Emeryville has some features of anedge city; however, it is located within the inner urban core of Oakland/the greaterEast Bay. It was industrialized before theFirst World War. It's a relatively safe city with few homicides.[9]
Before the colonization of the area by Spain in 1776, this area was long the site of indigenous settlements. The historicOhlone Native Americans encountered the Spaniards and later European colonists. They thrived on the rich resources of the bayside location: gatheredclams from the mudflats, oysters from the rocky areas, caught fish, and hunted a variety of game. In addition, women gathered acorns from the localoak trees, roots, and fruit. The Ohlone discarded clam and oyster shells in a single place, over time creating a huge mound, now known as theEmeryville Shellmound.[10]
During the Spanish and Mexican eras, colonists constructed a small wharf near the mouth ofTemescal Creek adjacent to the shellmound. The wharf served the Peralta family'sRancho San Antonio. It was used for loading cattle hides, the principal product of the ranch, ontolighters, and transferring them to ocean-going ships, including New England–bound schooners.[citation needed]
Cattle were a major part of the economy into the American era, when numerous meat packing plants were established along the bayshore in Emeryville between 67th and 63rd streets, in an area called "Butchertown". The cattle processed here were raised in nearby ranches and farms, and brought in by rail or barge. The odors from the corrals and slaughterhouses were notorious and often mentioned in local newspapers of the 19th and early 20th century.[citation needed]
Emeryville's first post office opened in 1884.[11]
The Town of Emeryville was incorporated December 2, 1896. It was named after Joseph Stickney Emery, who came during theCalifornia Gold Rush and acquired large tracts of land in what became known as "Emery's". In 1884, Emery was president of anarrow-gauge railroad called theCalifornia and Nevada Railroad. The railroad was originally intended to extend from Oakland, through Emery's (at the time, an unincorporated settlement along the bayshore) and east across theSierra Nevada to thegold mining town ofBodie, California. From Bodie the railroad would extend east through Nevada to a connection with theDenver & Rio Grande Railroad. Despite these goals, the railroad was completed only from Oakland toOrinda. Its right-of-way was sold to theSanta Fe Railway.[12] The Santa Fe constructed a rail yard and passenger depot below San Pablo between 41st Street and Yerba Buena Avenue. Although located in Emeryville, when the depot opened in 1902, it was called "Oakland" after the larger community.
Map of Oakland and Berkeley area in 1917; Emeryville is noted between them on the map.
TheKey System, a local transit company, acquired the general offices of the California and Nevada and its nascent pier into San Francisco Bay. Key developed the pier to reach nearly toYerba Buena Island. The Key System established its main rail yard adjacent to the yard of the Santa Fe in a large tract west of San Pablo Avenue.[citation needed] It was in the vicinity of Yerba Buena Avenue (so named because the island was visible in line with the thoroughfare). The Key System's main power plant, used to drive its electric streetcars and commuter trains, was constructed adjacent to the city limits with Oakland. The immense smokestack was a local landmark for decades, surviving until being damaged in theLoma Prieta earthquake of 1989. It was demolished for safety reasons shortly thereafter.[citation needed]
The old Key System mainline to the pier, and later, to the Bay Bridge, ran in a subway below Beach Street and the Southern Pacific mainline near the power plant.[citation needed] That subway survives. Today it is used as a private entrance to the main sewage treatment plant ofEast Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD, the water utility serving Oakland and many surrounding cities).[citation needed]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, after the Santa Fe spun off its real estate development arm, this company acquired the rail yards and shops of the Key System and Santa Fe. This real estate was redeveloped by what was called theCatellus Development Corporation, as a shopping center and multi-unit residential district.[citation needed]
In the late 19th century, the city developed a large park around the shellmound. This included two dance pavilions, one of which was built on top of the shellmound. The Oakland Trotting Park, forStandardbred horse racing, was built nearby at the junction of theBerkeley Branch line with the mainline of the Southern Pacific. The old Emeryville Arena was torn down in February 1920, to make way for a new idea for a new venue to revive the sport of dog racing, but using what theOakland Tribune described as an "automatic rabbit".[13]
On May 29, 1920, the firstgreyhound racing track to employ a mechanical lure in place of a live rabbit opened in Emeryville.[14]
In the early 20th century, Emeryville was as well known for its gambling houses and bordellos as it was for its booming industrial sector.Earl Warren, then Alameda County district attorney, later California governor andChief Justice of the United States, described it as "the rottenest city on the Pacific Coast".[15] During Prohibition and theGreat Depression, Emeryville was a site of numerous speakeasies, racetracks and brothels; it became known as a somewhat lawless red light center.[16] Today's popular local restaurant, The Townhouse, was operated as a speakeasy during Prohibition. The Oaks Room Card Club operates today as a legal gambling establishment onSan Pablo Avenue.
Emeryville was the site ofOaks Park, the home turf of thePacific Coast League'sOakland Oaks. The ballpark was located on the block bounded by San Pablo, 45th Street and Park Street (the fourth side was Watts Street).[citation needed] The site is now partly empty and fenced off. It is overlapped byPixar Studios. Pixar's main gate (on Park Street) lies directly on the old segment of Watts Street. The stadium did not front directly on San Pablo, where a strip of various small commercial buildings stood. They were replaced by the current, one-story commercial building housing several chain businesses.[citation needed]
During World War II, Emeryville was the southern terminus of theShipyard Railway, a specially constructed electric rail line operated by the Key System to transport defense workers to theKaiser Shipyards inRichmond. The station was on the west side of San Pablo Avenue on the Key's yard property. The tracks led to San Pablo Avenue, where they were merged into existing streetcar tracks.[citation needed]
From the late 19th into the early 20th century, Emeryville continued development as an industrial city. Joining the meat-packing plants were the Judson Iron Works and theSherwin-Williams paint company. From 1939 until the 1970s, the Sherwin-Williams plant roof featured a massive animated neon sign showing a can of red paint tilting, spilling, and covering a globe of the earth — with the slogan "Cover the Earth". It was a familiar sight to eastbound motorists on the Bay Bridge. The sign was dismantled in the summer of 1977.[17]
For decades the city was also the location of Shell Development, the research arm ofShell Oil Company; it relocated in 1972 toHouston, Texas.[citation needed] A large scrap metal yard (part of the Judson Steel mill) and its distinctive neon "Judson Steel" sign were visible for decades from theEastshore Freeway until the mid-1980s.[citation needed] A large facility of the Pacific Intermountain Express (PIE) trucking firm was also visible. A heavy truck manufacturing division of what was formerlyInternational Harvester, laterNavistar, was located in Emeryville. One of its more popular over-the-road semi-truck models, the International DCO-405, became commonly and affectionately known as an "Emeryville".[citation needed]
By the late 1960s, industries were beginning to move away from Emeryville. With the loss of jobs, the city began to decline. This began to change in the mid-1970s starting with the development of the marina section of Emeryville. The Judson steel mill abruptly shut down in the fall of 1986, after more than 100 years of operation, in the wake of declining profits and contentious labor negotiations.[18]
By the late 1980s, a large shopping area had begun to develop north and south of the Powell Street corridor. Additionally, theChiron Corporation (now Novartis), a major biotechnology company, established its headquarters just south of the old junction of the SP mainline tracks and the oldBerkeley branchline (Shellmound Junction) at the end of Stanford Avenue, the site of the old Shellmound trotting course.[citation needed]
In the late 1980s theEmeryville Public Market opened; this farmers' market also features up to twenty restaurants.
By the 1990s, the former tracts of the Santa Fe and Key System yards were redeveloped as a large shopping and residential area, as was the Shellmound corridor. Development of these areas included major roadwork, with the extension of 40th Street. The work included construction of a large overpass across the Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific) railroad tracks; it connected 40th Street to an extension of Shellmound Street, creating a single thoroughfare linking two sections of the new Emeryville.[citation needed] On the northern stretch of Shellmound Street, the Emery Marketplace and a movie multiplex were built. In 2007, the western end of Yerba Buena Avenue was linked with the northern end of the Mandela Parkway, creating a new through route between Emeryville and West Oakland.[citation needed]
In 2001, the city contracted developer Madison Marquette to build a new shopping center, theBay Street Shopping Center. It was to be built on the site of a defunct paint factory. But this was a historic site of anOhlone village andburial ground. Madison Marquette developers worked with archaeologists and Ohlone tribe representatives in order to avoid disturbing the human remains. The tribe approved reinterment of some remains at an undisclosed location on the site. The completed mall displays photographs of the historic shellmound, but it does not mention the burial grounds. An Ohlone representative said they believed the information would make shoppers there uncomfortable.[19]
In February 2025,Sutter Health announced plans for a major healthcare expansion in Emeryville with a US$1 billion medical campus. This project will repurpose two existing buildings—located at 5555 Hollis Street and 5300 Chiron Street—as outpatient centers and specialty clinics set to open in 2028, and will include a new flagship hospital at 53rd and Horton Streets scheduled to open in 2033. The new hospital (expected to replace the Alta Bates campus in Berkeley) will feature at least 200 beds, emergency services, an intensive care unit, and private patient rooms. Designed to address the growing healthcare needs of the East Bay, the development is expected to boost Sutter Health’s patient capacity from roughly 480,000 to 800,000, and it is anticipated to have a significant positive economic impact on Emeryville by creating hundreds of jobs and stimulating local business growth.[20]
According to theUnited States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.2 square miles (5.7 km2), of which 1.3 square miles (3.4 km2) of it is land and 1.0 square mile (2.6 km2) of it (43.11%) is water.[5] Named Watergate, the Emeryville marina is home to a mixed-use development, including two marinas (one public, the other private), a park, a residential condominium community known as Watergate, a business park with several office buildings, and several restaurants.
At one time, the Emeryville Mudflats were famous for their stench. In the 19th and early 20th century, this was caused by the effluent from the "Butchertown" area, where several meat-packing plants operated along the bayshore. They also dumped stripped carcasses in the bay here. Later, untreatedsewage from Emeryville, Oakland, and Berkeley flowed directly into the bay over the mudflats, producinghydrogen sulfide gas, particularly noticeable on warm days. In the 1950s theEast Bay Municipal Utility District constructed a regional sewage treatment plant near the eastern terminus of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, which, for the most part, cured the noxious problem.
The Emeryville Mudflats became notable in the 1960s and 1970s forpublic art, erected (with neither permission nor compensation) fromdriftwood timbers and boards by professional and amateur artists and art students from local high schools,UC Berkeley, theCalifornia College of Arts and Crafts and theFree University of Berkeley. The mudflats were even featured in the1971 filmHarold and Maude. These unsanctioned works were admired by some drivers heading westbound on the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge from Interstate 80.
In the late 1990s, the sculptures and materials were removed in the interest of establishing a more natural and undisturbed marshland for the nurturing of wildlife.[citation needed] This process continues around the bay in many other wetlands, former diked grazing fields, and salt production evaporation ponds.
Historically, Emeryville had been the location of a number of heavy industrial uses such as Judson Steel, whose properties were developed by bringing in waste andconstruction debris fill from San Francisco in the early 1900s.[citation needed] Correspondingly much of the underlying soil containedheavy metals,hydrocarbons and other soil contaminants. Much of this contamination was removed in the 1980s when the considerable wave of redevelopment occurred. The population had increased to almost 7,000 by the year 2000. Since then, the population has continued to grow and is estimated by General Plan projects a population of 16,600 by 2030. In addition, the city is home to about 20,000 current jobs; this number is projected to increase to about 30,000 by 2030.[citation needed]
The Census reported that 97.6% of the population lived in households, 2.4% lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and no one was institutionalized.[39]
There were 6,928 households, out of which 14.2% included children under the age of 18, 25.5% were married-couple households, 11.2% werecohabiting couple households, 34.5% had a female householder with no partner present, and 28.8% had a male householder with no partner present. 45.6% of households were one person, and 11.3% were one person aged 65 or older. The average household size was 1.82.[39] There were 2,575families (37.2% of all households).[40]
The age distribution was 10.8% under the age of 18, 8.0% aged 18 to 24, 49.9% aged 25 to 44, 19.6% aged 45 to 64, and 11.7% who were 65years of age or older. The median age was 35.0years. For every 100 females, there were 94.7 males.[39]
There were 7,525 housing units at an average density of 5,911.2 units per square mile (2,282.3 units/km2), of which 6,928 (92.1%) were occupied. Of these, 29.7% were owner-occupied, and 70.3% were occupied by renters.[39]
In 2023, the US Census Bureau estimated that 31.8% of the population were foreign-born. Of all people aged 5 or older, 62.6% spoke only English at home, 6.7% spokeSpanish, 9.1% spoke otherIndo-European languages, 19.3% spoke Asian or Pacific Islander languages, and 2.3% spoke other languages. Of those aged 25 or older, 97.8% were high school graduates and 74.9% had a bachelor's degree.[41]
The median household income was $120,302, and theper capita income was $93,433. About 5.3% of families and 9.6% of the population were below the poverty line.[42]
TheEast Bay German International School (EBGIS)[45] is a German immersion school operating located in the former Anna Yates school campus since 2017. The school was founded in 2007 in Berkeley. It reorganized as an independent school in 2018 after being operated by theGerman International School of Silicon Valley.[46]
The city uses acouncil–city manager system.[50] Emeryville City Council is the main legislative body and the mayor does not hold any formal authority separate from the council. The responsibilities of the council include adopting the city budget and setting city policy. Every year, one mayor and one vice mayor are chosen from and by the members of the council.[51]
As of July 1, 2019, businesses with 55 or fewer employees working within the geographic boundaries of the city must pay each employee at least $16.30 per hour. Large businesses with 56 or more employees must pay the same rate (previously the rate differed based on employee count). Many businesses have set up headquarters in the city.[52] Companies based in Emeryville include:
Adobe Systems, a multinational technology software company headquartered inSan Jose.
Alibris Inc., an online supplier and retailer of used and rare books founded in 1997 by Martin Manley and Richard Weatherford.
Gracenote, owned by Nielsen Holdings, maintains and licenses an Internet-accessible database containing information about the contents of audio compact discs.
As part of anurban renewal project, several shopping centers opened in the late 1990s next to the intersection of Interstate highways 80 and 580, capitalizing on Emeryville's access to San Francisco as well as to East Bay customers. A new retail and residential development namedBay Street Emeryville now sits along Highway 80 and is home to many stores and restaurants.
Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) is a commuter/metro heavy rail system which connects San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose in the greater Bay Area. The closest BART station isMacArthur station in Oakland, approximately 2 mi (3.2 km) east of the Amtrak station.Richmond station, approximately7+1⁄2 mi (12.1 km) north of Emeryville, andOakland Coliseum station, approximately9+3⁄4 mi (15.7 km), both provide direct connections between Amtrak and BART.
Public transit bus service for Emeryville is provided byAC Transit, which covers theEast Bay counties of Alameda and Contra Costa. To supplement the local bus service, the city operates a free shuttle service calledEmery Go Round with 15 minuteheadways on weekdays; it serves MacArthur BART, the Amtrak station, the Bay Street shops, the Watergate condominium complex and nearby marina, and other locations throughout the city and into Berkeley.[61]
Pixar produced the movieThe Incredibles, which shows a part of Emeryville near their headquarters, in a map on the dashboard of the hero's car. Their filmCars (2006) briefly shows a "Welcome to Emeryville" sign. Pixar'sLuca shows Emeryville's zip code for a few seconds being used as a number for a train.
Emeryville is often referenced in theNBC dramedy seriesParenthood, as the home of Sarah Braverman, the second oldest of the four siblings.
The city of Emeryville is a mecha training grounds in theMecha Samurai Empire series byPeter Tieryas and is featured prominently as the site of the yearly mecha combat between the Berkeley Military cadets.
^Durham, David L. (1998).California's Geographic Names: A Gazetteer of Historic and Modern Names of the State. Clovis, California: Word Dancer Press. p. 629.ISBN1-884995-14-4.
^"Emeryville Coursing Park Opens Saturday",Oakland Tribune, May 27, 1920, p18; (the date of February 22, 1920, is sometimes suggested as the date of the lure's introduction, though contemporary accounts indicate that racing did not start until May)
^City of Emeryville, California[1]"City of Emeryville website", accessed August 3, 2011.
C. Michael Hogan, Michael J. Johnson et al.,Environmental Impact Report for the Eastshore Center Development in theRedevelopment Project Area of the City of Emeryville, prepared for the city of Emeryville by Earth Metrics Inc.,Burlingame, Calif., July 1986.
Emeryville General Plan, volumes I and II (1979).
Final Environmental Impact Report, Bay Center Development, prepared by the city of Emeryville (1985).
