The Squire House at 900 University Avenue is listed for $19.9 million. It has not changed ownership since 1999, so a completed sale would be its first ownership change since then; the listing itself does not mark a sale. Palo Alto Online reports that the 7,794-square-foot Crescent Park property was built in 1904.
Listing details and preservation records
The listing, as described by Palo Alto Online, gives the main house four bedrooms, six full bathrooms and one half-bath. It also lists a finished lower level with a game room and theater, a top-floor flex space, and nearly one acre of grounds with a pool and a trellis-covered terrace. A separate one-bedroom guest house measures 600 square feet, bringing the combined area to nearly 8,400 square feet.
The current status of a Mills Act contract for the property is unclear from the city records described in a City of Palo Alto report. A 2024 Historic Resources Board staff report says the house entered a contract in 1999 and that it had been renewed continuously. A separate 2017 city report says the owner requested termination in November 2016, but the contract’s terms remained enforceable until a ten-year nonrenewal period expired. The available accounts do not establish whether the contract remains in effect.
What a Mills Act contract provides
According to the California Office of Historic Preservation, local governments administer the Mills Act, and contracts are agreements between a property owner and the local government granting a property-tax abatement. The state office says contracts generally have a minimum 10-year term, renew automatically each year and transfer to a new owner when a property is sold. This general information does not establish how common such contracts are among California historic properties or whether the Squire House contract remains active.
A preservation history
Palo Alto Online reports that John Adams Squire and Georgiana Squire commissioned the house, which architect T. Paterson Ross designed and builder George W. Mosher completed in 1904. Squire taught Greek and Latin at Stanford and was a descendant of President John Adams and an heir to the Swift meatpacking fortune, according to the outlet.
A façade easement became part of the house’s preservation history when the city sold it to a private buyer for $135,000, requiring approval for changes to the exterior and grounds, according to Palo Alto Online. The sale followed an early-1970s effort to prevent demolition: a prospective buyer planned to replace the house with four homes, and the city held the property for a year while advocates raised money. The Palo Alto Historical Association organized the campaign; a citizens committee raised $90,000, and the city contributed $118,000 toward structural work.
The house received two historic designations in 1972: it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated California Historical Landmark No. 857, according to Palo Alto Online. The outlet also reports that the preservation campaign helped spur the city to establish a Historic Resources Board and adopt a historic-preservation ordinance, which it dates to 1979.
