Cornwall, formerly known as Cornwall Station, was an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Contra Costa County ) of the San Francisco Bay , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1 = State , subdivision_name1 = California , subdivision_type2 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, before it was absorbed into the City of Pittsburg. It was located east-southeast of Baypoint and south of downtown Pittsburg, at an elevation of

ASL American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

. The area appears to have been named after Pierre Barlow Cornwall, an early California pioneer and president of the

Black Diamond Coal Mining Company The Black Diamond Coal Mining Company was formed in 1861, consolidating the Cumberland and Black Diamond coal mines in the region of Mount Diablo, in Contra Costa County, California.http://www.southport-land.com/PDFs/1861_06_15_1st_mtg_rev3.pdf M ...

at nearby

Nortonville, California Nortonville is an unincorporated ghost town in Contra Costa County, California. It was located on Kirker Creek north-northeast of Mount Diablo, at an elevation of 801 feet (244 m). Location Nortonville is located on Nortonville Road just outside ...

from 1872 to 1904.Bruce Cornwall, "Life Sketch of Pierre Barlow Cornwall," (1906), pp. 60 and 82. Cornwall sprung up at the intersection of two railroads, the

Black Diamond Coal Mining Railroad The Black Diamond Coal Mining Railroad was long and ran from Black Diamond Landing, California (now part of the city of Pittsburg, California) to Nortonville, California. It was owned and operated by the Black Diamond Coal Mining Company and ...

and the San Pablo and Tulare RailroadThe Pacific Tourist, J. R. Bowman, Publisher, 1882, p. 335. (the latter became part of the

Southern Pacific The Southern Pacific (or Espee from the railroad initials- SP) was an American Class I railroad network that existed from 1865 to 1996 and operated largely in the Western United States. The system was operated by various companies under the ...

system in 1888). The coal railroad crossed the San Pablo and Tulare line using an overhead trestle. A post office operated at Cornwall Station from 1881 to 1888. Cornwall post office operated from 1890 to 1911. The Cornwall area, together with the nearby town of Black Diamond, was officially renamed "Pittsburg" on February 11, 1911, which may explain why the Cornwall Post Office stopped operations in that same year.

References

External links

Pierre Barlow Cornwall
1821-1904
Life Sketch of Pierre Barlow Cornwall
written by his son Bruce Cornwall, 1906
Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve
part of the East Bay Park District Unincorporated communities in California Unincorporated communities in Contra Costa County, California {{ContraCostaCountyCA-geo-stub