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The Squire House on University Avenue has stood as one of Palo Alto’s most recognizable residential landmarks for more than a century. Now, the historic white-columned Roman Classic Revival mansion is on the market for $19.9 million. It is the first time the property has been listed for sale since it last changed hands in 1999.
Its rescue from demolition more than 50 years ago helped spark the city’s historic-preservation movement.
The Crescent Park neighborhood house was built for John Adams Squire and his wife, Georgiana. Squire, a Stanford lecturer in Greek and Latin, was a descendant of U.S. President John Adams and an heir to the Swift meatpacking fortune. But he was more interested in the classics than in the family business, an interest reflected in the home’s architectural style, according to preservation group Palo Alto Stanford Heritage.
The 7,794-square-foot residence is an example of Roman Classic Revival architecture, a style inspired by ancient Greek and Roman temples. Its two-story portico, or covered entrance, features a triangular pediment supported by Ionic columns. The style was uncommon in the West at the time and generally reserved for large, expensive homes, George W. Courtney, chairman of the Committee for Historical Buildings Preservation in Santa Clara County, told the Peninsula Times Tribune in a 1973 article about the house.
Quarter-sawn oak floors, leaded-glass windows, oak paneling, pocket doors and intricate woodwork are among the home’s period details. The living room has a fireplace with a mahogany mantel, while the dining room features oak paneling and a built-in sideboard. A parlor once served as a gathering place for the women of the household. At the top of the home is a large attic space that Squire’s three daughters reportedly used as a roller-skating rink while growing up.
According to the sales listing, the main house has four bedrooms and six full bathrooms, along with one half-bath. It also includes a finished lower level with a game room and theater, and a top-floor flex space. The nearly one-acre grounds include landscaped lawns, a swimming pool and a trellis-covered terrace with a fireplace. A separate 600-square-foot guest house has one bedroom. The main house and guest house together total nearly 8,400 square feet.
The Squire family
After earning his bachelor’s degree at Harvard University, Squire moved to San Jose, where he tutored students in Latin and Greek at the San Jose Normal School (today’s San Jose State University) and College of the Pacific.
When Stanford University opened in 1891, Squire enrolled for advanced study in classics and moved his family to Palo Alto. They were among the city’s first 35 households. The Squires initially lived in a smaller house on Emerson Street before commissioning San Francisco architect T. Paterson Ross to design the University Avenue mansion, which builder George W. Mosher constructed in 1904.
T. Paterson Ross: The architect behind the Squire House
Scottish-born San Francisco architect T. Paterson Ross designed the Squire House on University Avenue in 1904, as well as two other homes in the neighborhood early in his career, at the turn of the 20th century, when Palo Alto was still a burgeoning city. He went on to design more than 200 buildings around the Bay Area, working in a range of architectural styles.
Ross became particularly influential in San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and fires. Working with engineer A.W. Burgren, he designed residential and commercial buildings as part of the city’s reconstruction. His pagoda-inspired buildings in Chinatown helped establish the architectural style that became a defining feature of the neighborhood in the years after the earthquake. Ross and Burgren also designed steel-framed structures intended to be fireproof and better able to withstand earthquakes.
Ross went on to help pioneer San Francisco’s early parking garages. In 1913, Ross reportedly designed a garage on Geary Street near Jones Street with space for 150 automobiles, an early example of a building type that would become increasingly common as car ownership grew.
Ross’s career was cut short after an accident at San Francisco’s Union League Club. During an inspection of the building, he was struck by falling bricks and paralyzed, according to historical accounts.
Information from Peninsula Times Tribune and Palo Alto Stanford Heritage
A year later, the house weathered the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Its columns and exterior survived, although two chimneys collapsed, the Peninsula Times Tribune reported in 1973.
After retiring from teaching, Squire pursued his interest in meteorology, sparked by a course at Harvard. He became a local forecaster, providing daily weather reports to the Palo Alto Times and other Peninsula newspapers.
The home remained in the family until Georgiana Squire’s death in 1959.
A campaign to save the house
By the early 1970s, the house was threatened with demolition after its owner planned to sell the property to a buyer who intended to tear down the mansion and build four homes on the site. Neighbors opposed the plan, and the Palo Alto Historical Association organized a Save the Squire House Committee.
The city purchased the property and held it for a year to give preservation advocates time to raise money. A citizens committee raised $90,000, and even local Girl Scouts joined the campaign, holding bake sales at Liddicoat’s Market to raise money to save the home, local papers reported at the time.
The city also contributed $118,000 toward structural improvements. It eventually sold the house to a private buyer for $135,000, with a façade easement, protecting the home’s exterior and grounds and requiring city approval for changes to them.
The effort helped galvanize interest in historic preservation throughout Palo Alto. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and designated California Historical Landmark No. 857 that same year, recognized as a notable example of California’s interpretation of the Greco-Roman Classic Revival movement.
The campaign also helped lead to the city’s adoption of a Historic Preservation Ordinance in 1979 and the establishment of a Historic Resources Board to review proposed changes to designated historic properties.
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