Yerba Buena was an

anchorage Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolita ...

spot and later a settlement that grew into the city of

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. The settlement, built in an area known earlier as ''El Paraje de Yerba Buena'' and named for an herb that grew abundantly there, was founded in 1834 and was located near the northeastern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, on the shores of

Yerba Buena Cove Yerba Buena Cove was a cove on San Francisco Bay where the Mexican town of Yerba Buena, California, Yerba Buena was located. It lay between Clarks Point (San Francisco), Clarks Point to the north (southeast of Telegraph Hill, San Francisco, Teleg ...

. Yerba Buena was the first civilian settlement in San Francisco, which had previously only had indigenous, missionary, and military settlements, and was originally intended as a trading post for ships visiting

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay (Chochenyo language, Chochenyo: 'ommu) is a large tidal estuary in the United States, U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the cities of San Francisco, California, San ...

. The settlement was arranged in the Spanish style around a

plaza A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rela ...

that remains as the present day Portsmouth Square. The area that was the Yerba Buena settlement is now in the

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

and

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for 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, Asia, Africa, O ...

neighborhoods of San Francisco.

History

Background

Spanish colonial and Mexican settlements in

Alta California Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...

were of five types. The '' misiónes'' (missions) were religious settlements run by

Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...

priests to evangelize the

indigenous peoples of California Indigenous peoples of California, commonly known as Indigenous Californians or Native Californians, are a diverse group of nations and peoples that are indigenous to the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and afte ...

. '' Presidios'' were military bases, established at the same time as the missions, responsible for protecting them, controlling the native population, and defending Spanish and later Mexican territory against foreign incursions. Three secular civilian ''pueblos'' were also created during the period when the missions were being established. These were ''El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe'' (1777 - now the City of San Jose); the ''

Pueblo de Los Ángeles El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula, shortened to the Pueblo de los Ángeles, was the Spanish colonial pueblos and villas in North America, Spanish civilian ''pueblo'' settled in 1781, which became the ...

'' (1781 - now the City of Los Angeles); and the ''Villa de Branciforte'' (1797 - now part of the City of Santa Cruz. The first pueblo inhabitants were brought in groups from Mexico, recruited specifically for colonization. Beginning in 1784 under Spanish Empire rule, land concessions were made to private citizens in areas outside of mission or presidio control. Following Mexican independence in 1820 and secularization of the missions by the Mexican Secularization Act of 1833, actual

land grants A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...

(conferring ownership) were made, from land formerly controlled by the missions (mainly large areas of grazing land). Those grants continued to be made until 1846. Also following secularization of the missions, secular communities that had grown up (mostly around the mission compounds) remained, becoming a fifth type of settlement that often adopted the former mission name. Yerba Buena was an exception because its waterfront location did not closely surround either the mission or the presidio, although later San Francisco included both the former mission and presidio areas, and adopted their name. The two earliest Spanish colonial settlements in San Francisco were both made in 1776 following the de Anza Expedition. The

Presidio of San Francisco The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part ...

was founded on September 18th of that year near the southern side of the

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...

Mission San Francisco de Asís The Mission San Francisco de Asís (), also known as Mission Dolores, is a historic Catholic Church, Catholic church complex in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the complex was founded in ...

was founded on October 9 a little further inland near the '' Laguna de los Dolores'', for the purpose of concentrating the

Ohlone The Ohlone ( ), formerly known as Costanoans (from Spanish meaning 'coast dweller'), are a Native Americans in the United States, Native American people of the Northern California coast. When Spanish explorers and missionaries arrived in the l ...

and

Miwok The Miwok (also spelled Miwuk, Mi-Wuk, or Me-Wuk) are members of four linguistically related Native Americans in the United States, Native American groups indigenous to what is now Northern California, who traditionally spoke one of the Miwok lan ...

peoples of the northern San Francisco Bay area and converting them to Christianity. There were no independent ''rancho'', ''pueblo'', or other civilian settlements in today's San Francisco until after the Mexican Secularization Act of 1833.

''Paraje'' and anchorage

The uninhabited northeastern area of San Francisco was called ''El Paraje de Yerba Buena'' (The Place of the Good Herb), derived from the Spanish geographical term '' paraje'', meaning "place", "camp", or "stopping point" and '' yerba buena'', the Spanish name for plants in the mint family, used in Alta California for '' Clinopodium douglasii'', which grew abundantly in this area. There were several

spots for ships visiting San Francisco. The earliest one was the Presidio anchorage, located just inside the Golden Gate, within a mile to the east of ''Punta del Cantil Blanco'' (what was later called Fort Point). The Yerba Buena anchorage eventually came to be more favored, as it was more sheltered and less precarious than the Presidio anchorage, even though it was farther from the Presidio headquarters. The Yerba Buena anchorage actually referred to two locations, with the earlier spot being close to

North Point North Point is a mixed-use urban area in the Eastern District, Hong Kong, Eastern District of Hong Kong. Located in the northeastern part of Hong Kong Island, the area is named after a cape between Causeway Bay and Tsat Tsz Mui that projects ...

, but was later located a little further to the south, at

. The name was eventually extended to the island facing Yerba Buena Cove, the ''Isla de Yerba Buena'' ( Yerba Buena Island), originally known as ''Isla de Alcatraces''. The earliest report of the use of Yerba Buena as a place name comes from the log of

George Vancouver Captain (Royal Navy), Captain George Vancouver (; 22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for leading the Vancouver Expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern West Coast of the Uni ...

, who in 1792 sailed his ship into

and anchored "about a league below the Presidio in a place they called Yerba Buena". Following the Vancouver Expedition, the Presidio anchorage continued to be the more commonly-used landing point. However, during the particularly harsh winter of 1824, ships began to favor the anchorage at Yerba Buena and so Yerba Buena Cove became the main disembarkation point for ships visiting San Francisco. In 1797, the Spanish presidio constructed the ''Bateria de Yerba Buena'' at ''Punta Medanos'' ( Black Point) as an

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to f ...

to provide additional protection to the Yerba Buena anchorage. The site was only briefly occupied and was abandoned by 1806.

Mexican settlement

With the enactment of the Mexican Secularization Act of 1833, the missions were made to divest themselves of their extensive landholdings and emancipate the indigenous people under their control. As part of the process of secularization, Governor José Figueroa opened up San Francisco to civilian settlement. In 1834, the settlement of Yerba Buena was founded on the shores of Yerba Buena Cove. In 1835, William A. Richardson, a naturalized Mexican citizen of English birth, erected a homestead near the boat anchorage of Yerba Buena Cove. Together with

Alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

Francisco de Haro, he laid out a street plan for the expanded settlement, which retained the name Yerba Buena. In early 1841 James Douglas of the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

(HBC), operating on the Pacific coast from

Fort Vancouver Fort Vancouver was a 19th-century fur trading post built in the winter of 1824–1825. It was the headquarters of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department, located in the Pacific Northwest. Named for Captain George Vancouver, the fort was ...

, went to Yerba Buena to establish an HBC trading post. A large building on the water's edge was purchased. The HBC post had several purposes. It operated as a wholesale store, selling goods exported from Fort Vancouver such as salmon, lumber, and British manufactures in exchange for hides and tallow. The post improved diplomatic relations between the British HBC and the Mexican government of California, making the HBC's fur trapping expeditions into California's Central Valley politically acceptable. Despite the mercantile potential of the HBC store in Yerba Buena, in 1842 it was ordered to be closed by George Simpson as part of Simpson's general reorganization of the HBC's

Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur-trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of North America, in both the United States and British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the temporarily jointly occupi ...

. The HBC store in Yerba Buena was sold in 1846, two years before the

California Gold Rush The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...

transformed Yerba Buena into the major city on the North American west coast.

American conquest and name change

On July 7, 1846, US Navy Commodore John D. Sloat, in the Battle of Yerba Buena, claimed Alta California for the United States during the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, and US Navy Captain John Berrien Montgomery and US Marine Second Lieutenant Henry Bulls Watson of the arrived to claim Yerba Buena two days later by raising the American flag over the town plaza, which is now Portsmouth Square in honor of the ship. Henry Bulls Watson was placed in command of the garrison there. On July 31, 1846, Yerba Buena doubled in population when about 240

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

migrants from the East coast arrived on the ship ''

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

'', led by Sam Brannan. In August 1846, Lt. Washington Allon Bartlett was named

alcalde ''Alcalde'' (; ) is the traditional Spanish municipal magistrate, who had both judicial and Administration (government), administrative functions. An ''alcalde'' was, in the absence of a corregidor (position), corregidor, the presiding officer o ...

of Yerba Buena. On January 30, 1847, Lt. Bartlett's proclamation changing the name Yerba Buena to San Francisco took effect. The city and the rest of Alta California officially became a United States military territory in 1848 by the terms of the

Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo officially ended the Mexican–American War (1846–1848). It was signed on 2 February 1848 in the town of Villa de Guadalupe, Mexico City, Guadalupe Hidalgo. After the defeat of its army and the fall of the cap ...

, which ended the

. California was admitted for statehood to the United States on September 9, 1850. The State soon chartered San Francisco as both a City and a

County A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

Modern use of name

Yerba Buena is used for a number of place names in modern San Francisco. Yerba Buena Island has retained its name from the Spanish era up to modern times, although from 1895 to 1931, it was officially designated Goat Island. Yerba Buena Gardens, which includes Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, is a complex of parks, museums, theaters, and malls in the

South of Market South of Market (SoMa) is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California, so named due to its location south of Market Street. It contains several sub-neighborhoods including South Beach, Yerba Buena, and Rincon Hill. SoMa is home to many of ...

(SoMa) district of San Francisco that was founded in 1993. The Yerba Buena Community Benefits District has designated an area centered on Yerba Buena Gardens and bounded by Market, Howard, Second, and Fifth streets as the Yerba Buena District, a subdistrict of the SoMa neighborhood.Yerba Buena Community Benefits District
/ref> A Yerba Buena Avenue runs through the St. Francis Wood and Westwood Highlands neighborhoods on the southwestern side of San Francisco.

References

External links

Yerba Buena Cove
— ''map from 1851–1852 showing Yerba Buena Cove.''
View of San Francisco, formerly Yerba Buena, in 1846-7 before the discovery of gold
— ''A panoramic map of Yerba Buena Cove and early San Francisco; American Memory Map Collections, Library of Congress''. {{coord, 37, 47, 35, N, 122, 23, 47, W, display=title *Y Colonial settlements in North America 1776 in The Californias 1776 establishments in The Californias Populated places established in 1781 Conquest of California Hudson's Bay Company trading posts History of the San Francisco Bay Area 19th century in San Francisco