Plaza, Old Town, San Diego, CA, circa 1930

About this postcard

The view looks across the landscaped Plaza of Old Town San Diego, with curving walks, lawns, flower beds, a tall flagpole flying the American flag, and low red-tile-roofed adobe and Spanish Colonial buildings shaded by large trees. The printed caption calls the square "Where California Was Born" and points out the stone monument marking where the U.S. flag was first raised in Southern California, an old Mexican cannon, a stone marking the end of the Kearny trail, the Bandini House, and Casa de Estudillo, long promoted as Ramona's Marriage Place. Old Town grew around the 1769 presidio and mission on Presidio Hill and remained the center of San Diego through the Mexican and early American periods. The adobe houses and markers now sit within Old Town San Diego State Historic Park.