• Foothill Boulevard
• Melrose Leadership Academy
• 82nd Avenue
• Union Pacific Railroad Corridor
• International Boulevard
• Seminary Avenue

Melrose takes its name from Melrose, Massachusetts — reflecting the 19th-century California practice of transplanting familiar New England place names to newly platted communities — and was developed circa 1883 as a cluster of homes and small farms that expanded with the arrival of rail lines and light manufacturing along the East Oakland corridor. The neighborhood grew into a solidly working-class residential community along Foothill Boulevard, the long East Oakland commercial artery that has served as the district's primary street since the early 20th century. Melrose Leadership Academy — an Oakland Unified School District elementary campus on 82nd Avenue — serves as the neighborhood's primary educational anchor and a recognized community institution whose focus on leadership and academic achievement has made it one of OUSD's distinctive school models. Foothill Boulevard connects Melrose to the broader East Oakland commercial network, running east toward San Leandro and west toward downtown Oakland as the neighborhood's primary economic artery. The Union Pacific Railroad corridor along the southern edge marks the industrial boundary that shaped Melrose's original working-class character. That layered East Oakland identity — transplanted name, industrial origins, and community-built continuity — is the spirit behind the MY-NHD Melrose collection.