Located in western Contra Costa County along highway 1-80, Hercules rests along the coast of the San Pablo Bay about ten miles north of Berkeley. Originally the city was shaped by the Hercules Powder Company, the largest producer of TNT in the country. Prior to the 1970s the city only housed a few hundred people. The city was redeveloped after the 1970s as a suburban bedroom community, and it has continued to grow and develop since. Today’s very diverse population is around 25,000. Hercules currently has 36 buildings registered as National Historic Places. Despite plans for continued development, the city aims to balance the preservation of undeveloped land with the continued suburban growth. The agreed upon plan directs that Hercules be turned into a “transit-oriented, pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use town.” The city actually blocked Walmart’s attempt to build a supercenter store there in what was a national story in 2006. Today the largest employer in Hercules is BioRad, a fortune 500 biotech company that established headquarters there in the 1980s. With a suburban feel and well-landscaped roads, the city is made up of a number of smaller neighborhoods. Locals have given the neighborhoods names like “the Birds”, “the Trees and Flowers”, “the Gemstones”, “the Astronauts”, and “the Islands”. Closer to the shoreline you will find some of the town's newer developments like the Waterfront centered around the historic old town, Olympian Hills, Hercules by the Bay, Village Park and Victoria by the Bay/New Pacific. There are quite a number of newer developments growing in this area.
