<P> By December 1848, John Sutter Jr., in association with Sam Brannan, began laying out the City of Sacramento, 2 miles south of his father's settlement of New Helvetia . This venture was undertaken against the wishes of Sutter Sr., however the father, being deeply in debt, was in no position to stop the venture . For commercial reasons the new city was named "Sacramento City," after the Sacramento River . Sutter Jr. and Brannon hired topographical engineer William H. Warner to draft the official layout of the city, which included 26 lettered and 31 numbered streets (today's grid from C St. to Broadway and from Front St. to Alhambra Blvd .). Unfortunately, a certain bitterness grew between the elder Sutter and his son as Sacramento became an overnight commercial success (Sutter's Fort, Mill and the town of Sutterville, all founded by John Sutter, Sr., would eventually fail). </P> <P> The citizens of Sacramento adopted a city charter in 1849, which was recognized by the state legislature in 1850 . Sacramento is the oldest incorporated city in California, incorporated on February 27, 1850 . During the early 1850s, the Sacramento valley was devastated by floods, fires and cholera epidemics . Despite this, because of its position just downstream from the Mother Lode in the Sierra Nevada, the new city grew, quickly reaching a population of 10,000 . </P> <P> The California State Legislature, with the support of Governor John Bigler, moved to Sacramento in 1854 . The capital of California under Spanish (and, subsequently, Mexican) rule had been Monterey, where in 1849 the first Constitutional Convention and state elections were held . The convention decided that San Jose would be the new state's capital . After 1850, when California's statehood was ratified, the legislature met in San Jose until 1851, Vallejo in 1852, and Benicia in 1853, before moving to Sacramento . In the Sacramento Constitutional Convention of 1879, Sacramento was named to be the permanent state capital . </P> <P> Begun in 1860 to be reminiscent of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C., the Classical Revival style California State Capitol was completed in 1874 . In 1861, the legislative session was moved to the Merchants Exchange Building in San Francisco for one session because of massive flooding in Sacramento . The legislative chambers were first occupied in 1869 while construction continued . From 1862 to 1868, part of the Leland Stanford Mansion was used for the governor's offices during Stanford's tenure as the Governor; and the legislature met in the Sacramento County Courthouse . </P>

When did sacramento became the capital of california