El Cerrito, Spanish for "Little Hill," is a bustling and modern community today, sandwiched between Albany and Richmond along busy San Pablo Avenue.
In the early 1900s, only about 1,500 people lived in these hills, then a scruffy cattle-grazin.
But as modern it is, El Cerrito has roots that run deep.
Quaint houses in the hills look down upon an active commercial strip with two BART stations and over the bayfront, where warehouses and processing plants in neighboring Richmond hum night and day.
El Cerrito, Spanish for "Little Hill," is a bustling and modern community today, sandwiched between Albany and Richmond along busy San Pablo Avenue