Crescent Park

One of Palo Alto’s crown jewels. Every Palo Alto neighborhood is expensive, even the ones that don’t look it. This one looks it. Stately homes, most of pre-World War II vintage, some on half-acre lots, grace beautiful magnolia-lined streets. That’s the best of Crescent Park, but in fact this area includes a wide range of housing and neighborhoods. Crescent Park boundaries are somewhat arbitrary and often transitional. The same kinds of homes (some very impressive) line both sides of Hamilton Avenue, the dividing line between Crescent Park and Community Center. Boundaries aren’t always clear cut further east either, along Lincoln and Newell.

Crescent Park, based on the description by John Fyten

Pre-World War II homes, usually mid-range to top end. Look here if you want a home (quite possibly large and old) on a lot (quite possibly huge) in one of most beautiful, prestigious and expensive neighborhoods on the mid-Peninsula.

Boundaries: Newell between Channing and San Francisquito Creek; San Francisquito Creek; Middlefield between San Francisquito Creek and Hamilton; Hamilton to Lincoln; Lincoln to Channing; Channing to Newell. Map boundaries are approximate due to my limitations as a map maker. Neighborhood boundaries may be subjective. Boundaries and other information on this Web site should be verified before being relied upon.

Crescent Park can be divided into three distinct neighborhoods. Just east of Middlefield is an area that resemblesdowntown, not surprising since it’s part of the original University Park subdivision. Like downtown this neighborhood is charming but not prepossessing, a mixture of condos, apartments and bungalows often on small lots. But once past Guinda you enter an area of grand old homes on very large lots. Crescent Drive, the geographical heart of “prime Crescent Park”, is an exact half-circle north of University, configured to fit the shape of the creek. This and the surrounding blocks are the most consistently impressive in Crescent Park. Not every house is a tour de force but the area exudes money and quiet good taste. Further south, between Hamilton and Channing the streets become slightly less upscale, the homes and lots a bit smaller but still very appealing. Much depends on the block: some are pre-war and consistent with the Crescent Park image, while others have a post-war look not unlike Crescent Park Addition on the other side of Newell.

Housing stock: As the overview suggests, Crescent Park has a surprisingly wide range of home sizes and styles for an area with such an upscale image. Just east of downtown it’s mostly bungalows dating from around 1900 to the 1920s. Although small, these homes often offer interesting architectural details. From Seneca east to the Creek are the quintessential Crescent Park estates, grand homes built in the ’20s and ’30s. Architecture is heavily weighted toward Tudor and Spanish Revival (or “Early California”), with the occasional Monterey Colonial thrown in. Between Hamilton, Channing, Newell and Lincoln the homes are still usually very nice and often well over 2000 sq.ft., although there’s a sprinkling of very small houses. Most date from the late ’30s although Pitman was developed in the middle ’50s with upscale ranchers. Cul-de-sacs abound including five around St. Albert the Great Church, with traditional homes built from the late ’30s through the ’40s. Three cul-de-sacs or short streets off Newell just to the east are built with ranchers from the late ’40s to mid-’50s. There’s a development of newer homes on Ashby and adjoining Hamilton, built in the mid-’80s on the old Crescent Park school site. One little-known aspect of Crescent Park is the handful of bungalow courts, private streets with tiny homes that once, I suspect, housed the servants. Now these homes offer Crescent Park on a condo budget, albeit an expensive condo budget.

Lot sizes: There’s quite a variety. East of downtown the lots hover around 5000 sq.ft., with sub-standard lots not uncommon. Quintessential Crescent Park has a number of lots around 20,000 sq.ft., with some smaller and a handful larger. South of Hamilton lots are typically under 10,000 sq.ft. The last streets built in that area—Pitman, Sharon and Kings Lane—have lots in the 7s or even 6s.

Affordability: As with most of Palo Alto’s best neighborhoods, Crescent Park has as many as three price tiers.

At the top are big homes on big lots. As you’d expect, they’re startlingly expensive.

There’s a second tier of neighborhoods with still-imposing homes that are a bit smaller and on smaller lots. A large sub-set of this tier is the ‘50s ranchers south of Hamilton. They’re almost affordable by north Palo Alto’s exalted standards and can sell for much the same as the similar ranchers of Crescent Park Addition on the other side of Newell, although much depends on the ambience of the immediate neighborhood.

Finally, the homes—largely bungalows—just east of downtown are downright “cheap”, with the caveat that no Palo Alto house is cheap. Those on standard (5000 sq.ft. or more) lots sell for about what their counterparts downtown sell for, as do the roughly 8% of Crescent Park homes on sub-standard lots.