Skip to main content
Video

Inside SF’s Frozen-In-Time Criminal Justice Center: Abandoned Shoes, Broken Phone Booths and a Deserted News Bureau

Written by Jonah Owen LambVideo by Jesse RogalaPublished Oct. 04, 2022 • 12:01pm

The Standard recently took a stroll through San Francisco’s Thomas J. Cahill Hall of Justice, which is named after the longest-serving police chief in the city’s history.

Since its completion in 1960, the building has been the center of San Francisco's criminal justice world. Yet once the site of two county jails, the San Francisco Police Department headquarters, the Medical Examiner’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office, the seismically unfit building is slowly emptying out.

Still, vestiges of its builder’s intent—and how times have changed—are all over the seven-story structure. From phone booths without phones, to news agency bureaus to empty cafeterias, these vestiges remain as leftovers from another era, as does the once easy access the public had to many agencies that are now all but off limits.

Jonah Owen Lamb can be reached at jonah@sfstandard.com


Why You Should Try This 20-Course, Two-and-a-Half-Hour Tasting Menu in San Francisco

Why You Should Try This 20-Course, Two-and-a-Half-Hour Tasting Menu in San Francisco


Here’s How to Commute to Work by Robotaxi in San Francisco

Here’s How to Commute to Work by Robotaxi in San Francisco


Oakland Women’s Soccer Team Rises as Pro Sports Bow Out

Oakland Women’s Soccer Team Rises as Pro Sports Bow Out


The Best Al Pastor in San Francisco Comes Carved Streetside in the Mission

The Best Al Pastor in San Francisco Comes Carved Streetside in the Mission


The Next Big One: San Francisco Couple Makes Earthquake Preparedness Fun

The Next Big One: San Francisco Couple Makes Earthquake Preparedness Fun