Exterior Painter Benicia, Solano County

The City of Benicia was founded on May 19, 1847, by Dr. Robert Semple, Thomas O. Larkin, and Comandante General by Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, on land sold to them by General Vallejo in December 1846. It was named for the General’s wife, Francisca Benicia Carillo de Vallejo, a member of the Carrillo family of California, a prominent Californio dynasty. The General intended that the city be named “Francisca” after his wife, but this name was dropped when the former city of “Yerba Buena” changed its name to “San Francisco,” so her second given name was used instead. In his memoirs, William Tecumseh Sherman contended that Benicia was “the best natural site for a commercial city” in the region.

In February 1848, first word of gold found at Sutter’s Mill was leaked at a Benicia Tavern, thus starting the California Gold Rush. Benicia became a way station on the way to the Sierras.

Benicia was the third site selected to serve as the California state capital, after San Jose and nearby Vallejo, and its newly constructed city hall was California’s capitol from February 11, 1853, to February 25, 1854. Soon after, the legislature was moved to the courthouse in Sacramento, which has remained the state capital ever since. The restored capitol is part of the Benicia Capitol State Historic Park, and is the only building remaining of the state’s pre-Sacramento capitols.