Building History

The Supreme Court of California met in three locations prior to this new brick building in San Jose; the first being the governmental center established in San Francisco's Graham House Hotel (1850-1851). It burned in 1851, and the court transferred its operations to the California Exchange Building in San Francisco. Following this, the court met briefly in the new city-county governmental building set up in the former Jenny Lind Theatre (1852-1853). It moved to this brick structure in San Jose in 03/1854, when the location of the California State Capitol was a point of disagreement among Sacramento, Benicia, San Jose and other cities. The death of Supreme Court Justice Alexander Wells of San Jose threw the decision-making regarding the location of the state capitol and the supreme court's courthouse into flux, as a new majority formed ruling that the capitol and supreme court should reside in Sacramento. Thereafter, the California Supreme Court met in the B.F. Hastings Building in Sacramento and remained here during the sessions of 1855-1857,1859-1862 and 1862-1869.

PCAD id: 20852