Emeryville, California

Emeryville was the home of Native American settlements until Spain gained control of the area in 1776. The area became part of Mexico after that country gained its independence from Spain in 1821. Then the United States gained control of area after the Mexican-American War in 1848. In 1896, Emeryville was incorporated and named after Joseph Stickney Emery, who arrived in the area during the Gold Rush and acquired large pieces of land. He was also the president of the California and Nevada Railroad, which was originally intended to reach from Oakland to the Sierra Nevada gold mining town of Bodie, California. 

The railroad, however, only ended up reaching Orinda and was later sold to the Santa Fe Railway. The Santa Fe Railway built a passenger depot between 41st Street and Yerba Buena Avenue that, though located in Emeryville, was called "Oakland" and opened in 1902. During that period the local transit system, called the Key System, powered all the street cars and commuter trains in the area. The Key System was a landmark for decades, and even stayed intact during the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, but it was eventually demolished due to unsafe conditions.

The meatpacking industry was the first industry to establish a home in a section of the city that became known as “Butchertown.” However, Emeryville was much more famous as a gambling and sporting mecca since 1871, when the Oakland Trotting Park (later renamed the New California Jockey Club) racetrack was built and operated until horse racing was outlawed in California in 1911. But during the Prohibition Era and into the Great Depression, speakeasies, gambling houses and bordellos cropped up all around the area, and in 1927 the then district attorney of Alameda County, Earl Warren, who later became governor of California and then the 14th chief justice of the United States, referred to it as “the rottenest city on the Pacific Coast.” Emeryville also was the site of Oaks Park, which was the home field of the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks.

In late 19th and early 20th century, Emeryville began to grow as an industrial city. Judson Iron Works, Sherwin-Williams Paint Company and Shell Development, the research arm of Shell Oil Company, were some of the businesses that were added at that time. Industries began to move away from Emeryville in the late 1960s, which caused the city to fall into a period of decline. By the 1970s the city was revived with the development of its marina. Then in the 1980s more growth came to Emeryville: a large shopping area was built, Chiron Corporation, which is a major biotechnology company, moved in, and Amtrak built a train new depot to replace the West Oakland depot that had been damaged during the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989. More shopping, restaurants and residential areas were constructed during the 1990s and early 2000s, all of which made Emeryville an attractive destination to shop, visit and live. According to the census of 2001, there were 6,882 people and 1,165 families living in the Emeryville. In 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 9,866 people lived in Emeryville.

the Brod Law Firm has a history of providing excellent legal representation to its clients in and around Emeryville. The focus of the firm is to help our clients, who are composed of individuals and small businesses.

We are Emeryville personal injury attorneys who handle injury cases on a contingency-fee basis. A contingency-fee based case means that legal fees are only owed if a recovery is obtained on your behalf. We are Emeryville business attorneys, and meeting our clients' legal and financial interests is our most important goal.

Directions to our San Francisco office from Emeryville are as follows: Take the Bay Bridge to San Francisco and exit at Fremont Street. Merge onto Fremont Street and turn left onto Mission Street. Turn right onto Anthony Street and take the first right onto Jessie Street. The office is at 100 Pine St #1250.