San Francisco City Hall is the
seat of government
The seat of government is (as defined by ''Brewer's Politics'') "the building, complex of buildings or the city from which a government exercises its authority".
In most countries, the nation's Capital city, capital is also seat of its governmen ...
for the
City and County of San Francisco, California. Re-opened in 1915 in its open space area in the city's
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 of one or more dominant public buildings, which may also include a government building. Recently, ...
, it is a
Beaux-Arts monument to the
City Beautiful movement that epitomized the high-minded
American Renaissance of the 1880s to 1917. The structure's dome is taller than that of the
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...
by . The present building replaced an earlier City Hall that was destroyed during the
1906 earthquake, which was two blocks from the present one.
The principal architect was
Arthur Brown, Jr., of Bakewell & Brown, whose attention to the finishing details extended to the doorknobs and the typeface to be used in
signage
Signage is the design or use of signs and symbols to communicate a message. Signage also means signs ''collectively'' or being considered as a group. The term ''signage'' is documented to have been popularized in 1975 to 1980.
Signs are any ki ...
. Brown also designed the
San Francisco War Memorial Opera House,
Veterans Building,
Temple Emanuel,
Coit Tower and the Federal office building at
50 United Nations Plaza.
__TOC__
Architecture

The building's vast open space is more than and occupies two full city blocks. It is between
Van Ness Avenue and
Polk Street, and between Grove and McAllister Streets. Its
dome
A dome () is an architectural element similar to the hollow upper half of a sphere. There is significant overlap with the term cupola, which may also refer to a dome or a structure on top of a dome. The precise definition of a dome has been a m ...
, which owes much to
Mansart's Baroque domes of the
Val-de-Grâce (church) and
Les Invalides
The Hôtel des Invalides (; ), commonly called (; ), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and an old soldi ...
in Paris, rises above the
Civic Center Historic District. It is higher than the
United States Capitol
The United States Capitol, often called the Capitol or the Capitol Building, is the Seat of government, seat of the United States Congress, the United States Congress, legislative branch of the Federal government of the United States, federal g ...
, and has a diameter of , resting upon 4 x 50 ton (44.5 metric ton) and 4 x 20 ton (17.8 metric ton) girders, each deep and long.
The building as a whole contains 7,900 tons (7,035 metric tons) of structural steel from the
American Bridge Company of
Ambridge, Pennsylvania near
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
. It is faced with
Madera County granite on the exterior, and Indiana sandstone within, together with finish marbles from
Alabama
Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...
,
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
,
Vermont
Vermont () is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, New York (state), New York to the west, and the Provinces and territories of Ca ...
, and
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. Much of the statuary is by
Henri Crenier.
The upper levels of the Rotunda are public and handicapped accessible. Opposite the grand staircase, on the second floor, is the
office of the Mayor. Bronze busts of former Mayor
George Moscone and his successor,
Dianne Feinstein
Dianne Emiel Feinstein (; June 22, 1933 – September 29, 2023) was an American politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1992 until her death in 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, she served as the 38th ...
, stand nearby as tacit reminders of the
Moscone assassination, which took place just a few yards from that spot in the smaller rotunda of the mayor's office entrance. A bust of former county supervisor
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Milk was born and raised i ...
, who was assassinated in the building was unveiled on May 22, 2008. The inscription that dominates the grand Rotunda and the entrance to the mayor's small rotunda, right below Father Time, reads:
SAN • FRANCISCO
O • GLORIOVS • CITY • OF • OVR
HEARTS • THAT • HAST • BEEN
TRIED • AND • NOT • FOVND
WANTING • GO • THOV • WITH
LIKE • SPIRIT • TO • MAKE
THE • FVTVRE • THINE
1912 JAMES ROLPH JR. MAYOR 1931
The words were written by the previous Mayor
Edward Robeson Taylor, and dedicated by Mayor
James Rolph.
While plaques at the Mall entrance memorialize
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
*President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Film and television
*'' Præsident ...
George Washington
George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
's farewell address and President
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States, serving from 1861 until Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, his assassination in 1865. He led the United States through the American Civil War ...
's
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address is a Public speaking, speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, U.S. president, following the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. The speech has come to be viewed as one ...
, the primary themes of the statuary are to the past mayors, with the dates of their terms in office. The medallions in the vaults of the Rotunda are of ''Equality'', ''Liberty'', ''Strength'', ''Learning'' and, as memorialized in the South Light Court display, ''Progress''.
History
From 1849 to 1850, San Francisco's municipal government was on the west side of Portsmouth Square at the Office of the
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 ...
,
who was the municipal
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
, with both judicial and administrative functions, and the
ayuntamiento
''Ayuntamiento'' ()In other languages of Spain:
* ().
* ().
* (). is the general term for the town council, or ''cabildo'', of a municipality or, sometimes, as is often the case in Spain and Latin America, for the municipality itself. is mai ...
, the town council, or
cabildo.
In May 1850, after the first City Charter was adopted, the first San Francisco City Hall was established at the former luxury hotel Graham House on the corner of Kearny and Pacific streets, which was later consumed by the great fire of June 1851.
In 1852, San Francisco City Hall was at 750 Kearny Street between Washington and Merchant Streets,
at the converted Jenny Lind Theatre building and Parker House, located then between the El Dorado Hotel and ''The Union'', opposite the east side of Portsmouth Square. Later, this was the site of a
Hall of Justice, as seen on the TV series, ''
Ironside''.
The current 1916 City Hall building is a replacement for the 1899 building, construction for which began in 1871 designed by
Augustus Laver and
Thomas Stent.The 1899 city hall also contained a smaller extension which contained the city's Hall of Records, which housed the very first
Flag of California
The Bear Flag is the US state flags, official flag of the U.S. state of California. The precursor of the flag was first flown during the 1846 California Republic#Bear Flag Revolt, Bear Flag Revolt and was also known as the Bear Flag. A predec ...
. It was bounded by Larkin Street, McAllister Street, and City Hall Avenue (a street, now built over, which ran from the corner of Grove and Larkin to the corner of McAllister and Leavenworth), largely where the
current public library and
U.N. Plaza stand today. Noted city planner and architect
Daniel Burnham published a plan in 1905 to redesign the city, including a new Civic Center complex around City Hall,
but the plans were shelved in the wake of the
1906 San Francisco earthquake
At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
, which destroyed the 1899 City Hall.
The 1899 building was designed as a complex of buildings to be built on a triangular park, the former site of an old cemetery. The state appropriated the land and auctioned off portions of the property. Construction began in 1870, was finished 27 years later, in 1897, costing six million dollars ($146,472,824.43 in 2025 dollars). With seven chief architects and twenty-seven years, corruption built up. Even the materials were compromised; the building's cast bricks were rumored to be shoddy and the walls were found to be padded with
sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is usually defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural ...
. Fireplaces were built and later heating systems were installed. There were major sewage problems, the place was said to stink all the time. The floors didn't match up, chimneys didn't draw so the rooms were smoky. It was a badly designed building, and fell with the
1906 San Francisco Earthquake
At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...
, only nine years later.
Reconstruction plans following the earthquake for the Civic Center complex called for a
neo-classical design as part of the
City Beautiful Movement, as well as a desire to rebuild the city in time for the 1915
Panama–Pacific International Exposition
The Panama–Pacific International Exposition was a world's fair held in San Francisco, California, United States, from February 20 to December 4, 1915. Its stated purpose was to celebrate the completion of the Panama Canal, but it was widely s ...
. A bond was authorized for $8.8 million on March 28, 1912, of which the new City Hall was budgeted for $3.5 million to $4 million.
After Arthur Brown Junior's design was selected from the competition, construction started in 1913 and was completed by 1915, in time for the Exposition.
Ground was broken for the 1916 City Hall at Van Ness and Fulton on April 5, 1913,
and the cornerstone was laid on October 25 of that year.
Mayor Rolph moved into City Hall on December 28, 1915, the final stone was laid on March 31, 1916, and scaffolding was finally removed on July 28, officially marking the end of construction.
The ruins of the old City Hall were sold shortly thereafter in August 1916 for , with removal to be completed within 40 days.
The main rotunda served as the site where many prominent politicians and public servants were laid in state.
General Fredrick Funston, hero of the
Spanish–American War
The Spanish–American War (April 21 – August 13, 1898) was fought between Restoration (Spain), Spain and the United States in 1898. It began with the sinking of the USS Maine (1889), USS ''Maine'' in Havana Harbor in Cuba, and resulted in the ...
,
Philippine–American War
The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Philippine Insurrection, Filipino–American War, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged following the conclusion of the Spanish–American War in December 1898 when the United States annexed th ...
, and the 1906 earthquake laid there in 1917. President Warren G. Harding laid here in 1923. Former mayor and governor
James Rolph was laid in state in City Hall following his death in 1934.
Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul DiMaggio (; born Giuseppe Paolo DiMaggio, ; November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "the Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American professional baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career ...
and
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe ( ; born Norma Jeane Mortenson; June 1, 1926 August 4, 1962) was an American actress and model. Known for playing comic "Blonde stereotype#Blonde bombshell, blonde bombshell" characters, she became one of the most popular sex ...
were married at City Hall in January 1954.
In May 1960, the main Rotunda was a site of a student protest against the
House Un-American Activities Committee
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...
and a countering police action whereby students from UC Berkeley, Stanford, and other local colleges were fire hosed down the steps beneath the rotunda. This event was memorialized by students during the
Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley four years later.
On November 27, 1978, former Supervisor
Dan White assassinated Mayor
George Moscone and Supervisor
Harvey Milk
Harvey Bernard Milk (May 22, 1930 – November 27, 1978) was an American politician and the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California, as a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Milk was born and raised i ...
inside of City Hall.
The
Loma Prieta earthquake
On October 17, 1989, at 5:04 p.m. PST, the Loma Prieta earthquake occurred at the Central Coast of California. The shock was centered in The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park in Santa Cruz County, approximately 10 mi (16 km) ...
of 1989 damaged the structure, and twisted the dome four inches (102 mm) on its base. Afterward, under the leadership of the San Francisco Bureau of Architecture in collaboration with Carey & Co. preservation architects, and Forell/Elsesser Engineers, work was completed to render the building earthquake resistant through a
base isolation
Seismic base isolation, also known as base isolation, or base isolation system, is one of the most popular means of protecting a structure against earthquake forces. It is a collection of structural elements which should substantially Couplin ...
system,
[In an earthquake, the mass of the dome threatens to act as a pendulum, rocking the building's structure and tearing it apart, but the base isolation system of hundreds of rubber and stainless-steel insulators inserted into City Hall's underpinnings should have the effect of disrupting ]seismic wave
A seismic wave is a mechanical wave of acoustic energy that travels through the Earth or another planetary body. It can result from an earthquake (or generally, a quake), volcanic eruption, magma movement, a large landslide and a large ma ...
s before they can affect the structure. which would likely prevent total collapse of the building. City Hall reopened after its seismic upgrade in January 1999, and was the world's largest base-isolated structure at that time.
Prior to the retrofitting, the
San Francisco County Superior Court’s civil courtrooms were located in City Hall but have been located across the street at the 400 McAllister courthouse since it opened in 1997.
The original grand plaza has undergone several extensive renovations, with radical changes in its appearance and utility. Prior to the 1960s there were extensive brick plazas, few trees, and a few large, simple, raised, and circular ponds with central fountains, all in a style that discouraged loitering. The plaza was then extensively excavated for underground parking. At this time a central rectangular pond, with an extensive array of water vents (strangely, all in several strict rows and all pointing east, with identical arcs of water, and completely without sculptural embellishment), was added, with extensive groves of trees (again, in 60s
modernist
Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...
style, planted with absolute military precision on rectangular grids). In the 1990s, with the rise of the problem of
homelessness
Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...
, the plaza was once again remodeled to make it somewhat less habitable—although the most significant change, the replacement of the pond and pumps with a lawn, could be reasonably justified on the basis of
energy
Energy () is the physical quantity, quantitative physical property, property that is transferred to a physical body, body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of Work (thermodynamics), work and in the form of heat and l ...
and
water conservation
Water conservation aims to sustainably manage the natural resource of fresh water, protect the hydrosphere, and meet current and future human demand. Water conservation makes it possible to avoid water scarcity. It covers all the policies, strateg ...
.

The building features color changeable LED lighting at the outside of the Rotunda, and between the exterior columns. The colors change to coincide with different events happening in the city and elsewhere.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
, City Hall was closed from March 2020 until reopening on June 7, 2021.
In popular culture
* ''
Dirty Harry'' (1971) filmed several scenes at City Hall, including inside the Mayor's office.
* ''
The Towering Inferno
''The Towering Inferno'' is a 1974 American disaster film directed by John Guillermin and produced by Irwin Allen, featuring an ensemble cast led by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. It was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from the novels '' The ...
'' (1974)
* ''
Invasion of the Body Snatchers'' (1978)
* ''
Foul Play'' (1978)
* ''
A View to a Kill
''A View to a Kill'' is a 1985 spy film, the fourteenth in the ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions, and the seventh and final appearance of Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Although the title is adapted from ...
'' (1985)
* The Grand Staircase is featured in the ''
Raiders of the Lost Ark
''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Lawrence Kasdan, based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman. Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana ...
'' (1981) as a stand-in for an unnamed government building in
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
* Ten-thousand-watt spotlights triggered the
fire sprinkler
A fire sprinkler or sprinkler head is the component of a fire sprinkler system that discharges water when the effects of a fire have been detected, such as when a predetermined temperature has been exceeded. Fire sprinklers are extensively used ...
system during the filming of ''
Bicentennial Man'' (1999), resulting in
water damage. The crew previously shot in the Supervisors' chambers.
* ''
Milk
Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of lactating mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfeeding, breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. ...
'' (2008)
* ''
The Man in the High Castle (TV series) '' (2015)
* ''
The Etruscan Smile'' (2018)
"The Etruscan Smile" - IMDb Trivia
/ref>
See also
* List of San Francisco Designated Landmarks
* List of tallest buildings in San Francisco
San Francisco, California, in the United States, has at least 482 high-rises, 58 of which are at least tall. The tallest building is Salesforce Tower, which rises and is the List of tallest buildings in the United States, 17th-tallest buildin ...
* List of tallest domes
* San Francisco Board of Supervisors
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is the board of supervisors, legislative body within the government of San Francisco, government of the San Francisco, City and County of San Francisco in the U.S. state of California.
Government and polit ...
References
Informational notes
Citations
External links
San Francisco City Hall
– official site
*
Virtual tour on the official site
Virtual Tour of City Hall and Dome
An unofficial guide to items of historic, artistic and architectural interest.
360 degree panoramic photographs of San Francisco's City Hall
from Don Bain's 360° Panoramas
San Francisco government
City hall restoration project (late 1990s)
Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress): City Hall, Civic Center, San Francisco, San Francisco County, CA
Images of City Hall and Civic Center, 1912-1918
an
The New City Hall, 1915
The Bancroft Library
*
{{Authority Control
Arthur Brown Jr. buildings
Beaux-Arts architecture in California
Buildings and structures burned in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake
City halls in California
.City Hall
Government buildings completed in 1915
Government buildings with domes
Rebuilt buildings and structures in California
San Francisco City Hall
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
Terminating vistas in the United States
City Hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or municipal hall (in the Philippines) is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses the city o ...
Assassination sites
John Bakewell Jr. buildings