QUESTION: What was the original name of San Francisco?
ANSWER: In 1835 San Francisco was originally called Yerba Buena (Spanish for "Good Herb" a fragrant mint plant that grew along the shoreline of the bay.) The name was given by William Richardson, who set up the first trading post at the original shoreline Montgomery and Clay.
In 1846, rumor had it that some town at near the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay would name itself San Francisco. Lt. Washington Bartlett who was mayor of Yerba Buena realized that sailors and merchant ships were associating Yerba Buena with the name San Francisco Bay, and that if another town claimed the name shipping business might go there.
To ensure that the ships would still come into our harbor, he quickly engineered the name change from Yerba Buena to San Francisco, which became official on January 30, 1847. That “other town” then took the name Benicia, which was the name of the daughter of General Mariano Vallejo, the last Mexican governor of California.
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