The Thomas J. Cahill Hall of Justice in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
is the third building to serve as the headquarters of the
San Francisco Police Department and
San Francisco County Superior Court
The Superior Court of California of the County of San Francisco is the state superior court with jurisdiction over the City and County of San Francisco.
History
In 1976 the Court helped to create the San Francisco Pretrial Diversion Project, a ...
. It was constructed between 1958 and 1960, in the block bounded by Sixth, Seventh, and Bryant.
History
The first Hall of Justice (1900–06) was opposite
Portsmouth Square
Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is administered by Portsmouth City Council.
Portsmouth is the most densel ...
, at the southeast corner of
Kearny and
Washington
Washington commonly refers to:
* Washington (state), United States
* Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States
** A metonym for the federal government of the United States
** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...
, occupying a building originally built in 1851 as the
Jenny Lind Theatre and purchased by the city in 1852 for use as the
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
. While a new City Hall was being constructed between 1872 and 1899 at
Civic Center
A civic center or civic centre is a prominent land area within a community that is constructed to be its focal point or center. It usually contains one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, the ...
, the old Jenny Lind building was rebuilt as the Hall of Justice; the cornerstone was laid on December 19, 1896. By 1898, the editors of the ''
San Francisco Call
''The San Francisco Call'' was a newspaper that served San Francisco, California. Because of a succession of mergers with other newspapers, the paper variously came to be called ''The San Francisco Call & Post'', the ''San Francisco Call-Bulletin ...
'' derided the slow pace of work as "The Haul of Justice", concluding the contractor had underbid the job and was intent on delaying the completion by ordering numerous changes; a grand jury would later ask Mayor
James D. Phelan and the
San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the legislative body within the government of the City and County of San Francisco.
Government and politics
The City and County of San Francisco is a consolidated city-county, being simultaneously a c ...
to "grant no further extension" of the contractors after October 1 of that year. Also that year, when
bubonic plague
Bubonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the plague bacterium (''Yersinia pestis''). One to seven days after exposure to the bacteria, flu-like symptoms develop. These symptoms include fever, headaches, and vomiting, as well a ...
broke out in neighboring
Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Austra ...
, residents there blamed the tall tower of the Hall of Justice, which they claimed "had aroused the evils of the air". Work was completed in 1900 and the first official business was conducted there on September 19, although the upper floor jail remained unfinished; despite this, the ''Call'' wrote "the building is the best San Francisco ever had in its history". It was heavily damaged following the April
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...
and fire.
The second Hall of Justice (1912–61) was rebuilt at the same site to a design by city architect Newton J. Tharp. Tharp's drawings were approved by the Board of Police commissioners on March 5, 1909, and construction on the second Hall was completed in 1912. The half-circle, fan-shaped windows on the fourth floor appear in numerous police dramas such as ''
The Lineup'' in the 1950s and ''
Ironside'', the American television program starring
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacy Burr (May 21, 1917September 12, 1993) was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas ''Perry Mason'' and '' Ironside''.
Burr's early acting career included roles ...
, in the 1960s. The San Francisco Hall of Justice is also frequently mentioned in the works of
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett (; May 27, 1894 – January 10, 1961) was an American writer of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories. He was also a screenwriter and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade ('' ...
and
James Patterson
James Brendan Patterson (born March 22, 1947) is an American author. Among his works are the ''Alex Cross'', '' Michael Bennett'', '' Women's Murder Club'', ''Maximum Ride'', '' Daniel X'', '' NYPD Red'', '' Witch & Wizard'', and ''Private'' se ...
. It was demolished in 1968. After the third Hall of Justice was completed in 1960, operations moved there and the old Hall of Justice was demolished in 1968; a hotel, the
Hilton San Francisco Financial District
The Hilton San Francisco Financial District (originally the Holiday Inn Financial District but often referred to as the Holiday Inn Chinatown) is a skyscraper hotel located east across Kearny Street from Portsmouth Square on the border between t ...
, was completed in 1971 and currently stands on this site.
The current Hall of Justice at 850–880 Bryant Street served as the
San Francisco Police Department's operational headquarters until 2015. It is internally referred to as "850 Bryant" and "the hall". The complex serves as the main San Francisco County Jail, as well as base of operations and headquarters for the
San Francisco Sheriff's Department
The San Francisco Sheriff's Office (SFSO), officially the City and County of San Francisco Sheriff's Office, is the sheriff's office for the City and County of San Francisco. The current sheriff is Paul Miyamoto. The department has 850 deputized ...
, and garage for the majority of vehicles for the SFPD. The San Francisco Police motorcycle traffic division is completely based there as well. In 1994 the Hall was renamed for
Thomas J. Cahill, the
Chief of the SFPD from 1958 to 1970.
The San Francisco Hall of Justice houses Jail #3 and Jail #4 for the San Francisco County Superior Court criminal division. It formerly served as the location of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and city morgue; those offices moved to a new facility in the city's
Bayview district in November 2017.
References
Government buildings in San Francisco
History of San Francisco
San Francisco Police Department
South of Market, San Francisco
Government buildings completed in 1910
Buildings and structures demolished in 1968
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