1857
- The Sisters of Mercy open St. Mary's Hospital on Stockton Street in San Francisco, the first Catholic hospital west of the Rocky Mountains (hospital ruins in 1906 pictured)
- Minns Evening Normal School is founded in San Francisco by George W. Minns
- George Kenny starts construction of an octagonal house at Russian Hill in San Francisco
- Landscape painter Fortunato Arriola moves to San Francisco from Cosala, Sinaloa, Mexico
- Lafayette is incorporated in Contra Costa County
- Buena Vista Winery is founded by Agoston Haraszthy in the Sonoma Valley (early champagne production pictured)