Our Pick
Posted on @rawstates
El Cerrito, the earthquake refugee camp that grew into a wide open gambling town
1906
El Cerrito, California
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CC0 · Wikimedia Commons
People burned out of San Francisco in 1906 crossed the bay and settled along San Pablo Avenue in a camp that took the name Rust, after the man who ran its post office. The town incorporated in 1917 and spent the next three decades known for card rooms, roadhouses and speakeasies that the county largely left alone. A greyhound track opened here on 22 October 1932 and ran until neighbours moved against it as a nuisance, and state attorney general Earl Warren ordered it shut in 1939.
That was 1 of the hidden places.
Location: city-level
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