Early HP
Locations
updated Sept 2,
2007
The following pictures were taken during my trip to Palo
Alto in early June, 2007. All of these are along Page Mill Road which runs
Northeast. These buildings are on the northern end of Page Mill Road
before the name changes to Oregon Expressway which connects to Highway 101 by
the San Francisco Bay about two miles up the road. The HP buildings of today are
about one-half to one mile south on Page Mill Road.
This was once the Polly and
Jake Cabinet Shop building. HP rented space in the back part of the building in
1940 and soon occupied most of the building. At one time the front of the
building had the sign, Hewlett-Packard Co., a little above
where the present sign is today. The double doors in the middle have been
replaced with a window and the entrance is now on the side.
You can
still see the original cinder block side of the building.
Another
picture of the front.
A picture of the front and of the side entrance.
A view
of the side and rear of the building.
The side of the building and
looking down the sidewalk on Page Mill Road. The Redwood building used to
be about one block down the street on the right.
A view looking the other way up the side
walk. You can see where the front entrance used to be in the middle.
The
unfinished cinder block side of the building.
This view gives a
perspective of the location of the building relative to the intersection of El
Camino Real at the right edge of the picture.
This view is looking from
the intersection of El Camino Real and Page Mill Road.
A
perspective of Page Mill Road.
The first building HP built
was located where the parking lot is
in this picture. This was the Redwood Building located at 395 Page Mill Road
at the corner of Ash Street (on the right) and was built in 1942. It was
torn down for the construction of the new Agilent Technologies headquarters (building on
the left) after the spin-off from HP.
Here is another view with the former Agilent headquarters
building in
the background. The Agilent headquarters has since moved to Santa
Clara and this building was sold and was unoccupied when I
took these pictures in June of 2007. The Agilent signs had not yet been taken
down.
This
was the main entrance off of Page Mill Road.
This is a different view of
the parking lot where the Redwood building once stood. The picture is
taken from the other side of the main entrance.
Another view of the parking
lot where the Redwood building once stood.
When the Redwood building was torn down, retired HPer Gene
Douchette salvaged some of the redwood siding and made replicas of the
garage. I am very fortunate and proud to own one of these. It sits
in my shop with all my vintage HP equipment -- some of the equipment was
made in the redwood building -- an interesting convergence.
This picture was taken at the corner of
El Camino Real and Page Mill Road and looking northeast. The building with the
yellow sign on the side is the original Polly and Jake Cabinet Shop. The
Redwood building was about another block down on the right.
This
view
is looking the other way down Page Mill Road from the intersection at El Camino
Real. The road is actually flat -- the picture angle makes it look down
hill. The top of the distant hill on the road is where the 1957 HP headquarters
are located on the left. The new headquarters are located to the left
of the second traffic light (hard to see) at the bottom of the
hill.