Home

web counter

Camp Fremont

When the U.S. entered the European war on April 6, 1917, Menlo Park was a relatively sleepy country community consisting of a couple hotels, a few businesses (including several bars) and perhaps 2,000 residents clustered around a Southern Pacific train station. As Barbara Wilcox details in her new book, World War I Army Training by San Francisco Bay, the powers-that-be in San Francisco arranged to have one of the 32 camps hastily set up by the federal government to train a wartime army located on large portions of Stanford land and in what is now Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. The camp was designed to train an army division (then 28,000 soldiers). After the armistice on November 11, 1918, the camp was closed and hastily disassembled. But the continuing impact on Menlo Park was considerable. A new downtown along Santa Cruz Avenue emerged, and within a few years the City of Menlo Park was incorporated.

Eighth Division Headquarters was on El Camino Real opposite Ravenswood Avenue

Camp Fremont Centennial Committee Forming

A Camp Fremont Centennial Committee is forming to plan appropriate events to remember this important period of local history. The committee, representing organizations in Palo Alto and Stanford University as well as Menlo Park, met on March 23rd with Jim Cogan of the Menlo Park city staff to brainstorm ideas for the celebration. Several exhibitions are anticipated.

Web counter started 10 April 2016, at count 100

Page last updated 29 April 2016 (2 MB)