Mission San Francisco Solano was the 21st, last, and northernmost mission in Alta California. It was named for Saint Francis Solanus. It was the only mission built in Alta California after Mexico gained independence from Spain. The difficulty of its beginning demonstrates the confusion resulting from that change in governance. The California Governor wanted a robust Mexican presence north of the San Francisco Bay to keep the Russians who had established Fort Ross on the Pacific coast from moving further inland. A young Franciscan friar from Mission San Francisco de Asis wanted to move to a location with a better climate and access to a larger number of potential converts.
Vallejo is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to the California Maritime Academy, Touro University California and Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
Benicia is a city in Solano County, California, located on the north bank of the Carquinez Strait in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It served as the capital of California for nearly thirteen months from 1853 to 1854. The population was 27,131 at the 2020 United States Census. Benicia is just east of Vallejo and across the strait from Martinez.
Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was a Californio general, statesman, and public figure. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of the Republic of Mexico, and shaped the transition of Alta California from a territory of Mexico to the U.S. state of California. He served in the first session of the California State Senate. The city of Vallejo, California, is named after him, and the nearby city of Benicia is named after his wife.
The Native Sons of the Golden West (NSGW) is a fraternal service organization founded in the U.S. state of California in 1875, dedicated to historic preservation and documentation of the state's historic structures and places, the placement of historic plaques, and other charitable functions in California. In 1890 the organization placed California's first marker honoring the discovery of gold, which gave rise to the state nickname, "The Golden State". U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and Chief Justice Earl Warren served terms as presidents of the NSGW.
Benicia State Recreation Area is a state park unit of California, United States, protecting tidal wetland. It is located in the Solano County city of Benicia, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of downtown Benicia and borders Vallejo's Glen Cove neighborhood. The park covers 447 acres (181 ha) of marsh, grassy hillsides and rocky beaches along the narrowest portion of the Carquinez Strait. Southampton Creek and the tidal marsh front Southampton Bay, where the combined waters of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers approach San Pablo Bay, the northern portion of San Francisco Bay.
Benicia Capitol State Historic Park is a state park in Benicia, California, United States. The park is dedicated to California's third capitol building, where the California State Legislature convened from February 3, 1853, to February 24, 1854, when they voted to move the state capital to Sacramento. It is the only pre-Sacramento capitol that remains. The park includes the Fischer-Hanlon House, an early Benicia building that was moved to the property and converted into a home in 1858, after the legislature departed. Benicia Capitol State Historic Park just off the city's main street also includes a carriage house, workers' quarters and sculptured gardens.
The California Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated in 1865 at San Francisco, California as the California Pacific Rail Road Company. It was renamed the California Pacific Railroad Extension Company in the spring of 1869, then renamed the California Pacific Railroad later that same year. Its main line from Vallejo to Sacramento was completed six months prior to the May 1869 golden spike ceremony of the Central Pacific/Union Pacific Transcontinental Railway.
The Vallejo Station was created by combining the Vallejo Ferry Terminal, the Vallejo Transit Center bus station, and a connecting multi-story parking garage and paseo. It is designed to be an intermodal transit station in Vallejo, California. It is located in the western part of Central Vallejo.
This article lists the railroads and a timeline of railroad history in Solano County, California.
The First Presbyterian Church in Vallejo is a historic church in Vallejo, California.
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd is an historic Carpenter Gothic style Episcopal church building located at 1001 Hearst Street at Ninth Street in Berkeley, California. Built in 1878, it was designed in the Carpenter Gothic style of architecture by architect Charles L. Bugbee who was associated with his father Samuel C. Bugbee in the San Francisco firm of S. C. Bugbee & Son. Charles L. Bugbee patterned it after the Carpenter Gothic style Mendocino Presbyterian Church, which the firm had designed in 1867. While all of the Mendocino church's exterior walls are of board and batten siding, only the upper walls of Good Shepherd are board and batten while the lower walls are of Dutch lap weatherboarding. Both churches feature tall side-entrance bell towers, steep gabled roofs and lancet windows, but according to writer Daniella Thompson: "...the Church of the Good Shepherd is considerably more ornate and playful than its severe Presbyterian model, ..." On December 15, 1975, Good Shepherd became the second building in Berkeley to be named an Historic Landmark. On December 1, 1986, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places as the Church of the Good Shepherd-Episcopal.
Benicia Unified School District is a public school district based in Benicia, a city in Solano County, California. It operates two high schools, a middle school and four elementary schools. The district had approximately 4,900 students enrolled in the 2018–2019 school year.
The Sonoma Barracks is a two-story, wide-balconied, adobe building facing the central plaza of the City of Sonoma, California. It was built by order of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo to house the Mexican soldiers that had been transferred from the Presidio of San Francisco in 1835. The Presidio Company and their commander, Vallejo, were also responsible for controlling the Native Americans living on the northern border of Mexican California.
An outgrowth of local camp meetings, Rockville Stone Chapel was constructed in the fall of 1856, in use by Christmas of that year, and dedicated in February 1857. Divisions in the congregation over slavery soon split the congregation, with the Northern faction splitting off at Christmas Eve 1863 to form their own church. Attendance at the chapel slowly declined, with the last resident pastor leaving in 1895. Although services continued sporadically, the building fell into disrepair and, in 1929, the chapel was donated to the County of Solano. With the onset of the Great Depression that year, restoration did not occur for another decade, with the WPA finally accomplishing a full renovation in the spring of 1940. Declared a State Historical Landmark in October 1962, the chapel continues in use today (2019), serving as the sanctuary for the local Church of Christ congregation and also hosting weddings and funerals.
Sacramento First Courthouse also, Former California State Capitol site, is historical site in Sacramento, California. The Courthouse was also the first and second California State Capitol. The site is California Historical Landmark No. 869, registered on January 11, 1974. At the northwest corner of 7th Street and I Street, 651 I Street, Sacramento was a building that served as California's State Capitol. The first period was January 16, 1852 to May 4, 1852, and the second period was from March 1, 1854, to May 15, 1854, with the California State Legislature third and fifth sessions. The 651 I Street building was the Sacramento County courthouse. The site of former California State Capitol - Sacramento County courthouse is now the Main Sacramento County Jail built in 1989. A California Historical marker was place at the site in 2007 by California State Parks working the Sacramento Trust for Historic Preservation.
Benicia Seminary was founded by a Board of Trustees in June 1852, as the Young Ladies' Seminary of Benicia in Solano County, California in the city of Benicia, California. The Benicia Seminary site is a California Historical Landmark No. 795 listed on September 6, 1964. At is peak the Young Ladies' Seminary of Beniciain had 149 students from all over Northern California. Young Ladies' Seminary of Beniciain was the Protestant Christian Junior college of its day. This was the first of this type of school in California. Mrs. S. A. Lord was the first School Principal in 1852, in 1853 Miss J. M. Hudson became Principal. In 1854, Atkins purchased the school. The Young Ladies' Seminary of Beniciain was sold to Cyrus Mills and Susan Mills in 1865 for $5,000, by Mary Atkins. Thus Benicia Seminary became Mills College. Mills College moved to Oakland, California in July 1871 by train, students, teacher and supplies. Mills College is still a private college. Mills College was granted a charter as a college by the State of california in 1885. Mary Atkins Lynch was born July 7, 1819, in Jefferson, Ohio. Mary Atkins married John Lynch (1824–1900) in 1869. Mary Lynch died September 14, 1882, at aged 63 in Benicia, California. Mary Lynch is buried at Benicia City Cemetery.
Vallejo California State Capitol was founded on May 4, 1852, at a building in Vallejo, California in Solano County, California. The Vallejo California State Capitol site is a California Historical Landmark No. 574 listed on April 1, 1957.
Fischer-Hanlon House is historical house built in 1858 in Benicia, California in Solano County, California. The Fischer-Hanlon House is California Historical Landmark No. 880, listed on March 14, 1975. The Fischer-Hanlon House was built by Joseph Fisher in 1849. Fisher, a butcher, was a Swiss immigrant who came to Benicia and purchased a plot of land on July 1, 1858. He then purchased a nearby old hotel and had it moved to his lot. The California Gold Rush home is built in an East Coast Federalist architectural style. The wooden house has fourteen rooms. It was damaged in a fire in 1856. After Joseph and Catherine Fischer moved in they repaired and remodeled the home. The Fischer house was passed down to later generations, then was donated to the State of California in 1969 by Fischer's granddaughters, Raphaelita and Catherine Hanlon, in memory of their sister Marie Rose. The Fischer-Hanlon House is restored and is furnished in 1880s decor. The outside is a Victorian Garden.
Saint Paul's Episcopal Church of Benicia is historical church Building built in 1859 in Benicia, California in Solano County, California. The Saint Paul's Episcopal Church is a California Historical Landmark No. 862 listed on July 20, 1973. Saint Paul's Episcopal Church was designed Lt. Julian McAllister and built by shipwrights of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. Saint Paul's Episcopal Church is built in the early California Gothic ecclesiastical architecture. The church as dedicated on February 12, 1860, 164 years ago, by the church's first pastor Rev. William Ingraham and is still open. The church was founded on September 24, 1854 169 years ago, by Major F. D. Townsend, with the US Army in the Benicia Sate Capital Building.
