About El Cerrito

El Cerrito is a city in Contra Costa County, California, United States, and forms part of the San Francisco Bay Area. It has a population of 23,549 according to the 2010 census.

El Cerrito was founded by refugees from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. They settled in what was then Don Víctor Castro's Rancho San Pablo, and adjacent to the ranch owned by the family of Luís María Peralta, the Rancho San Antonio. A post office opened at the settlement in 1909 and the refugee camp became known as Rust, after William R. Rust, its first postmaster. The village's residents did not care for the name and changed it to El Cerrito in 1916. A year later, El Cerrito was incorporated as a village with 1,500 residents. The name means "little hill" or knoll.

El Cerrito is located on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay. The hilly areas of El Cerrito provide spectacular views of its famous neighbor and the Golden Gate Bridge. El Cerrito is located along Interstate 80, and nearby Interstate 580. The city is less than 30 miles from two major airports. El Cerrito is bordered by Albany and Kensington to the south, the Richmond annex to the west, East Richmond Heights to the north, and Wildcat Canyon Regional Park to the east. Local landmark Albany Hill is in Albany, just across the border with El Cerrito. (El Cerrito—Spanish, "the little hill"—takes its name from Albany Hill.) The Hayward Fault runs through El Cerrito. In addition, El Cerrito is within 150 meters (500 ft) of Berkeley to the southeast.

San Pablo Avenue stretches the length of El Cerrito and is the primary commercial and retail corridor of the city. El Cerrito is best known for El Cerrito Plaza, a large automobile-oriented shopping center originally built as a regional mall in the 1950s, and for the Cerrito Theater, a restored two-screen movie theater that is known for offering beer, wine, and a full dining menu. The shopping center is surrounded by other commercial and retail businesses along San Pablo Avenue and Fairmount Avenue respectively, including fast food and an ACE Hardware store.