San Francisco County Superior Court

The Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco is the California state superior court with jurisdiction over the City and County of San Francisco. Courthouse functions were incorporated into San Francisco City Hall prior to 1997.

History

The village of Yerba Buena, seized by Commodore John D. Sloat in July 1846, was renamed to San Francisco in January 1847. Initially, the Custom House on Brenham Place and Washington Street was used for municipal offices.

With the influx of immigrants seeking gold during the California Gold Rush in 1849, the population swelled and a nativist gang calling themselves The Hounds began harassing Spanish-American immigrants. The first court system was organized after a public meeting on July 16, 1849, demanding the Hounds be brought to justice; the leaders were put on trial and sentenced to ten years imprisonment and the leaderless organization dissolved shortly thereafter. Subsequently, planning began for the first California Constitutional Convention and a local election was held on August 1, 1849, naming ten delegates; these men were advised by John W. Geary, the recently elected First Alcalde (equivalent to the mayor), that "in the absence of any state legislative authority, they were supreme in the district" as the ayuntamiento (town council, equivalent to the modern San Francisco Board of Supervisors).

After the first state constitution was adopted, a city charter was passed in the state legislature and a subsequent election in May 1850 saw Geary elected as the first mayor. The city offices had outgrown the Custom House and the Graham House, built initially as a four-storey hotel on the northwest corner of Kearny and Pacific, was purchased for US$150,000 (equivalent to $5,805,000 in 2025) to serve as the new City Hall. Members of a group that previously had held a vigilante justice trial in February 1851 continued the legacy of the Hounds, later forming the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance in June 1851.