice rink at 3009 Middlefield Road makes a good second stop with older kids.

Seale also serves the north edge of Palo Verde, the late 1950s Eichler tract to the south, whose own neighborhood page lists it among nearby parks.

Frequently asked questions