County Courthouse

The Alameda County Courthouse stood here between 1856 and 1868. Alameda County was created in 1853 from parts of Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties, with New Haven as its first county seat, before the 1854 legislative session moved the county seat to the more centrally located San Leandro. The Estudillo family donated one of four parcels for public purposes as the courthouse property, and the building was constructed in 1856 with bricks made from clay taken from the site. A major earthquake on the Hayward Fault on October 21, 1868, destroyed the courthouse, killing Deputy County Clerk J.W. Josselyn and forcing the rescue of four prisoners from the basement jail. Afterward, county business was conducted in a nearby Methodist Church until a temporary courthouse was built. In 1873, an election moved the county seat from San Leandro to Oakland, and in 1880 St. Leander’s Church bought the property and established St. Mary’s School in the court building.

San Leandro, California · United States