page_title: Main Quad (Stanford University)
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Main Quad (Stanford University) / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Picture of Jordan Hall with its statues of Humboldt and Agassiz and part of the balustrade of the Main Quad at Stanford University
context_page_description: The Main Quadrangle, or more commonly Main Quad or simply Quad, is the heart and oldest part of Stanford University in California. The collection of connected buildings was started in 1887 and completed in 1906. The Quad was damaged in the 1906 earthquake, repaired, less severely damaged in an 1989 earthquake, and repaired again. The exteriors have remained almost the same since the beginning, though the interiors of most of the buildings have changed radically. The Main Quad is still used for its original purposes of teaching, research, and administration.
context_section_description: The Main Quad is built on a slight slope so that though the back of the structure is level with the ground, the front is elevated.  It is oriented slightly east of north along the Memorial Church–Memorial Court–Palm Drive axis.   The front approach is at the end of a mile-long road, Palm Drive, which leads from the main entrance onto the university grounds and is lined with Canary Island palm trees.  At its southwestern (campus) end, Palm Drive becomes a one-way loop that encircles a large lawn called the Oval. Immediately in front perpendicular to Palm Drive is Jane Stanford Way  (once known as Serra Mall), which is restricted to official vehicles and bicycles. Between Jane Stanford Way and the Main Quad are another lawn, some bicycle parking, a long sandstone balustrade originally built in 1902, and steps up to the level of the quad:  the main steps to Memorial Court, the east steps to Wallenberg Hall (building 160), and the west steps to Jordan Hall (building 420).
  The Inner Quad consists of a large courtyard surrounded by twelve connected buildings (numbered clockwise, 1 through 110) and Stanford Memorial Church.   Around that are 14 additional connected buildings (120 through 460) that make up the Outer Quad.  The Outer Quad buildings create several additional courtyards.  Memorial Court, the most important, is the front entrance of the structure.  Besides the front entrance there are also the east and west entrances with gatehouses over them where they enter the inner courtyard. The four corners of the Outer Quad are named, clockwise from Memorial Court, the History Corner with its courtyard of citrus trees, the Engineering Corner with the Oregon Courtyard of flowering cherry trees, the Geology Corner with a garden designed by Thomas Church, and the Math Corner.  Other than Engineering, which now houses the Division of Literatures, Cultures, and Languages (hence is often now referred to as the Language Corner), the respective disciplines are still in their corners. Besides the gardens in the minor courtyards, the main inner courtyard has eight large raised planting circles with a variety of trees and bushes.
  The Main Quad also has open covered walkways around the Inner Quad courtyard, Memorial Court, and around the exterior of the entire structure except for the main entrance, the east and west gateways, and part of the back.    Each year's graduating class buries a time capsule and marks it with a plaque in the walkway around Inner Quad, starting with the class of 1896 right in front of Memorial Church (the classes of 1892 to 1895 put theirs in later); the plaques now reach nearly halfway up the western walkway.  Under the west gatehouse is a time capsule and plaque marking the centennial of the opening of the university, and the cornerstone (building 60) also has a time capsule.
caption: Jordan Hall (building 420) named after the university's first president.  Note the white statues of Agassiz and Humboldt on  the building above the arches and, in front of the Quad, the sandstone balustrade with its urns.
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