Presidio History: 1776 Fort to National Park

The Presidio was a Spanish fort from 1776, a Mexican post until 1846, a US Army base for nearly 150 years and, since 1994, part of a national park. Today it covers 1,500 acres.

Before the Fort

The Presidio Trust says the Yelamu, a local tribe of the Ramaytush Ohlone, lived on the land at the Golden Gate for thousands of years. The Trust gives no date for the start of that, so neither do we.

1776 to 1846: Spain and Mexico

In 1775–76 Captain Juan Bautista de Anza led more than 240 colonists from present-day Mexico, and families reached the area on 27 June 1776, says the National Park Service. Spain built the presidio the same year. Mexico operated the post from 1822 to 1846. The US Army took it over after the Mexican-American War.

1846 to 1989: The Army Post

The Presidio stayed a US Army post until the late twentieth century. One episode belongs here: the National Park Service says Lt. Gen. John L. DeWitt signed 108 Civilian Exclusion Orders at the Presidio that removed Japanese Americans from the West Coast, following Executive Order 9066 of 19 February 1942. The site was declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1962.

1972 to Today: A Park

Congress created Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 1972, and the law said the Presidio would join it if the Army ever left. The Department of Defense announced its closure in 1989, and the Presidio joined the national park system in 1994. The Presidio Trust Act passed in 1996 and the Trust began operating in 1998. The Trust says the site now has 1,500 acres, nearly 10 million visits a year, 3,000 residents and 200 organizations.

Visiting

The National Park Service lists the Presidio as free and open 24 hours a day, with visitor facilities on their own hours and parking charged at most places. The Presidio Trust runs a free history exhibition in the Officers’ Club (hours: Friday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm as last read), with 1810s adobe walls in its Mesa Room. The Trust also warns of Main Post construction through winter 2027, so expect detours. See the Presidio with kids and, for the stories people tell about it, the local legends.

Still Unconfirmed

• When the Yelamu first lived here. The Trust gives only “thousands of years”.
• Whether the Officers’ Club is the oldest building in the city. The Trust says so; Mission Dolores makes the same claim for itself.
• Current hours. Taken from the sources on the date read; the Trust changes them, so check before a visit.

More San Francisco History

Keep going with the San Francisco history hub: a 58-event timeline, historic sites to visit, history tours (many free) and the National Historic Landmarks. Prefer stories people tell? Try the local legends, fact-checked.

Dates and figures are as the sources state them, read on 27 October 2026.