{"id":4975,"date":"2026-09-27T16:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T23:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/?p=4975"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T23:33:17","slug":"hidden-palo-alto-the-story-i-found-on-my-morning-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/hidden-palo-alto-the-story-i-found-on-my-morning-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Palo Alto: The Story I Found on My Morning Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For the past 20 years, one of my favorite habits has been taking a morning walk through downtown Palo Alto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have walked these same streets so many times, but I still find something new when I slow down and look around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This morning, I looked up and noticed the words \u201cDowning Block\u201d at the top of a beautiful old building at 201 Hamilton Avenue. I immediately wondered: Who was Downing? Why is his name up there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It reminded me of how I discovered the Arch of Ely\u2014simply by being curious. So, of course, I went home and did a little research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And wow, there was quite a story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Downing Block was built in 1909 and was an important building in early downtown Palo Alto. It even served as Palo Alto\u2019s post office from 1909 to 1928. To put that in perspective, Palo Alto\u2019s population grew from 37 people in 1890 to 1,658 by 1910.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The building was named for T. B. (Thomas Benton) Downing, an early Palo Alto property investor and a member of Palo Alto\u2019s first City Council from 1909 to 1913. He invested heavily in Palo Alto when it was still a young, growing community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That caught my attention. Mr. Downing Block was buying property, opening businesses, building neighborhoods, and investing in Palo Alto\u2019s future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After working in real estate for so many years, I find that especially meaningful. Real estate is about more than a house or a building. Every property has people and decisions behind it\u2014and sometimes a story that lasts for generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes all I have to do is look up and stay curious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Juliana
Walking in downtown Palo Alto<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the past 20 years, one of my favorite habits has been taking a morning walk through downtown Palo Alto. I have walked these same streets so many times, but I still find something new when I slow down and look around. This morning, I looked up and noticed the words \u201cDowning Block\u201d at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":791,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,204,221],"tags":[224,61],"class_list":["post-4975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-downtowns","category-sightseeing","tag-downtown","tag-palo-alto"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Juliana Lee","author_link":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/author\/juliana-lee\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"For the past 20 years, one of my favorite habits has been taking a morning walk through downtown Palo Alto. I have walked these same streets so many times, but I still find something new when I slow down and look around. This morning, I looked up and noticed the words \u201cDowning Block\u201d at the…","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/791"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4975"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4987,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4975\/revisions\/4987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}