Landing Place of Captain J. B. Montgomery

Montgomery came ashore at about eight in the morning with some seventy sailors and marines, stepped out at the foot of Clay Street and marched up it behind a fife and drum playing Yankee Doodle. Nobody challenged them. There was not a single Mexican official left in the town from whom to demand its surrender, and the Portsmouth had spent much of June at Sausalito, sending provisions to Frémont's camp. The Native Sons set this tablet in the cornerstone of A. P. Giannini's Bank of Italy building.

What the plaque says

On July 9, 1846, in the early morning, in "the days when the water came up to Montgomery Street," Commander John B. Montgomery-for whom Montgomery Street was named-landed near this spot from the U.S. sloop-of-war "Portsmouth," to raise the Stars and Stripes on the plaza, now Portsmouth Square, one block to the west. Tablet placed by the Native Sons of the Golden West. 1915.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Beach Overlook — 11 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
• Muir Woods National Monument — 11 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Earthquake Trail — 27 mi
  A short loop along the San Andreas, where a broken fence shows how far Point Reyes moved in under a minute in 1906.
• Kule Loklo — 28 mi
  A Coast Miwok village built in the 1970s to honour a people its builders were told had died out. They had not.

More markers nearby

• Site of Brick Building of the Firm of Mellus and Howard — steps away
• Western Headquarters of Russell, Majors, and Waddell — steps away
• Hudson's Bay Company Headquarters — steps away
• Site of First U.S. Branch Mint — steps away