(KRON) — Sacramento has been the capital metropolis of California for almost 200 years, however a number of different cities held the title earlier than that — together with some in the Bay Area.
According to the California State Library, California’s first capital was Monterey. It served as the capital from 1774-1849, earlier than California was a U.S. state.
“Although Monterey was never a capital of the State of California, it served as the political and religious capital of Mexican California from 1781 to 1846, and remained the political center of California during the military occupation. In 1846, the first U.S. flag raised in California was in Monterey,” the state library’s web site stated.
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California grew to become a state in 1850, and its first capital was San Jose. According to the library, the Capitol was positioned close to the place the San Jose Fairmont Hotel once stood, at 170 South Market St.
San Jose served as the capital from 1849-1851 earlier than one other Bay Area metropolis took over — Vallejo.
Vallejo’s tenure as California’s capital was short-lived. It held the place from Jan. 5, 1852, to Jan. 16 of that yr, when it was moved to Sacramento for legislative session.
It returned to Vallejo after the session, residing on the 300 block of York St. Early in 1853, it moved a brief distance east to Benicia, based on the state library.
Benicia’s Capitol constructing nonetheless stands at 115 West G St., making it the solely surviving Capitol exterior of Sacramento, based on the California Department of Park and Recreation. Benicia was the capital metropolis from Jan. 1853 to Feb. 1854, when it shifted to Sacramento.
Sacramento has been the capital metropolis since then, save for a fast cease in San Francisco. The library says heavy rains in 1861 and 1862 flooded the Sacramento River, inundating the metropolis. As a end result, legislature briefly moved to the Merchants’s Exchange Building in the City by the Bay.
