At some point, the Redwood Grove appeared on the edge of the Upper School campus — no one has ever been quite sure why, when or how. The trees tower over the math and science buildings, each one stretching as tall as 150 feet. From below, the smell of fresh pine lingers around the canopies, offering a peaceful environment perfect for long walks and quiet reflection.
In early 2022, Menlo officially recognized the Redwood Grove as the Frances C. Arrillaga Memorial Grove to honor Frances Arrillaga, John Arrillaga’s wife. John Arrillaga, a devoted Bay Area philanthropist, helped fund and construct many of the current Upper and Middle School buildings. Before he passed away, Arrillaga requested to have the Redwood Grove renamed, and the school installed a stone plaque in honor of his late wife.
Science teacher David Spence took a hands-on approach two years afterward, building a wooden pergola — an outdoor structure similar to a gazebo — in the center of the Redwood Grove for his Experimental Archaeology elective. The class worked outside every day, hammering bronze seals, casting waxes and building firepits.
However, the grove has otherwise remained unchanged over the years despite constant campus renovation. Applied Science and Engineering teacher James Dann suspects that the trees were intentionally planted long before he joined Menlo in 2006. “I knew that it meant a lot to the school when they pointed it out to me for my interview,” he said. According to Dann, architects purposely revised the blueprints for the Whitaker Lab’s new entrance when its construction threatened to disturb the Redwood Grove in 2021. “It’s nice to have a little plot of nature in between the campuses, somewhere separate from the other buildings.”
Since then, students and teachers have explored new strategies to enjoy the natural space. Dann and retired science teacher Mark Allard once spent the night in the Redwood Grove with their night school class, building shelters from different regions around the world. From there, Allard and Dann tested if the shelters would hold in their respective environments. “Whether they were in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia or the floodplains in Tahiti, we went out there and blew sand and dumped water,” Dann said. “We did it at 4 a.m., too.”
Students in Catalyst, Menlo’s newly launched interdisciplinary learning experience, also spend a considerable amount of time in the Redwood Grove. Junior Murohn Zhang recently completed her first semester of Catalyst and appreciates the fresh air. “If we felt that we needed a change of space, we went outside,” she said. “We could always go to the Redwood Grove without being disturbed by passing periods.” Other classes offered at Menlo, such as English teacher Whitney Newton’s Literature of the American Wilderness and Jay Bush’s Modernist Poetry Workshop, occasionally host discussions in the Redwood Grove for a change of scenery as well.
After a procedural accident briefly forced sophomores out of their chemistry classrooms, sophomore Kaitlyn Mi spent the rest of her time learning about galvanic cells under the canopies. She specifically enjoyed sitting in a circle of tree stumps, part of the pergola that Spence built. “I feel like I learned better in a new setting. Learning is more engaging when I don’t have to sit at a cold, boring desk,” she said. “I like that the Redwood Grove makes school feel less like school.”
