| The Palo Alto History Project |
| Steve Jobs 2101 Waverley Street |
| Steve Jobs and the Apricot Orchards Palo Alto has had its share of celebrity residents in recent years---Joe Montana, Steve Young, Chelsea Clinton. But the celebrity resident most symbolic of this tech-savvy city is Steve Jobs, resident of 2101 Waverley Street in the Old Palo Alto area of town. In fact, when he first bought his medieval-revival mansion, he had a minor complication with Palo Alto's rather strict historic preservation regulations. Jobs wished to tear down a arguably historic Craftsman style bungalow that he owned in the adjoining property to his 1930's-era house. His proposed new use for the site: apricot orchards. Some saw irony in Jobs wishing to bring such a relic of old Palo Alto to Old Palo Alto. Could Jobs (a major Silicon Valley baron and founder) be partially responsible for the hundreds apricot fields that became strip malls and industrial parks throughout Palo Alto and surrounding towns? Perhaps, but most in Old Palo Alto agreed that a little piece of bucolic farmland in the neighborhood probably wasn't going to hurt anyone. Besides, he did invent the Ipod, didn’t he? Palo Alto let Jobs circumvent the rules, he planted his orchards, and he remains Palo Alto's greatest celebrity resident---at least who never quarterbacked the 49ers. -Matt Bowling |
| Steve Jobs in 1984. (PAHA) |
| Apricot Abode |
| The Jobs' home on Waverley |
| The map below shows the Old Palo Alto area |
| Steve Jobs more recently |
| Sources: Palo Alto Weekly, Palo Alto Historical Association |