New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-06-04
A GREAT JUSTICE HALL.
SAN FRANCIsCO's NEW COURTHOUSE
COURTS POLICE QUARTERS. -RlsOH
AND RECEIVING HOSPITAL ALI.
Under ONE ROOF

C-NDfiS UNI IsOCH'
San Francisco May 24LThe new Hall Of
Justice, which is nearly completed, has entirely
changed the appearance of the north end Ct
Kearney-st The tower, which rises TO a height Of
10 feet bears big clock, which may be seen
from all parts OF the business district. Like all
public works in this city. the Hall OF Justice has
been slow in the building The new City Hall.
only recently completed, was finished only after
twenty-five years OF tinkerng at various wings
and towers, and cost more than 100000 II
could be built to-day by any private owner for
S1.50O000 and buiit in far better style than no
city built it
The cornerstone OF the new Hall Of Justice
laid on December 20, 1896. and it was expected
that ten months would see it finished and ready
for occupancy. Instead OF this the new building
will not be ready for the various departments for
three months. 1t will cost about $32J0O0
The hall is in Italian Renaissance style, five
stories high, with a central tower. The two
lower stories are Of stone the others Of brick and
terra-cotta. At the corners pavilions crowned
with domes. A feature Of the central tower
is two long windows running up four stories.
The clock on the tower will have four faces each
eight and half feet in diameter. 1t Will strike
the hours and half hours. the bell weighing two
thousand pounds. As the sides Of the tower are
open this bell will be heard a long distance.
novelty In arrangement will be the placing
of the city prison on the fifth floor instead Of in
the basement on the first floor are TO be quarters
for drilling the police and on the second the
quarters for the force and administration Offices;
the third the police courts, on the fourth the
Criminal Superior Courts. and on the fifth the
city prison. together with a model receiving hos
pitaI In all the appointments the police quar-
tiers are 10 be unsurpassed in this country.
This fine building suppants the old police
quarters and Hall Of Records. which in turn oc-
cupird the place once famous as the Jenny Lind
Theatre in early days. Prior to the building OF
that theatre the site was notorious the loca-
ton Of the largest open gambling he'll OF San
Francisco in pioneer days. The building was
low, one-story affair, open day and night and all
kinds Of gambling games were run in plain sight
OF passers-by on the street. Bayard Taylor and
others have given graphic descriptions Of this
lawless resort where thousands OF dollars IN gold
passed over the gambling tables every day.
Directly opposite is old Portsmouth Square,
where sailors and marines from the sloOp-of-
war Portsmouth raised the American flag on
July s 1S4G TO proclaim the occupation OF
Northern California by the United States. In
those days and for twenty years IL was known
as the Plaza II was the scene Of many eXcIt-
ing events in pioneer days as 1t was the "a
vorite place for holding mass-meetings, and sew
eral criminals were lynched there. This old
plaza is now ornamented with fine trees and
in the centre is the Stevenson monument and
drinking fountain, erected TO the memory OF
Robert Louis Stevenson. Il is rectangular
granite block. ten feet high, surmounted by
bronze casting Of Spanish galleon. 1t was
placed here because the square was a favorte
lounging place Of Stevenson when he was here
il being thronged with tho strange foreign types
from the 'Barbary Coast and the tenement dis
trict that ne met and studied.