Palo Alto History Museum

The future home of the Palo Alto History Museum is the historic Roth Building, the original Palo Alto Medical Clinic designed by local architect Birge Clark and built in 1932 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, we plan to restore this architectural treasure to create the history museum this community deserves. Creating a new, long-needed community resource, we are excited to develop a world-class museum which will provide much to our community, including: A free cultural destination in the heart of historic Palo Alto, with innovative exhibitions, programs and resources to tell the story of our community, and our legacy of innovation and far-reaching impact. A teaching location and resource for students and teachers on state and local history. Classroom tours will enrich the curriculum for students from Palo Alto, Stanford and East Palo Alto, whether public, private or home-schooled. Preservation of a community treasure, the Roth Building. Now on the National Register and designed by Birge Clark (brother of PAMF founder/pediatrician, Esther Clark), we will also preserve the murals by Victor Arnautoff, best known for his work at Coit Tower. A climate-controlled repository for artifacts and documents currently scattered throughout our community, preserving our unique local history. We will create a media center and be the permanent home for the City archives. The Museum will be a unique venue for public and private events and a large meeting room will be available for use by the community.