San Benito

Formed February 12, 1874 (51^st county)

San Benito County (64,207), Hollister (41,602)

The Modern style courthouse built in 2012 replaced the earlier 1961 structure.  The 1961 courthouse continues to house county offices.  An Administrative Building was built in 1993.  There was also an earlier courthouse built in 1888 in Hollister, the only county seat.  The current courthouse was designed by the Smith Group.  On February 12, 1874, San Benito County was created from Monterey County as the 51^st county.  The county was named for Saint Benedict.  Local rancher W. W. Hollister provided his name to the county seat.  The courthouse sits on 4^th Street at Monterey Street, two blocks east of California State Highway 25. 

San Benito County government consists of a sheriff, assessor, controller, and treasurer (executive).  It has 5 Supervisors (legislative.)  Two Superior Court Judges, clerk, and counsel serve Alameda County (judicial.)  The county is in west central California east of Salinas, California and south of San Jose, California.  The county center is 10.4 miles Southeast of Hollister nearer Paicines.  The county is surrounded clockwise by Santa Clara, Merced, Fresno, Monterey, and Santa Cruz counties.  Although its borders have numerous waves, the overall shape is a long skinny rectangle lying at a 30-degree tilt northwest.  Hollister is in the northwest quarter of the county.  Hollister is the county seat and the largest city.  It is 64.9% of the county population.  The county is pronounced SAN BE-NEE-TOE.  

The area of the county is 1389 square miles.  It is 36 out of 58 in the state.  It ranks 42 out of 58 in population in the state.  It has a density of 46.2 persons per square mile making it 39 out of 58 in the state.  San Benito County has 68.2% of its population in its incorporated areas.  United States Highway 101 crosses the extreme northwest corner from Santa Clara County into Monterey County.  This county is in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara Metropolitan Statistical Area.