Founding of San Francisco
- When
- 1776
- Where
- Site selected for the Spanish fort on San Francisco Bay; Spanish settlement on San Francisco Bay; Spanish garrison on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula; Mission in present-day San Francisco
- Episodes
- 4
In 1776 Spanish expeditions under Juan Bautista de Anza and José Joaquín Moraga established the Presidio of San Francisco and Mission San Francisco de Asís, securing New Spain's foothold on San Francisco Bay.
Episodes
- De Anza expedition reaches the bay and sites the fort
Juan Bautista de Anza led colonists from Tubac to San Francisco Bay in 1776, with Pedro Font scouting the mission site and de Anza siting the presidio on March 28.
- Moraga's party builds the presidio and mission founders recorded
Lt. José Joaquín Moraga led the party that built the presidio later in 1776; a founders list separately records Francisco Palóu and Pedro Benito Cambón under June 27, 1776.
- Presidio of San Francisco established
New Spain established the Presidio of San Francisco on September 17, 1776, as a garrison defending Spain's claim to the bay, built by Moraga's party.
- Mission San Francisco de Asís founded and dedicated
Frs Francisco Palóu and Pedro Benito Cambón founded the mission and dedicated a chapel on October 9, 1776, naming it in honor of Francis of Assisi.
Background and detail
Background. Captain Juan Bautista de Anza led 193 soldiers, women, and children from present-day Tubac, Arizona, to San Francisco Bay in 1776. During this expedition, missionary Pedro Font scouted the site of the future Mission San Francisco in March 1776, and de Anza sited the Spanish fort on March 28, 1776.
Founding of the Presidio and Mission. Lt. José Joaquín Moraga led a party that built the presidio later in 1776, and New Spain formally established the garrison on September 17, 1776, to defend Spain's claim to the bay and support Mission Dolores. Frs Francisco Palóu and Pedro Benito Cambón founded the mission, dedicating a chapel on October 9, 1776, naming it for Francis of Assisi.
Early Character of the Settlements. From 1776 to 1821 the Presidio was a simple fort of adobe, brush, and wood, serving as the northernmost outpost of New Spain. The Presidio Officers Club preserves walls erected by the Spanish around the founding, and the mission's adobe chapel was completed later, in 1791.
People involved
- Juan Bautista de Anza · Spanish captain who led the overland expedition and sited the presidio
- José Joaquín Moraga · Lieutenant who led the party that built the presidio
- Francisco Palóu · Franciscan missionary and mission founder
- Pedro Benito Cambón · Franciscan missionary and mission founder
- Pedro Font · Missionary who scouted the mission site
Sources
- Presidio of San Francisco Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-17
- Mission San Francisco de Asís Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-29
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.