| The Palo Alto History Project |
| The Professorville Hospital Channing & Addison Avenues at Bryant & Waverley Streets |
| The Professorville Hospital: "The Site's not Right" “On the threshold of this new decade, we face a decision that will affect our lives and our city’s environment for years…The real issue is the character of our city, Palo Alto. Is continued intense urbanization our goal for Palo Alto? We think not. Yet crowded streets, shapeless buildings, endless expressways and smog filled skies are the values we are being lulled into accepting.” –Palo Alto Citizens for No on Proposition L (1970) Palo Alto residentialists, whose political philosophy is summarized in the quote above, picked their battles carefully in the early 1970s. After failing to stop the construction of the Oregon Expressway and having had their power reduced during the 1967 recall election, the residentialists were now clinging to just two remaining Council seats and were in need of a political victory. They would stake their comeback on the rejection of two major development projects in 1970 and 1971: the so-called Superblock project --- twin 11 story towers that were proposed on a downtown site along University Avenue --- and the 18 story Patient Care Health Center to be erected on a two block square in quiet Professorville. Dreaming of a city hospital to remedy the crowded conditions at Stanford University Hospital, The Palo Alto Medical Research Foundation (PAMRF), a non-profit corporation founded in 1930 by Dr. Russel V. Lee, proposed a “jet-age” hospital to open across from the Palo Alto medical clinic. The hospital project was massive in scope: The original proposal called for a $21 million, 18 story hospital of 600,000 square feet, 300 beds, and between 800 to 1,000 employees. But the problem was not just the size, but the location. Professorville is Palo Alto’s most historic neighborhood having acquired its name for the many Stanford professors who built their homes there in the 1890s. The PAMRF claimed (perhaps a bit cynically) that the location bordered by Waverley and Bryant Streets, Addison and Channing Avenues was the best of the many sites they considered for the hospital. But hospital opponents noted that it "is incredible that the PAMRF should conclude from their alleged site studies that the best location for the new hospital just happens to be across the street from their present medical clinic." Pointing to the small scale nature of the neighborhood and the old homes that would have to go, residentialists argued that “The site’s not right.” But the City Council sided with the foundation, voting 7-2 to change the zoning restrictions for the Professorville site, allowing the PAMRF to move ahead with construction. The specter of a monumental tower rising among the aging oak trees and shady streets of Professorville helped to rally the formation of the 300 member ABC --- Association for a Balanced Community. Aiming to put the Council’s decision to the voters in a citywide referendum, ABC secured some 5,078 signatures (3,416 more than was needed) to place the issue on the June, 1970 ballot as Proposition L. ABC’s argument was not based on the worthiness of the hospital project itself, but rather the chosen location. In the run up to the June 2nd vote, both sides waged fierce advertising campaigns. Hospital proponents declared an emergency in the city’s hospital care. They pointed to recent bed shortages and difficulties getting patients admitted to Stanford University Hospital and cited studies saying that 350 additional beds would be needed in Palo Alto by 1975. They also trumpeted the ample park land surrounding the proposed tower and claimed that the Professorville location was actually a plus --- neighbors and doctors could walk and bike to the hospital. But from the beginning, the residentialists had hospital supporters on the defensive. The PAMRF had to use the majority of its campaign literature to try to refute claims that the hospital would clog local traffic arteries, dwarf the small homes of the neighborhood, and further imbalance the ratio of the city's daytime employees to housing units. Perhaps sensing that the tide was turning against them, the PAMRF reduced the height of the proposed hospital from 198 to 140 feet and the square footage by nearly a third before voters went to the polls. On June 2nd, just over 52% of the electorate voted against the hospital proposal. While the vote was close, the electorate's decision reignited the residentialists' cause. The next year the Superblock also went down to defeat and by 1972, the establishment had lost control of the City Council and they would never get it back. By the 1980s, the residentialists' views had been basically accepted as Palo Alto’s governing political philosophy. Today if you stroll around the block where the hospital would have stood, you can't help but feel that the voters made the right choice all those years ago. Historic old homes dating back to the 1890s stand unharmed, neighbors walk their dogs down shady, tree-lined streets, and the Hewlett-Packard garage (which has since become a landmark as the birthplace of Silicon Valley) has been fully renovated --- rather than bulldozed. Not only that, but a new reliance on outpatient medicine changed hospital practices in the mid-1970s. In the years following the hospital vote, surplus beds became commonplace in hospitals across the country and local doctors were calling the defeat of Proposition L a blessing in disguise. Indeed, looking back with nearly four decades of historical hindsight, it seems that even more than just the site was not right. -Matt Bowling |
| 2007 |
| An anti-hospital ad that ran in the Palo Alto Times |
| Tiny Scott street cuts across the parcel that would have been devoted to the hospital. |
| The site was not right according to ABC and the anti-hospital forces |
| A small park that now exists on the land that would have been devoted to the hospital |
| Sources: Palo Alto: A Centennial History by Ward Winslow and the Palo Alto Historical Association, Palo Alto Times, PAHA, Palo Alto Weekly |
| The southern side of Waverley Street where the hospital grounds would have been. The tree-lined street features pleasant houses and a tranquil neighborhood atmosphere. |
| 1970 |
| The drawing at left shows the proposed hospital as viewed from Waverley Street looking south. Today small houses and trees line the area. |
| An anti-hospital ad shows the enormous size of the original hospital proposal. (PA Times) |
| Palo Alto: Then & Now |
| Although the HP Garage had not yet been recognized as a historical site worth saving, it stood within the path of the proposed hospital. The garage and accompanying house where David Packard and Bill Hewlett began their company was renovated by HP in 2005. |
| Mayor Ed Arnold was a staunch supporter of the hospital proposal (PAHA) |
| Residentialist City Council member Kirke Comstock was one of two Palo Alto lawmakers to vote against the project |
| "I truly enjoy reading all your columns, and especially enjoyed the one in today's Daily News about PAMCs efforts to build a hospital in "professorville" in 1970. I have lived in Palo Alto for 70 years and had never heard that story. The new hospital that Stanford is planning will change a lot of things, I think. Maybe some that haven't been forseen!" -Nancy |
| Memories added by our readers: |