Quote:
Originally Posted by SIGSEGV
The major reason it's there because that's where Leland Stanford owned land. Why he owned land there is likely because it was close to San Francisco (his other residence), but I don't really know (maybe someone does...). Maybe if he didn't own land proximate to San Francisco he would have purchased land. Who knows (anyway it was his wife who started Stanford). He also had a residence in Sacramento though (since he was governor for a while).
Anyway that's all mostly irrelevant to why Stanford became so important to Silicon Valley. I suspect if Stanford were in the middle of nowhere rather than close to San Francisco, it may not have become as important an academic center. Also, I don't know to what extent many of us are wrongly attributing Silicon's Valley growth to just Stanford. It's a nice story that helps my CV but there are other drivers too (e.g. NASA Ames).
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Agreed on all points. The Stanfords moved from Sacramento to a mansion on San Francisco's Nob Hill; when their son died young, they founded Stanford in his memory on land they purchased south of SF; the land was called (and sometimes still is) "the farm," which they also used as a weekend home; and the role Stanford played in creating today's Silicon Valley was important, but there were other critical players, without which the area wouldn't be what it is today.