Holbrook-Palmer Park & Town Center, Atherton Homes for sale, recent sales and a Property Nerd’s guide

The park began as a farm. A Town centennial sheet says Charles B. Holbrook bought the 22-acre Elmwood property in Fair Oaks in 1881 and planted hay, fruit trees, vegetables, lawns, a tennis court and elms. Holbrook's daughter, Olive Holbrook Palmer, later kept Elmwood as a summer home. She died in 1958 and the house burned a few months later; Silas Palmer rebuilt a one-story house on the old foundation, today's Main House. Her will left Elmwood to the Town after his death. He died in 1963, and after a 1959 survey in which nearly two-thirds of those responding asked for more recreation facilities, the Town formally accepted the land in 1964. The Holbrook-Palmer Park Foundation followed in 1968.

It is still Atherton's only park. The oldest structure is the three-story water tower from 1883; the carriage house was built to replace a barn lost to fire (the Town's master plan says 1890). The National Register lists the estate as "Holbrook-Palmer Estate, Elmwood," with a period of significance of 1883 to 1897. Jennings Pavilion went up in 1977 for larger events, and the Council adopted a park master plan on May 20, 2015.

Across the tracks, the Town rebuilt its civic center. Voters chose to replace the old buildings in 2012, and in late 2021 staff moved into a new campus at 80 Fair Oaks Lane: a two-story City Hall of nearly 30,000 square feet between Fair Oaks and Dinkelspiel Station lanes, with the police department on the first floor. The 10,000-square-foot Atherton Library, connected to the renovated historic Town Hall, opened June 4, 2022. Next door is the small depot of the old Atherton station, closed to trains in 2020 and slated by the Town to become a rail history museum.