[1] It was located 4.5 miles (7 km) west of Ferndale,[2] on the Pacific Ocean at an elevation of 13 feet (4 m).

[1] Centerville was founded in 1852, and served as a trans-shipment point for oil from Petrolia to Eureka and was at its height during the 1850s to the 1870s.

[2] In 1857 Arnold Berding, a native of Germany arrived in Humboldt County and set up a store, hotel, livery and post office at the now-abandoned village of Centerville where Abraham Lincoln appointed him the first and only postmaster of the town.

[3] In January 1860, residents provided assistance and shelter to survivors of the wrecked steamship Northerner.

[6] The Centerville Beach Cross Historic Marker was erected in 1921,[7] wrecked by the 1992 Cape Mendocino earthquakes but rebuilt and rededicated afterwards.