BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer
The Palo Alto Historic Resources board has voted to have what some described as a derelict building on the Baylands be designated as historic.
The building in question is the former Federal Telegraph Company’s Marsh radio station with the address of 2601 E. Bayshore Road. The board voted 6-1 to recommend the City Council make the building historic.
Commissioner Gogo Heinrich voted no, noting the building has hazardous materials in or near it. She also pointed out that the building is not consistent with the city’s plan for the Baylands.
“It was built at a time when no one cared about conservation,” so they just plopped the building in an area that no one else wanted to use, Heinrich said.
Chief Planning Official Amy French summarized an environmental report about the project saying a consultant called the land where the station sits a “soup of hazmat.” The building previously had asbestos removed from it, French said.
However, the building is the final remnant of the telegraph company’s station. The company was founded in 1909 and was a pioneer in long-distance radio transmission, said historic consultant Barrett Reiter.
“It’s an exceptional building with an exceptional history,” Reiter said.
Reiter said listing the property as historic doesn’t mean it has to stay standing. It’s possible if the building is demolished, a plaque or something else could be installed where the building once stood.
A few board members were interested in the plaque idea.
Board member Samantha Rohman said it would be a good way to show that some 100 years ago, wetlands were seen as undesirable so people put undesirable buildings on them.
“Now in 2024 we know its an important ecological system,” Rohman said.
Board member Caroline Willis said the building could be preserved like the old Sea Scouts building, but if it is torn down, a plaque would be a good idea.
“Life is moving so quickly, kids need every clue that life wasn’t always like this,” Willis said.
Board member Mike Makinen said he thought the building was derelict, but after reading the building’s history, he now finds it important.
According to an August 2001 evaluation of the site by the state Natural Resources Agency, the station picked up one of the first signs of trouble in the minutes before the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. After World War II, the station continued operations including communications with ships. Its 626-foot tower was dismantled in 1960 because it was no longer needed and was considered an aviation hazard.
The council voted on June 19, 2017, to dedicate the 36.5 acres of land at the former International Telephone and Telegraph antenna field to become part of the Bay Alto Baylands Nature Preserve. Since then, four of the other buildings on the land have been demolished, leaving only the radio station with the address of 2601 E. Bayshore Road.
Typical Palo Alto, preserving crap and calling it history.
The site has tremendous historic importance for the development of radio communications which technologies to the development of electronic tubes, electronic television, radar, microwave technologies including your kitchen food cooking machine, and much of what we now call Silicon Valley.