Historic Homes and Buildings Survey

This online document provides a photograph, physical description, and historical significance of each building in the current historic districts in Benicia.

Historic Preservation in Benicia

The City of Benicia values its local history and is home to two historic districts: the Downtown Historic District and Arsenal Historic District. The local recognition of Benicia’s place in State and National history began over fifty years ago with the establishment of a downtown historic preservation district in 1969, and is now embodied in various aspects of the City’s government and culture. In addition to the Benicia General Plan, the City has adopted various documents to inform and guide the community in protection of our historic resources: This website includes a link to Is This Building Historic?

Benicia Historical Museum Archival Collection

The Museum has been collecting and cataloguing historical artifacts, documents, photographs, and narratives. Their online collection currently contains approximately 18,000 entries and is growing.

Historic MapWorks Residence Genealogy

Their map and photo collection numbers over 1,662,956 individual images for you to explore. Track your ancestors to their homes; see the roads they traveled on, and the names of the neighbors they talked with. Multiple layers allow you to see an area change through time, and our Geocode feature allows you to compare historical and modern maps.

Old Maps Online

OldMapsOnline.org indexes over 400,000 maps. This is only thanks to the archives and libraries that were open to the idea and provided their online content. OldMapsOnline developed out of a love of history and heritage of old maps. The project began as a collaboration between Klokan Technologies GmbH, Switzerland and The Great Britain Historical GIS Project based at the University of Portsmouth, UK thanks to funding from JISC. Since January 2013, the project is improved and maintained by volunteers and the team of Klokan Technologies GmbH in their free time.

Thomas & West Atlas Map of Benicia - 1874

The David Rumsey Map Collection was started over 25 years ago and contains more than 150,000 maps. The collection focuses on rare 18th and 19th century maps of North and South America, although it also has maps of the World, Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. Digitization of the collection began in 1996 and there are now over 53,000 items online, with new additions added regularly. The site is free and open to the public. Here viewers have access not only to high resolution images of maps that are extensively cataloged, but also to a variety of tools that allow to users to compare, analyze, and view items in new and experimental ways.

David Rumsey Map Collection

This historical map collection has over 57,000 maps and images online. The collection includes rare 16th through 20th century North American and South American maps and other cartographic materials. Historic maps of the World, Europe, Asia, and Africa are also represented.

Historical Benicia Tour

Take a tour of the historical sites in Benicia. Each site will have a bright yellow sign with a QR code to scan to take you to the corresponding webpage where you will find photos, a description, and more. If your smart phone does not have a QR Code Reader, go to our This Place has History webpage to download a QR Code Reader.

To start the tour, tap the All the Buildings button and then tap the site button of where you are. There is a button at the bottom of each webpage which will take you to the next historical site on the tour.

Benicia's Historical Sites Map

A map of Historic Benicia California produced by the Benicia Historical Museum at the Camel Barns.

Solano History Database Of Benicia

This website is an online, interactive database containing historical articles, photos, books, and other content relating to the history of Solano County, CA. The Vacaville Heritage Council updates this site on a regular basis.

Granizo in Benicia

In late 1980, Granizo moved to Benicia, California, where he spent the last two decades of his life. The City of Benicia (formerly the state capital of California) became the center of "Bill's" art world and Benicia has honored him in many ways by recognizing his art as a part of its city. More on his tiles are on this website.