The home of St. Mary’s College

Moraga is a town in Contra Costa County, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. As of 2020, Moraga had a total population of 16,870 people. Moraga is the home of Saint Mary’s College of California.

The Town of Moraga is named for Joaquin Moraga, the grandson of Joseph Joaquin Moraga who was second in command of the Anza expedition of 1776, the founder of San Francisco, Mission Dolores and the founder and first commandant of the Presidio. Joaquin Moraga, who also served in the military with his father Gabriel Moraga at the Presidio of San Francisco, left the Army in 1819. He and his cousin, Juan Bernal, received a 13,316 acre land grant from the Mexican government in 1835. The original land grant, known as Rancho Laguna De Los Palos Colorados (Ranch Of The Lake Of The Redwoods), included parts of Orinda and Lafayette and the communities of Canyon, Redwood, Rheem, and Moraga.

Geography

Moraga is located at 37°50’06” North, 122°07’47” West, at an elevation of 499 feet (152 m). It is located adjacent to the cities of Lafayette and Orinda, as well as the unincorporated community of Canyon. Other nearby cities include Walnut Creek, Oakland, San Francisco, Concord and Berkeley.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 9.4 square miles (24 km²), of which 9.4 square miles (24 km²) is land and 0.09% is water. Moraga is in a valley, surrounded by rolling hills. Large sections of the Lafayette-Moraga Regional Trail pass through the town.

Education

The majority of Moraga is in the Moraga School District. That district includes:

• Camino Pablo Elementary School, grades K–5
• Los Perales Elementary School, grades K–5
• Donald L. Rheem Elementary School, grades K–5
• Joaquin Moraga Intermediate School, grades 6–8

A small section of Moraga is in Orinda Union Elementary School District.

All of Moraga is in the Acalanes Union High School District. That district includes:

• Campolindo High School, grades 9–12

The Saklan School (formerly known as Saklan Valley School and The Carden School of Moraga), a private elementary school founded in 1954, is also located in Moraga. It is a co-educational school with around 155 students from preschool to 8th grade. The school is accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools (a member of the National Association of Independent Schools), and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. It has a maximum class size of 16.

Moraga’s only public high school is Campolindo High School, although some Moraga students choose to attend Miramonte High School, located just across the town border in Orinda. Both schools are part of the Acalanes Union High School District, which encompasses Moraga, Lafayette, Orinda, and parts of Walnut Creek.

Orion Academy is a private secondary school for students with conditions such as Asperger syndrome, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and nonverbal learning disorder.

Saint Mary’s College of California is located just northeast of downtown Moraga; it is a Catholic university with 3,962 undergraduate and postgraduate students in the 2007–2008 school year. The college was originally located in San Francisco and then Oakland, but moved to Moraga in 1928.

The Moraga Library of the Contra Costa County Library is located along Saint Marys Road in Moraga.