Soccer Field

The story of Soccer Field

This Soccer Field sits in the Stanford-Palo Alto Community Playing Fields, a 6-acre parcel at El Camino Real and Page Mill Road.

The only dated description tied to this name comes from Stanford’s Mayfield Soccer Field Groundbreaking page. It says Palo Alto Councilman Vic Ojakian, President John Hennessy and Mayor Jim Burch ceremoniously broke ground here on Tuesday, Aug. 30, and that the site was planned to have two full-size soccer fields, a practice field in between, and public amenities when construction finished in February or March. That makes this a place designed for organized play, not just open turf.

The wider area around you is Mayfield, once a historic town in Santa Clara County, California. It was one of the oldest towns here and predates nearby Palo Alto and Stanford University. Before it became a town, Elisha Oscar Crosby acquired a 250 acres parcel of land in 1853, and it was named Mayfield Farm.

So when you look across this field, you’re standing on land that belongs to a newer community sports complex inside an older local landscape. The practical thing to notice is the layout: the ground was planned around multiple soccer surfaces and shared public use.