Having entered the harbor the previous evening with his three small vessels, Sebastian Vizcaino landed here on December 17, 1602. Mass was sung by three Carmelite friars and the country taken in the name of the King of Spain. On the same spot, Fray Junípero Serra landed from the San Antonio on June 3, 1770 to join Captain Gaspar de Portolá and Fray Juan Crespí, who had arrived from San Diego overland a week before, in founding the Mission San Carlos de Borroméo de Monterey and the Presidio of Monterey.

Citation from California Office of Historic Preservation