Atherton is an incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, on the San Francisco Peninsula roughly midway between San Francisco and San Jose. With a population of about 7,200, it is a largely residential Silicon Valley community known for its estate-scale homes, its strict single-family zoning, and its one-acre-minimum lot sizes. The town has no commercial district of its own, which preserves its quiet, wooded character and sends residents to neighboring Menlo Park and Redwood City for shopping and dining. The area that became Atherton was part of the Rancho de las Pulgas and was known in the 1860s as Fair Oaks. In 1923, property owners incorporated separately from Menlo Park and renamed the town for Faxon Dean Atherton, a 19th-century Peninsula landowner. That history of independent incorporation helped establish the low-density, tree-lined character the town has maintained since. Atherton sits about two miles southeast of Redwood City and 18 miles northwest of San Jose, in the heart of the Peninsula's technology economy. Students do not attend a single Atherton school system; instead, the town is served by a patchwork of neighboring elementary districts and Menlo-Atherton High School, while private schools and Menlo College are also located within its borders. The town's neighborhoods are defined by large parcels and mature oaks. Lindenwood, in the northeast, is known for its curving, gated streets and a notable collection of Eichler-designed homes, while other areas feature older estates and more recent custom construction. Holbrook-Palmer Park, a 22-acre former estate now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, provides the town's central open space. Atherton appeals to those seeking privacy, large lots, and a short commute to the Peninsula's technology and venture-capital employers. Its deliberately low-density, single-family character is the defining feature of its housing landscape.