Yerba Buena, California
Yerba Buena was the original name of the settlement that later became
plaza that remains as the present day Portsmouth Square
.
Name
The name of the town was taken from the
native herb he found abundant in the landscape.[1] The plant's common name, yerba buena
, the same in English and Spanish, is an alternate form of the Spanish hierba buena (meaning "good herb").
The earliest report of the use of Yerba Buena as a place name comes from the log of George Vancouver, who in 1792 sailed his ship HMS Discovery into San Francisco Bay and anchored "about a league below the Presidio in a place they called Yerba Buena".[2]
History
18th century
The Spanish
Viceroyalty of New Spain
.
A second group of soldiers, this time accompanied by settlers, arrived in June 1776, led by the Spanish explorer
Juan Bautista De Anza. One of De Anza's officers, José Joaquín Moraga, was given the task of building a Spanish mission, Mission San Francisco de Asís (Mission Dolores), and a military fort, the Presidio of San Francisco.[3] Moraga chose a location approximately halfway between the two sites to build housing for the workers, which became known as Yerba Buena. A supply ship arrived about two months later and the settlers began building using limestone from the nearby Rockaway Quarry.[3][4]
19th century
In 1804
Viceroyalty of New Spain
.
Upon
independence from Spain in 1821, the territory of Alta California became part of Mexico, but the faraway Mexican government paid little attention to Yerba Buena. Over the years the area between the port facilities at Yerba Buena Cove and the housing area of Yerba Buena filled in. The old plaza is today's Portsmouth Square.[5][6]
In 1835,
William A. Richardson, a naturalized Mexican citizen of English birth, erected a homestead near the boat anchorage of Yerba Buena Cove.[2] Together with Alcalde 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
California Gold Rush transformed Yerba Buena into the major city on the North American west coast.[7]
On July 7, 1846, US Navy Commodore
County
.
See also
- History of San Francisco
- Yerba Buena Island
- List of pre-statehood mayors of Yerba Buena–San Francisco
- American conquest of California
- Category:Conquest of California – in the Mexican–American War
References
- ^ Bolton, Herbert E. (1930). Anza's California Expeditions, Volume IV. pp. [1]. Retrieved April 5, 2014 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8047-4482-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8225-0900-4.
- ^ "Historic Resource Study for Golden Gate National Recreation Area in San Mateo County" (PDF). National Park Service. Department of Interior. Retrieved August 4, 2023.
- ^ "San Francisco – From the 1820s to the Gold Rush". The Virtual Museum of the City. Retrieved October 27, 2009.
- ^ U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Yerba Buena Cove (historical)
- ISBN 0-7748-0613-3.
- ^ "First Municipal Elections Held in San Francisco". The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. Retrieved October 27, 2009.
- ^ "Yerba Buena Renamed San Francisco". The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. Retrieved October 27, 2009.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to History of San Francisco.
- 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.
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