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Overview

Spanish Colonial architecture became a dominant stylistic trend across California during the 1920s, although it remained stronger in the southern part of the state than the north. Birge Clark designed a number of Spanish Colonial buildings in Palo Alto, including the outstanding Main Post Office #2 at380 Hamilton Avenue, completed in 1932.This large office block being was one of Clark's most distinguished designs of the 1920s.

Building History

Noted Palo Alto architect Birge M. Clark (1894-1989) designed this four-story business block for the Palo Alto Improvement Company in the mid-1920s. It was completed in 1927. The building has an irregular plan and picturesque variety about it. In the Spanish buildings on which Clark might have patterned this block, this variety would have been the result of incremental growth and changes over time. In this modern American instance, however, the building was constructed all at once, with the compositional irregularity being a main aspect of its charm.

In 2016, Hamilton Ramona Partners owned the building.

Building Notes

A portion of the first floor of the Medico-Dental Building accommodated Palo Alto's main post office for five years (1928-1933) until the construction of a new one during the early years of the Depression.

Alteration

Hamilton Ramona Partners supervised a building renovation in 2016. It won a preservation award sponsored by Palo Alto Stanford Heritage, a local preservationist group, in 2016.

PCAD id: 21921