to
Update
is an affluent city in San Mateo County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California. It is located at latitude 37°29' North, longitude 122°9' East. Menlo Park had 30,785 inhabitants as of the 2000 U.S. Census.
In the nineteenth century two Irish immigrants, Dennis J. Oliver and his brother-in-law D. C. McGlynn, purchased a tract of land on the former Rancho de las Pulgas. In the 1850s they erected a gate with a wooden arch bearing the inscription "Menlo Park" at the entrance to their property (now the intersection of Middle Ave and El Camino Real). The word "Menlo" derived from the owners' former home of Menlough in County Galway, Ireland. In 1863, the San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road named a nearby station "Menlo Park" after the sign. The 1867 station building still stands on the platform of the current Caltrain station, used by the local Chamber of Commerce. The town of Menlo Park grew up around this station, becoming a popular home for San Francisco businessmen. A post office arrived in 1870, and the city was incorporated in 1874. The original arch which gave its name to the stations and ultimately the city survived until 1922, when it was destroyed in an automobile accident. The origin of the name of
(ca 1850) pre-dates any work done by Thomas Edison (ca 1876) in Menlo Park, New Jersey.