{"id":4989,"date":"2026-10-05T17:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T00:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/?p=4989"},"modified":"2026-10-05T17:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T00:45:11","slug":"hidden-palo-alto-another-discovery-on-my-morning-walk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/hidden-palo-alto-another-discovery-on-my-morning-walk\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Palo Alto: Another Discovery on My Morning Walk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019ve been walking around downtown Palo Alto in the mornings for about 20 years. You would think by now I\u2019d have seen everything.

Apparently not!

The other day, I walked past this brick building and noticed a little plaque on the wall:

\u201cDecker Oaks Building \u2014 Renovated 1984<\/strong>.\u201d

Of course, I had to stop and take a picture. Then my curiosity kicked in again: What is Decker Oaks? And what\u2019s the story behind this building?

I did a little digging and discovered that the building actually dates back to 1925. So when it was renovated in 1984 by Dennis A. Levett and Roxy Rapp, it was already almost 60 years old.

And here\u2019s something longtime Palo Alto residents might remember: Letter Perfect, the stationery and invitation store, was located here at 384 University Avenue for many years.

What I still haven\u2019t figured out is my favorite part of the story:

Why is it called \u201cDecker Oaks\u201d?

Maybe someone who has lived in Palo Alto longer than I have knows the answer.

That\u2019s what I love about my morning walks. I can walk down the same street hundreds of times, and then one morning I notice one little thing I\u2019ve never noticed before.

There is always another Palo Alto story hiding in plain sight.

And now I\u2019m curious\u2014does anyone remember Decker Oaks or know where the name came from?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

I\u2019ve been walking around downtown Palo Alto in the mornings for about 20 years. You would think by now I\u2019d have seen everything. Apparently not! The other day, I walked past this brick building and noticed a little plaque on the wall: \u201cDecker Oaks Building \u2014 Renovated 1984.\u201d Of course, I had to stop and […]<\/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":[204,221],"tags":[224,61],"class_list":["post-4989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","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":"I\u2019ve been walking around downtown Palo Alto in the mornings for about 20 years. You would think by now I\u2019d have seen everything. Apparently not! The other day, I walked past this brick building and noticed a little plaque on the wall: \u201cDecker Oaks Building \u2014 Renovated 1984.\u201d Of course, I had to stop and…","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989","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=4989"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5000,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4989\/revisions\/5000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/julianalee.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}