Main Quad (Stanford University)

37°25′39″N 122°10′13″W / 37.42750°N 122.17028°W / 37.42750; -122.17028

Stanford Main Quad aerial view. The Quad includes Memorial Church in the middle of the picture, beyond it the bricked inner courtyard with its eight planting circles and beyond it the grassy Memorial Court. At the top of the picture is the grassy Oval. The buildings below the church are not part of the Main Quad.

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 San Francisco earthquake, repaired, less severely damaged in the 1989 Loma Prieta 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.