The vibrant East Bay city of Hayward was named for William Hayward, a '49er and American squatter who endeared himself to Mexican landowner Guillermo Castro by making him a good pair of boots. With Castro's permission, William stayed to open Hayward's Hotel on what is now Main and A Streets. That fortuitous location, near the convergence of the eight tributaries forming San Lorenzo Creek, made the region a natural transportation hub between the bay and the fertile Livermore Valley. Stagecoach lines, a narrow-gauge railroad, and later modern transportation links encouraged more immigrants to...

San Lorenzo has been a desirable place to live since 1847, when squatters built their cabins on the north side of San Lorenzo Creek, then part of two Mexican ranchos. When landowners could not evict their unwanted guests, the settlement known as Squatterville grew into a town at Four Corners, now the intersection of Hesperian and Lewelling Boulevards. Named San Lorenzo in 1854, over the next 90 years it developed into a close-knit rural community. The great shipyard boom during World War II brought many new families to one of the first self-contained communities of tract homes in the nation,...