1852 brick Gold-Rush-era building at the corner of 2nd & J in Old Sacramento — western terminus of the Pony Express, Wells Fargo office, and California Supreme Court chambers, now the Wells Fargo History Museum and a regular paranormal-investigation stop.
1000 2nd Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Wells Fargo History Museum admission is free. Old Sac Paranormal Investigations and Underground Tours are operated separately by the Sacramento History Museum and have ticket fees.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground floor museum is accessible; the building has stairs to upper floors. Old Sacramento's wooden boardwalks are uneven.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1853 · Western terminus of the Pony Express (April 1860) · Wells Fargo & Co. and B.F. Hastings Bank offices · Sacramento Valley Railroad headquarters and Theodore Judah's office · California Supreme Court chambers 1855-1857 and 1859-1869 · National Historic Landmark (1961) · Within Old Sacramento State Historic Park
The B.F. Hastings Building stands at the corner of 2nd and J Streets in Old Sacramento State Historic Park, on what was the original ground level of the riverfront commercial district before the city raised its streets following the catastrophic 1862 floods. The brick structure was built in 1852-53, replacing an earlier wood building that had burned in one of the frequent Gold-Rush-era fires.
During the 1850s and 1860s the building hosted an extraordinary concentration of California's emerging commercial and political institutions. B.F. Hastings Bank occupied the ground floor. Wells, Fargo & Co. operated banking and express services from the building. The Sacramento Valley Railroad — the first railroad west of the Rocky Mountains — had its headquarters in the building, with engineer Theodore D. Judah, who would go on to design the Transcontinental Railroad, maintaining his office there through 1855. The Alta Telegraph Company also operated from the building.
The most-celebrated chapter began on April 4, 1860, when the first eastbound run of the Pony Express departed from the Hastings Building. The mail rider's route ran 1,966 miles to St. Joseph, Missouri, with relay stations approximately every 10 miles. The Pony Express operated for only 18 months before the completion of the transcontinental telegraph in October 1861 rendered it obsolete, but its Sacramento terminus at the Hastings Building became a defining symbol of Gold-Rush-era California.
The California Supreme Court was headquartered in the building's upper floors from 1855-1857 and again from 1859-1869. After the Court's departure the building continued in commercial use for the remainder of the 19th and into the 20th century.
When Old Sacramento was reborn as a state historic park in the 1960s and 1970s, the Hastings Building was restored to its 1850s appearance. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1961. Today the ground floor houses the Wells Fargo History Museum, while the building remains a contributing feature of the Old Sacramento State Historic Park and a stop on the Sacramento History Museum's underground and paranormal-investigation tour programs.
Sources
The B.F. Hastings Building's paranormal reputation has grown alongside the Sacramento History Museum's official Old Sac Paranormal Investigations programming, which has run scheduled paranormal investigation events through the Old Sacramento State Historic Park's most active buildings — including the Hastings — for many years. The investigations include EMF and EVP equipment use, with participants reporting voice captures and equipment activations.
According to the Sacramento History Museum's published Old Sac Paranormal Investigations materials and the Haunted Rooms America Sacramento roundup, the most commonly cited phenomena at the Hastings Building are full-body apparitions seen on the upper floors (where the California Supreme Court chambers were located), shadow figures moving past doorways, and disembodied voices. The building's history as the Pony Express terminus, the busy Gold-Rush-era banking floor, and the California Supreme Court chambers provides multiple narrative anchors for the activity.
The Hastings Building also connects to the broader Old Sacramento Underground network — the buried former street level and basements preserved beneath the modern raised streets after the 1862 flood project. The underground sections beneath and adjacent to the Hastings are stops on both standard underground tours and the dedicated paranormal investigations, and reports of activity in the tunnels are commonly attributed to the same building's history.
The Wells Fargo History Museum on the ground floor presents itself as a heritage museum and does not promote a haunted brand; the paranormal programming is run separately by the Sacramento History Museum across multiple Old Sacramento buildings. The combination of museum-curated paranormal programming and several decades of underground-tour reports makes the Hastings one of the more frequently-investigated single buildings in California's Gold Country.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Self-guided visit to the Wells Fargo History Museum on the ground floor of the historic B.F. Hastings Building, covering the Pony Express terminus, Gold Rush banking, and the California Supreme Court's tenure in the upper floors.
The Sacramento History Museum runs scheduled Old Sac Paranormal Investigations that include the B.F. Hastings Building as a regular stop; tickets and dates available on the museum's site.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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