[2] By 1898, the editors of the San Francisco Call derided the slow pace of work as "The Haul of Justice", concluding the contractor had underbid the job and was intent on delaying the completion by ordering numerous changes;[3] a grand jury would later ask Mayor James D. Phelan and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to "grant no further extension" of the contractors after October 1 of that year.

[4] Also that year, when bubonic plague broke out in neighboring Chinatown, residents there blamed the tall tower of the Hall of Justice, which they claimed "had aroused the evils of the air".

[5] Work was completed in 1900 and the first official business was conducted there on September 19, although the upper floor jail remained unfinished; despite this, the Call wrote "the building is the best San Francisco ever had in its history".

[8] The half-circle, fan-shaped windows on the fourth floor appear in numerous police dramas such as The Lineup in the 1950s and Ironside, the American television program starring Raymond Burr, in the 1960s.

The current Hall of Justice at 850–880 Bryant Street served as the San Francisco Police Department's operational headquarters until 2015.