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Building History

Opening on 01/05/1850, the multi-purpose California Exchange Building housed offices and contained a public assembly space. (It hosted a musical performance on 01/22/1850.) The building was an important landmark in early San Francisco, and used as one terminus point in the horse-drawn omnibus service established on 06/01/1851. This first means of mass-transit in San Francisco connected the California Exchange and Mission Dolores. (See Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco, "San Francisco Gold Rush Chronology 1850-1851," accessed 01/09/2017.)

In 1850, the months-old Graham House Hotel became a governmental center for the City and County and San Francisco and the State of California Supreme Court. The Graham House was incinerated in one of the numerous fires that plagued early San Francisco, and, by 09/1852, the California Supreme Court had rented space in the California Exchange Building. It appears that the Supreme Court utilized space in the California Exchange Building for only a year, before transferring its operations to the former Jenny Lind Theatre, that had been bought by the City and County of San Francisco for its use in 1852. A group of citizens sued the city claiming that the theatre purchase had been illegal and corrupt, but the State Supreme Court allowed its acquisition. The court moved there for its 1853 session before relocating again to San Jose in 03/1854. (See Jake Deal and Levin, California Supreme Court History Society, "Historic Sites of the California Supreme Court," accessed 01/09/2017.)

PCAD id: 20848