Girls Incorporated of Alameda County, also known as Girls Inc., is a local affiliate of the national Girls Incorporated organization. Girls Inc. is a nonprofit whose mission is to "inspire all girls to be strong, smart and bold." The organization provides research-based programming to empower girls at every stage of their development and focuses on the whole girl: her health and well-being, education, and development as a leader. Girls Inc. provides services at various locations in Alameda County, and is currently based at the Simpson Center for Girls at 510 - 16th Street in Oakland, CA.
In June of 2011, after deciding to relocate their headquarters from San Leandro to downtown Oakland, Girls Inc. purchased a building at 510 - 16th Street that had originally been constructed in 1919-1920 to serve as the headquarters of the East Bay Water Company.
The reconstruction of the building was completed in the summer of 2013, and Girls Inc, has since completed the move to the Girls Inc. Simpson Center for Girls. The Oakland Heritage Alliance has named the building as a winner of a 2014 Partners in Preservation Award.
Sources:
Cover of April 1920 edition of Bubbles, the East Bay Water Company's in-house magazine, showing "Our New Home"
Ad from April 5, 1920, Oakland Tribune, announcing the upcoming opening of the Company's new office (the building was then known as 512 16th Street).
