Menlo Park

City in San Mateo County, north-central California, immediately northwest of Palo Alto and 40 km/25 mi south of San Francisco; population (1990) 28,000.

Established in the 1860s, Menlo Park was for a long time a railway suburb of San Francisco. It is now a thriving commercial and residential community in its own right, with business parks for high-tech industries and numerous office buildings housing financial, insurance, and pharmaceutical concerns. It is also a centre of publishing. Stanford University is situated just southeast of the city. The Stanford Research Institute (founded 1946) and St Patrick's Seminary (founded 1898) are sited here.

Menlo Park

Community within Edison township, Middlesex County, central New Jersey, 13 km/8 mi northeast of New Brunswick. It is famous as the site (1876–87) of the laboratory of Thomas Alva Edison (the ‘Wizard of Menlo Park’), who invented the incandescent light bulb here in 1879.

Menlo Park was settled in the late 17th century. It is now a residential suburb, with a large shopping mall complex. In 1938, a Memorial Tower was erected here to commemorate Edison's achievement, surmounted by an enormous replica of the original bulb. Edison State Park and an Edison museum are also situated here.