Plaza de Cesar Chavez
Encyclopedia
Downtown San Jose
Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California, United States. The area is generally located north of Interstate 280 and east of Guadalupe Parkway, which roughly parallels the Guadalupe River. The region is bound to the north by U.S...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, named after César Chávez
César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
(originally "The Plaza", then "Pueblo Plaza") in 1993. It is surrounded by South Market Street, across which is The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech Museum of Innovation
The Tech Museum of Innovation, or simply The Tech, is a museum located in the heart of Silicon Valley, in downtown San Jose, California USA.-History:...
, the San Jose Museum of Art
San Jose Museum of Art
The San Jose Museum of Art is an art museum in Downtown San Jose, California, USA. Founded in 1969, the museum hosts a large permanent collection emphasizing West Coast artists of the 20th- and 21st-century. It is located next to the Circle of Palms Plaza and Plaza de César Chávez...
, the Circle of Palms Plaza
Circle of Palms Plaza
The Circle of Palms Plaza is located in downtown San Jose, California. It is the location of California Historical Marker 461, the site of California's first state capital from 1849-1851...
and the Fairmont San Jose Hotel
Fairmont San Jose Hotel
The Fairmont San Jose is a 805 room, luxury high-rise hotel at 170 South Market Street in San José, California, facing the water fountain in Plaza de César Chávez....
. At the south end is the statue "Plumed Serpent" by Robert Graham
Robert Graham
Robert Graham may refer to:*Sir Robert Graham , one of the assassins of James I of Scotland*Robert Graham of Gartmore , Scottish politician and poet...
.
At different times of the year it hosts live music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...
, cultural festival
Festival
A festival or gala is an event, usually and ordinarily staged by a local community, which centers on and celebrates some unique aspect of that community and the Festival....
s, arts and crafts
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts comprise a whole host of activities and hobbies that are related to making things with one's hands and skill. These can be sub-divided into handicrafts or "traditional crafts" and "the rest"...
fairs, food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
shows, the official city Christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
, water fountain
Fountain
A fountain is a piece of architecture which pours water into a basin or jets it into the air either to supply drinking water or for decorative or dramatic effect....
s, and open-air theater
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
. There are free concerts in the park every Thursday during summer, the San Jose Jazz Festival
San Jose Jazz Festival
The San José Jazz Festival is an annual jazz festival organized by the San Jose Jazz Society and held in downtown San Jose, California, USA. The festival was established in 1990, and is mainly outdoors....
has its main stage in the park, and every winter from Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
until New Year's it hosts "Christmas in the Park".
The Plaza was established when San José
San Jose, California
San Jose is the third-largest city in California, the tenth-largest in the U.S., and the county seat of Santa Clara County which is located at the southern end of San Francisco Bay...
moved from its original location on the bank of the Guadalupe River
Guadalupe River (California)
The Guadalupe River is a short river in California whose headwater creeks originate in the Santa Cruz Mountains near the summit of Loma Prieta and Mount Umunhum. The river mainstem now begins on the Santa Clara Valley floor at the northern end of Lake Almaden, which is fed by Los Alamitos Creek and...
to the current downtown location in 1797 and has been in use ever since, making it the oldest public open space in California.
The present-day park was the site of California's capitol from 1849 to 1851, a period during which the California Republic
California Republic
The California Republic, also called the Bear Flag Republic, is the name used for a period of revolt against Mexico initially proclaimed by a handful of American settlers in Mexican California on June 14, 1846, in Sonoma. This was shortly before news of the Mexican–American War had reached the area...
gained American statehood
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
; hence, the site contained California's first state capitol. From 1889 to 1958, San Jose's city hall occupied the center of the park http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/cityhall/12325228.htm before the local government moved it northward to North First and Mission Streets. The city hall was eventually moved once again to its present location at 200 East Santa Clara Street.