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For decades, the Crescent Park neighborhood of Palo Alto represented the dream of California living.
Doctors, lawyers, business executives and Stanford University professors lived in charming homes under oak, redwood and magnolia trees. The houses, an eclectic mix including Craftsman homes and bungalows, were filled with families who became fast friends. The annual block parties heaved with people. Daily life was tranquil, and the soundtrack was one of children laughing as they rode their bicycles and played in one another’s gardens.
Then Mark Zuckerberg moved in.
Since his arrival 14 years ago, Crescent Park’s neighborhood tranquillity and even many of its actual neighbors have vanished. Residents hardly ever see the Facebook founder, now worth about $270 billion, but they feel his presence every day.
Mr. Zuckerberg has used Edgewood Drive and Hamilton Avenue like a Monopoly game board, spending more than $110 million to scoop up at least 11 houses. He has offered owners as much as $14.5 million, double or even triple what the homes are worth, and neighbors have seen one family after another leave.
Mr. Zuckerberg has purchased at least 11 homes on two streets since 2011
Source: Redfin and Realtor.com (purchase prices and years); City of Palo Alto (parcel boundaries)
By Leanne Abraham
Several of his properties sit empty in a notoriously crunched housing market. He has turned five of them into a compound with a main house for him, his wife, Priscilla Chan, and their three daughters, along with guest homes, lush gardens, a nearby pickleball court and a pool that can be covered with a hydrofloor. A seven-foot statue depicting Ms. Chan in a silver, flowing robe that Mr. Zuckerberg commissioned last year sits on the property.
Constant construction for eight years
2016
Mr. Zuckerberg withdrew an application to demolish four homes and rebuild them smaller as part of a compound after a Palo Alto board rejected it. Instead, he proceeded more slowly.
2017
Houses were demolished on two lots, and the yard of a third was cleared.
2019
The lot was excavated for a basement, and heavy machinery was present on the site for over a year.
2022
Construction began on a third lot.
2023
The house on the third lot was demolished, and a new house with a basement was built.
Sources: Aerial imagery from NearMap and Vexcel.
By Leanne Abraham
