Hotel Stockton is a Mission Revival Style building opened in 1910, designed as a grand hotel with 252 rooms. Popular among visitors to Stockton, especially traveling entertainers, in 1912, the City of Stockton moved its City Hall into the hotel, where it remained until 1926. The building's role in local government ultimately outlasted its role as a hotel; when the hotel closed for business in 1960, the county courthouse relocated to the building for the next four years while a new courthouse was built. The building served yet another branch of government in 1976, when San Joaquin County purchased the building as office space for its Public Administration Department. The Hotel Stockton was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1981.
Across the street are several generations of ever bigger court houses, with a wall timeline of the building successions starting in the mid 19th century.