World War I
From Palo Alto Wiki
World War I had a major effect on Palo Alto and its neighboring cities. Though it was filled with heartaches, it did finally bring the population increase that the area had been waiting for.
[edit] The Peninsula Mobilizes for War
At the corner of Santa Cruz Avenue and El Camino Real in Menlo Park, the road up to San Francisquito Creek and the spot where Santa Cruz makes its half-left turn on its way up to the Alameda can just barely be seen.
Between 1917-1918, everything between those two distant points (about 25,000 acres) was Camp Fremont, home of the 8th Division of the U.S. Army, which was being trained to go to France and fight in the trenches against the Kaiser's army.
Camp Fremont had 27,000 men at its peak, and a curious history. Construction began in July 1917; was halted for three weeks by the War Department at one point; saw its troops transferred to the East Coast; finally received the 8th Division, which was trained for France but ended up in Siberia; had a chance to become a permanent Army camp but was closed after the war; and saw its buildings all dismantled or moved, leaving Menlo Park much as it had found it--a sleepy little hamlet of 2,300 souls.
Menlo Park and San Francisco merchants rented every available store space, a post office, church, library and theater were built along with nine YMCA huts, the Bank of Palo Alto opened a branch in Menlo Park (and promptly closed it when the camp closed, to the dismay of Menlo Park residents), Beltramo's Winery and every other similar store and tavern within five miles of the camp in San Mateo County went "dry" by decree of the Army and county, Sequoia High School opened a branch on the base (teaching arithmetic, English, typing, shorthand and accounting) and then closed it because of poor attendance, and lots of guns, machine guns, hand grenades, cannon and whatnot were shot off in the interests of training the soldiers to fight.
The camp had infantry, cavalry and 10,000 animals - horses and mules - which were based farther east on Ravenswood Avenue at a "remount station" near the camp hospital (which would become the Veteran's Administration hospital on Willow Road.)
The irony of Camp Fremont, of course, is that the 8th Division never made it to the fighting in France, with the armistice reached before they arrived. Part of the 8th did get to see some action, however - in Siberia.
But the area was not left empty-handed when the camp was dismantled 18 months after it was assembled. Besides the addition of new businesses in both Menlo Park and Palo Alto, Menlo Park had its first streets and its first water and gas services, left behind by the 8th Division engineers.
Camp Fremont also left behind some of its 1,000 buildings. Two popular restaurants of today, MacArthur Park - which once housed Palo Alto's first community center - and the Oasis Beer Garden are both located in former Camp Fremont buildings.
