El Cerrito Plaza (shopping center)

El Cerrito Plaza is a shopping center in El Cerrito, California, a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area. Originally a 350,000 square foot regional mall, it opened in 1958 around a Capwell's department store. Until the Hilltop Mall opened up in nearby Richmond, it was the only shopping center outside of the various downtown shopping districts in this part of the East Bay.

In 2002, El Cerrito Plaza was partly demolished, remodeled, and reopened after years of decline which began with the 1976 opening of the Hilltop Mall in Richmond and the major redevelopment of Emeryville in the 1990s. The closures of the Woolworth's store in 1993 and the Emporium anchor store in 1996 accelerated the Plaza's decline.

Historically, the site of El Cerrito Plaza was granted by the Mexican Republic to Francisco Maria Castro on June 12, 1834. Several buildings were constructed by the Castro family over the years. Victor Castro, Francisco's son, built his wood frame adobe home here in the early 1800s and it remained standing until it burned down in 1956, shortly before the original shopping center was built. During the 1930s, the Castro adobe housed a gambling casino, and the eastern side of the current Plaza housed a dog racing track. After the track closed, its parking lot housed a trailer park for Kaiser shipyard workers, with the track field area used by El Cerrito High School. In the late 1940s, a drive in theatre (Cerrito Motor Movies) was built there and operated until the mid 1950's

In the early 2000s, Cerrito Creek, which runs along the southern boundary of the Plaza, and marks the boundary separating Alameda and Contra Costa Counties, was "daylighted" and some native vegetation restored. A pathway runs along the restored streamside.

El Cerrito Plaza is located across the street from the El Cerrito Plaza BART station.

An access ramp connects the Plaza with the Ohlone Greenway bike and pedestrian pathways which run below the elevated BART tracks from Berkeley to Richmond.

A Farmers' Market is held at the Plaza every Tuesday and Saturday.

tores

Romano's Macaroni Grill, Ross Dress For Less, Lucky Stores (formerly Albertsons), Trader Joe's, Shoe Pavilion, Longs Drugs, Petco, JoAnn Fabrics, Bed Bath and Beyond, and Barnes and Noble are the largest stores. There is also a GameStop, a Cold Stone Creamery shop, Rubio's, Pasta Pomodoro, a Verizon Wireless store, and a See's Candies shop, along with several dozen other stores.

References

#cite news
first=Chuck
last=Squatriglia
url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/1999/12/08/MN78531.DTL
title=El Cerrito Plaza to be Resuscitated: $40 Million overhaul to bring big-name stores
publisher=San Francisco Chronicle
page=A-21
date=1999-12-08
accessdate=2006-01-10
#cite news
first=John
last=King
url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/03/29/MN203300.DTL
title=Plaza lacks pizzazz: El Cerrito's redone center ends up a stodgy maze
publisher=San Francisco Chronicle
page=A-21
date=2002-03-29
accessdate=2006-01-10

External links

* [http://www.elcerritoplaza.com/ El Cerrito Plaza] , Official site.
* [http://elcerritowire.com/history/pages/historyec.htm El Cerrito Historical Society - Castro Rancho]