The Circle of Palms Plaza is located in downtown San Jose, California. It is composed of a ring of palm trees encircling a California State Seal, and designates the California Historical Marker 461, the site of California's first state capital from 1849 to 1851.
Circle of Palms Plaza with the Fairmont San Jose and Fairmont Plaza
Circle of Palms Plaza
The ice rink at the plaza in the Winter
State seal at center of the Circle of Palms
The Great Seal of the State of California was adopted at the California state Constitutional Convention of 1849 and has undergone minor design changes since then, the last being the standardization of the seal in 1937. The seal shows Athena in Greek mythology, the goddess of wisdom and war, because she was born an adult, and California was never a territory; a California grizzly bear, the official state animal, feeding on grape vines, representing California's wine production; a sheaf of grain, representing agriculture; a miner, representing the California Gold Rush and the mining industry; and sailing ships, representing the state's economic power. The word Eureka, meaning "I have found it", is the California state motto.
California historical coat of arms (illustrated, 1876)
1849 illustration of the Seal of California that accompanied Bayard Taylor's description
Marc J. Rowe's interpretation of the Seal of California
A circa 1888 image of Fort Point for comparison with representations of the fort on the following renditions of the Seal of California
