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What the structure isn't

In October of 1952, a large bronze version of the seal was placed at the west steps of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. In such a prominent spot, this seal is seen by hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, and the size of the seal guarantees that an observer cannot miss the building. Over the years, a rumor about the identity of the building grew and is still told, and runs something like this:

Although this 3,400 pound, nearly ten foot wide seal was created by inmates in the foundry at San Quentin, ^[1] the rest of the rumor is, at best, questionable. Five facts stand in the way of this rumor being true:

1. If the building is taken as San Quentin and if the break in the mountains is taken to be the Golden Gate, then the view must be of the San Francisco Bay Area, looking from east to west. That places the building on the wrong side of the Gate to be San Quentin.
2. No building in this form, including the chapel, has ever existed at San Quentin.
3. The building first appeared in artistic renditions of the seal as early as 1890, decades before this seal was cast in 1952, and was officially added in the 1937 standardization. (Thirteen pre-1952 examples that include the building are shown in this article.) The seals in the Capitol that do not include the building (and there are some that do) were created before 1937.
4. The configuration of the building on this seal is strikingly similar to its appearance in the 1937 standardization, which itself was based on the 1895 Blue Book rendition.
5. Three detailed, post-1952 accounts of the Seal, including a 1960 newspaper article that describes the creation of the bronze Seal at San Quentin, make no mention of the rumor. ^{[2] [3] [4]}

The mysterious building

Also in the 1937 seal there is a building on the far left rear hill that has been interpreted in a variety of ways. The building, along with the break in the mountains, may have been added to give San Francisco Bay a stronger claim on its location being the landscape portrayed in the seal. ^[5] This building first appeared in unofficial versions of the seal in the 1890s, and in most of these, the building was clearly meant to represent Fort Point in San Francisco. ^{[6] [7]}

Interpretations as Fort Point

• A mid-1800s image of Fort Point for comparison with representations of the fort on the following renditions of the Seal of California
  A mid-1800s image of Fort Point for comparison with representations of the fort on the following renditions of the Seal of California
• 
  California State Letterhead (1890): Printed by a San Francisco lithographer (courtesy of John Allen)
• 
  James Lick Pioneer Monument, San Francisco (1894)
• 
  So-Called Dollar HK-249 (Artistic Rendition): Issued for the 1894 Midwinter Fair held in San Francisco
• 
  Spanish-American War Flag at the California State Archives, Sacramento (ca. 1898): Given to American soldiers on their way to the Philippines via the Presidio in San Francisco

However, the structure was given an apparent dome in the 1895 edition of the California Blue Book, ^[8] and it was in this configuration that the building appeared in the 1937 standardization of the official seal. Fort Point has no dome, and it is unknown what building the 1895 artist was attempting to portray. ^[9] In 1952, the now officially sanctioned structure was cast in bronze in the large seal at the west steps of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. ^[10]

The building receives a dome

• 
  California Blue Book (1895)
• 1937 Standardization
  1937 Standardization
• 
  On the west steps of the California State Capitol, Sacramento (1952)

The source of this story has yet to come to light, although it is possibly related to the large seal attached to the Resources Building in downtown Sacramento, placed in 1964, just four years before the earliest known reference to the rumor in 1968. ^[11] This seal features what appears to be two structures combined into one. The right half, with some imagination, resembles the front gates of San Quentin State Prison, and the left half, with even more imagination, Folsom State Prison's Greystone Chapel. Why the artist portrayed the building in this fashion is another mystery. If the artist did mean for the building to be San Quentin and Folsom prisons, the rumor being mistakenly attached to the seal in front of the Capitol may have stemmed from a confusion of the two seals, which are only a few blocks from each other. ^[12] Whatever the building is, it is easily missed. Even the nearly exhaustive official color scheme for the seal (e.g., "the spear of Minerva shall be Oakwood, Cable No. 70094 and the tip white"), passed in 1967 -- thirty years after the structure was officially added -- failed to mention the building. ^[13]

Other interpretations of the mysterious building over the years
Because there is no official designation of the identity of the building, artists have interpreted the building in a number of ways.

• 
  San Mateo County History Museum, Redwood City (1910)
• 
  Veteran's Welfare Bond (1925): Here the building looks somewhat like the old State Capitol in Benicia
• 
  Room 500, Library and Courts I, Sacramento (ca. 1928)
• 
  Marc J. Rowe's Redesign (1928)
• 
  Lucile Lloyd Mural in Room 4203, California State Capitol, Sacramento (1937)
• 
  Ronald Reagan State Building, Los Angeles (1939): This seal was originally placed in front of the old State Building on First Street, demolished in 1975
• 
  East Entrance, California State Capitol, Sacramento (1950): Here in the O.C. Malmquist panels, the building takes on more of a Spanish mission look, exchanging the dome for a similarly-shaped curved roof line
• 
  State Personnel Board, Sacramento (1954): After more than fifty years, is this interpretation meant to be a return to Fort Point?
• 
  California State Archives, Sacramento (ca. 1956): Another possible throwback to Fort Point?
• 
  1304 O Street, Sacramento (1960): Many seals found on state buildings from approximately 1960-1980 do not show the building, which might explain why the 1967 official color scheme makes no mention of it
• 
  Elihu M. Harris State Building, Oakland (1998): Although this example is from twenty years later, this style of building had been in use as early as 1978 ^[14]
• 
  Vietnam Memorial, Capitol Park, Sacramento (1988)
• 
  Family Law Courthouse, Riverside (Artistic Rendition) (1998): The building bears a resemblance to the Peace Tower, also in Riverside, California
• Hiram Johnson State Building, San Francisco (ca. 1998): The building on this seal, in the building's auditorium, looks somewhat like one of the City's famous painted ladies Victorian homes
  Hiram Johnson State Building, San Francisco (ca. 1998): The building on this seal, in the building's auditorium, looks somewhat like one of the City's famous painted ladies Victorian homes
• 
  Governor's Office Reception Area Carpet, California State Capitol, Sacramento (ca. 1999)
• 
  CalTrans District 7 HQ, Los Angeles (2004): Another unusual interpretation
• 
  DMV, First Avenue, Sacramento (Present Day Two-Tone)
• 
  Department of Education, Sacramento (Present Day Full Color): The building has taken on more of a tower rather than a dome