The Crossroads sits at the meeting point of Moraga Way and Orinda Way, just south of the BART station. It's the oldest continuously commercial part of Orinda, and the most photographed.

The area got its first identity in the 1880s as the location of Bryant Station, one of three Orinda stops on the short-lived California–Nevada Railroad. The station sat slightly south of where the Orinda Theatre stands today. Once the railroad collapsed at the turn of the century, the area continued to function as a small rural crossroads until the Caldecott Tunnel opened in 1937 and brought commuters in from Oakland.

The Orinda Theatre opened in 1941 and immediately defined the district's character. Designed by architect Alexander Cantin in the Art Deco style, the theatre's distinctive marquee became (and remains) the most recognized landmark in town. Around it grew the Theatre Square district: shops, restaurants, and the everyday infrastructure of a small downtown.

Today, the Crossroads continues to evolve, but the Orinda Theatre still anchors the skyline, and the original street pattern still tells the story of where Orinda started.

When E.I. de Laveaga began developing the valley west of San Pablo Creek in the mid-1920s, he envisioned not just a subdivision but a community. He laid out streets, named them all in Spanish (see Spanish Street Names of Orinda), and built around them the Orinda Country Club, a swimming pool, and a golf course that's still in use today.

The earliest homes in Orinda Village date to the 1920s and 1930s, mostly Spanish Revival and ranch styles. After the Caldecott Tunnel opened in 1937, building accelerated. By the postwar years, Orinda Village had become a recognizable East Bay community with its own identity, separate from the older Crossroads district just to the south.

The Village still feels distinctly residential. Many of its original homes are still standing, and the de Laveaga family's original home, Bien Venida, remains in the family. E.I.'s granddaughters still live there.

Glorietta was originally an unincorporated community, annexed to the City of Orinda in 1940. The neighborhood sits south of Highway 24, between Moraga Way and the Lafayette border, on rolling terrain that gave it its name (the word "glorietta" suggests an open or sweeping place in Spanish).

The neighborhood developed gradually through the 1940s and into the postwar boom. Most of its homes were built between the 1940s and 1970s, with mid-century ranch and traditional styles dominating. Glorietta Elementary School became the neighborhood's social anchor, and remains so today.

Glorietta consistently ranks as one of Orinda's most close-knit residential areas. Many of its original homes remain on their original lots, often updated but still recognizable.

Before the Caldecott Tunnel, before the Orinda Theatre, before any of it, the El Toyonal and Claremont area was already attracting Bay Area residents looking for a sunny escape from San Francisco's summer fog. Many came as weekenders and ended up building summer cabins in the wooded hillsides above the valley floor.

"El Toyonal" takes its name from the toyon tree, also called Christmas berry, a native California shrub that grows wild throughout the area. The neighborhood retains some of its original cabins, now converted to year-round homes, alongside newer construction.

El Toyonal and Claremont share an architectural lineage with the rest of the Wagner Ranch area: a mix of original summer homes, mid-century additions, and newer infill. The terrain is steep, the lots are large, and many of the streets retain their early-20th-century character.