The Emeryville Historical Society

28/02/2025

The Special edition featuring prominent leaders, athletes and business owners in is on its way to our paid members.

Would you like a printed copy? Subscribe now starting at $25/yr. to be added to our mailing list and get full access to our archives (and a free gift(s) for sustaining and patron-level members).

19/02/2025

We somehow missed this awesome photo shared by of the under construction location celebrating 52 years! Construction on the Lun Chan Associates designed restaurant began in early 1972 and they held their grand opening on December 2, 1972.

Cheers to the original! 🍹

02/02/2025

22/01/2025

Need a map to take our latest Greenway historic walking tour? They can be picked up at Emeryville Civic Center, The Senior Center, the ECCL lobby, .emeryville or you can print one from our website.

12/01/2025

We’re thrilled to announce that our historic Emeryville Greenway walking tour is LIVE!

This 1.5 mile, self-guided walking tour details 26 stories behind the existing brick concrete buildings and other razed structures.

It can be taken via the PocketDights app, our website or by scanning the QR code on the sign at each location.

Printed maps are available at the Civic Center, Senior Center, the ECCL & The Townhouse.

Thank you City of Emeryville, The Public Market & The Townhouse for sponsoring this.

Link to the tour:
https://emeryvillehistorical.org/tours/emeryville-greenway-horton-st-walking-tour/

31/12/2024

Hello EHS social media followers, 

Our last post of the year and final plea of 2024 to consider becoming a member for 2025.

2024 saw us print three journals uncovering some significant stories, including:
* Amelia K. Emery’s battle to save The Emery estate in the wake of her husband’s passing
* A retrospective of the razed Club Triangle which was a popular club for decades and a studio for famed artist Richard Diebenkorn
* An “Encyclopedia” of the history behind Emeryville’s Street Names
We also launched our second free walking tour, this one across Emeryville’s cherished Greenway which we will begin promoting in 2025.

We also continue to archive 100s of rare photos thanks to the help of our volunteers that can be browsed on SmugMug.

Membership will give you access to all these, and printed versions of our journals mailed to your home.

Sustaining level memberships ($50/yr.) will get either a free “Rottenest City” Tee or our Arcadia-published Emeryville history book. Patron-level members ($100/yr.) will receive both.

Please consider supporting us or “gifting” a membership to someone who may appreciate our efforts (link in bio).

— The EHS Board

27/12/2024

The 1924 silent film “Greed” written and directed by Austrian-born director/screenwriter Erich von Stroheim, contains a 5:45 segment filmed at the former Shell Mound Park in Emeryville.

The main character, Dr. John McTeague, goes to Shell Mound Park (renamed “Schutzen Park” in the film) with the family of friend Marcus Schouler for “Washington’s Birthday”

The scene shows the group waiting at Oakland’s 34th Street Station along the bay front, entering Shell Mound Park, picnicking, participating in the park’s shooting range, and riding the merry-go-round.

The scene was filmed the year before the park closed.

The original version of the film which has been lost, was said to be nearly 8 hours long but edited down to two and a half hours at the request of the studio.

We’ve trimmed and sped this up to 1:30 for social media but you can watch the full 5:45 version on our YouTube channel.

The studio version is available to rent on Prime or, if you have 4 hours to spare, a recreated Turner Classics can be watched online.

16/12/2024

Adeline, Beaudry, Peladeau, Doyle, Dain … names you’re all probably familiar with (and maybe even reside on) but probably know little about.

Our next journal is a glossary of what we know about EVERY street in Emeryville (and some in North & West Oakland).

Subscribe now to be added to our mailing list and get this issue and access to our complete archives (and free gift(s) for sustaining and patron level members).

👉🏼 emeryvillehistorical.org/subscribe

13/12/2024

Another eBay find that led us down a bit of a rabbit hole. A 1959 photo showing a since razed building on Halleck St. where the current Park Place industrial park is.

The building was used by Waterhouse & Lester Company who manufactured wheels for wagons, motor cars and bikes.

You can see the still standing 4070 Halleck St. building in the background (on the Oakland side of the border).

09/12/2024

You should start seeing some new historical markers for our Greenway walking tour popping up in over the next few days and we’re hopeful to complete the installation within a week. For this tour, we’ve used sidewalk decals for stops that did not have a lamp post nearby.

Thanks you to .emeryville for co-sponsoring the tour and letting us install the marker on your property!

16/11/2024

Historic Greenway Walking Tour Update: Our permit was finally approved! 🎉
Now we’re just waiting on the secure hardware that is backordered. 😒
Hoping to install over the Thanksgiving break. 🙏🏻

14/10/2024

If you’re looking to take a few minutes out of your day on to learn about Emeryville’s Indigenous history, our friends at have created a walking tour on the Pocketsights app that takes you across Temescal creek.

The 29 stop tour includes the Ohlone walk at Bay Street that was a developer concession when the mall was built in 2002.

We know there’s a lot of contention over this feature and the destruction of the Shellmound a century ago.

There is also an audio walking tour called “an unsettling sound walk” linked on the website narrated by tribal spokesperson & indigenous activist .

11/10/2024

Saddened to hear that will be ceasing operations after 50 years.

The institution was founded in in 1974 as “The Emeryville Shakespeare Company”

Zendaya, probably the most famous alumni of the org, has other Emeryville connections. Her grandfather Robert Coleman owned a small restaurant on 53rd street called “Three Sisters Cafe” (current site of the Emeryville Child Development Center). The cafe also featured live music.

The inside photo in this 1987 Oakland Tribune clip by French born photographer Michelle Vignes is part of her “Oakland Blues” series shot in the early 1980s.

06/10/2024

Thanks to everyone that came out today and chatted with us about !

04/10/2024

Hey local history fans 👋

We’ll have a booth at the City of ’s annual Harvest festival at Huchiun Park this Saturday, October 5 from 11-4pm.

Our booth will be on Sherwin Ave next to the food vendors.

We’ll have walking tour maps (including our new Greenway tour!), extra journals, vintage photos, ephemera and gifts for new members.

Come find us and chat with us about Emeryville’s fascinating history!

28/09/2024

As many of you know, the original trustees of Emeryville that were comprised of industry and race track interests “gerrymandered” churches out of the city’s borders and for years resisted the opening of any religious institutions. The nondenominational Church of Christ at 1096 48th Street is thought to be Emeryville‘s first church which didn’t open until 1982. Reverend Alonzo Payne was the churches first minister. The church also includes the adjacent fourplex. Payne died in 1990 at the age of 90.

12/09/2024

Thank you to the .emeryville for hosting, our wonderful volunteers for your hard work preserving History and to the amazing Ben Yee for treating us to an incredible meal!

We’re feeling energized and eager to capture more fascinating stories of this quirky town.

09/09/2024

As a historian, you search, dig and *hope* you find the images you’re looking for to support a story … and eventually they might just pop up.
This 1937 photo from shows the Powell/Doyle water tower when it was adorned with Pacific Manifolding Book Company that it was originally built for.

The still standing Industrial Hard Chrome Plating Company building (now occupied by ) and the razed Shellmound station serviced by the Southern Pacific East Bay Electric Lines are in the foreground.

The water tower and its history will be stop 16 on our forthcoming Greenway walking tour that we’re hoping to launch in time for this year’s Harvest Festival on 10/5 ( permit pending 🤞🏼).

Photo: Carlton Koski Photo / Courtesy of David Gallagher SFMemory.org