History

Yerba Buena Gardens opened on October 11, 1993.
In 1998 Mayor Willie Brown opened the Children’s Garden and took the first ride on the newly restored Carousel.

Early History
Yerba Buena was named in 1835 when the English family of William A. Richardson settled in the area. Wild mint grew rampant in the surrounding hills, and the name translates from the Spanish for "good herb." Richardson built his home on the slope between what we now call Telegraph Hill and Rincon Point. After the second settler, American Jacob Lesse, moved in near the Richardson home, two flags were raised: the Mexican National Emblem and the Stars and Stripes. On July 9, 1846, Captain John Montgomery landed his 70 sailors and marines and took possession of the Yerba Buena settlement in the name of the United States of America. Six months later, Mexican General Vallejo bargained to give a portion of his property holdings to established settlers Doc. Semple and Thomas Larkin in exchange for naming the new town after the General's wife, Francisca. Fearing this would overshadow the little-known Yerba Buena, in January of 1847, Washington A. Bartlett, Alcalde and Chief Magistrate, wrote his famous ordinance that renamed the entire settlement as San Francisco, At the time, its 462 inhabitants lived in tents, shanties, and adobe huts. The streets went without names until they were mapped out in early 1847 by Jasper O'Farrell. Their names still remind us of the city's most prominent settlers: Elbert Jones (doctor, editor, and hotelkeeper), Nathan Spear (livestock merchant), William Davis (merchant), William Liedesdorff (merchant and real estate owner), and Captain Joseph Folsom.