PORTSMOUTH SQUARE

'Portsmouth Square' is the modern name for the first public square established in the community of Yerba Buena, on the peninsula that became the city of San Francisco, California, before the gold rush of 1848. The square is a block long open space bounded by Kearny Street on the east, Washington Street on the north, Clay Street on the south, and Walter Lum Place on the west.

Contents

History

Today

Source

See Also

External links

History

After the declaration of the Mexican-American War when the Americans were bent on acquiring California, Commodore John D. Sloat sent orders to Captain John B. Montgomery of the sloop-of-war USS ''Portsmouth'' to seize Yerba Buena. On 9 July 1846, a detachment of 17 Marines commanded by Second Lieutenant Henry Bulls Watson rowed ashore and raised the American flag over Yerba Buena in the plaza that would eventually be named Portsmouth Square in honor of the ''Portsmouth''. The Mexican adobe custom house there was converted into a garrison for the Marines and volunteer militia.
A plot of land that began life as a pasture and potato patch, grew to become the original city center of San Francisco, hosting gambling halls, hotels, The Jenny Lynn Theater, and playhouses uphill from the first waterfront landings. Two San Francisco Halls of Justice occupied the site on the East side of the square, now home of the Holiday Inn Portsmouth Square. The first was gutted by the 1906 earthquake, the second closed and razed after the 5th street Hall of Justice was completed.

Today

The square is now part of Chinatown. A marker for the raising of the American flag in 1846, a marker for the first public school in California in 1847, and a marker for the eastern terminus of the first cable car in the world all exist in the square. Also, a statue of the Goddess of Democracy and a monument to Robert Louis Stevenson sit in the park. A large public parking lot is located below Portsmouth Square today.

Source

★ O'Brien, Robert - ''This is San Francisco'' - 1948, Chronicle Books, 1994

See Also

★ William A. Richardson

External links