House in California where Jerry Garcia coined the band name “Grateful Dead” is for sale

A charming clapboard Craftsman home in Palo Alto, California, offers a piece of rock ‘n’ roll history for $2.695 million.

The nondescript house in the Professorville neighborhood, a short walk from Stanford University’s campus, was rented by Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh in the late 1960s and early 1970s. According to Dennis McNally, author of “A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead,” Dead frontman Jerry Garcia came up with the band’s name while tripping on the hallucinogen DMT in 1965.

The band also rehearsed in their garage, which still stands and now serves as a studio. The two-bedroom, one-bathroom home hit the market in mid-May with Helen Lippert of Compass. According to public records, it last sold in 2018 for $2.555 million.

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“There’s a certain vibe when you walk into the house and certainly when you walk back into the garage,” Lippert said, adding that she became a bigger fan of the Grateful Dead’s music as she familiarized herself with their catalog in advance of listing the house.

And what a history the property holds for the Dead Heads. On that day in 1965, the band members sat around and suggested a few names that didn’t work, including Garcia’s suggestion of “Mythical Ethical Icicle Tricycle,” Palo Alto Online reported when the house was last for sale. Then Garcia opened a copy of “Funk & Wagnall’s New Practical Standard Dictionary” to a random page and put his finger on a term, “grateful dead.” The name stuck.

“It confused some and horrified others – and what could be better for a rock band?” McNally wrote in his 2001 biography. “It suggested a great deal of depth, unique among all rock band names of the era, and suggested that something very powerful did indeed happen on the High Street that day.”

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It’s been about 50 years since Lesh lived in the house, but the building has been lovingly maintained since then, even as homes half the age of the 108-year-old building and of similar size were demolished in favor of larger homes, Lippert said.

An unusual advantage for the area that goes beyond its history is the home’s large paved and fenced backyard, where “you can just imagine the music and the people coming together,” Lippert added.

The current owners, who declined to be interviewed for this article but provided written comment via email, gave the house a new roof in the past year and have performed regular maintenance while preserving the character of the home’s interior, including the paneled dining nook and wood-burning fireplace.

“It’s a difficult decision to sell this home,” sellers Sonya Saunder and Amrik Kang said in a statement. “In many ways, we started here, just like the Grateful Dead. This was our first home in Palo Alto. We moved in with one child – we’re moving out with two children, an au pair and many great memories.”

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The sellers said they considered building a larger home on the property to accommodate their family, “but couldn’t bring ourselves to tear down a house with so much history and charm.”

However, they will pass on to buyers the plans they had drawn up for a 2,400-square-foot house with four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and a 750-square-foot secondary apartment.

Many of the people who have called about the property had previous contact with the Grateful Dead, Lippert said. Now, after a period of sellers’ remorse, the owners are ready to move on, Lippert said.