The Thoroughbred Building built for Frigidaire Sales Corporation, Warehouse & Service Shop  -1250 53rd Street

Guardian Refrigerator Company, one of the early inventors of the household refrigerator, was founded in 1916. They were soon acquired by General Motors in 1918 and renamed “Frigidaire.”

Frigidaire was headquartered in Detroit and manufactured and distributed electric appliances and commercial air conditioning equipment.

Frigidaire rapidly expanded and established a West Coast operation in Emeryville. They originally occupied the Fisher Body building at 1255 Park Avenue adjacent to Emeryville’s Civic Center.

In 1936, they constructed this building at 1250 53rd St to consolidate sales, service and warehouse space.

Frigidaire moved into its new home in 1937. They occupied the space until 1964 when they moved to a new headquarters in San Leandro.

GM sold the Frigidaire brand in 1979.

The building was at some point purchased by HFH LTD Property Management and renamed The Thoroughbred building referencing its proximity to the Trotting park that existed nearby in the early part of the 20th century. It was converted into multi-use space for a variety of tenants including Chiron, Pixar, etc.

The building was most recently occupied by TubeMogul, a video advertising platform, who were acquired by Adobe Systems in 2016.

1950 Sanborn excerpt