City crews fenced off Circle of Palms Plaza, next to the San Jose Museum of Art, on Friday morning after finding all 32 of its palms in decline and 15 of them dead or dying.

A chain-link fence went up Friday morning around Circle of Palms Plaza, the ring of palm trees that sits between the San Jose Museum of Art and the Fairmont on South Market Street downtown. City crews closed the whole 2.3-acre plaza; NBC Bay Area, which first reported the closure, had cameras there as they sealed it off.

The reason is in the trees the plaza is named for. The city said all 32 palms are in decline and 15 of them appear to be dead or dying, according to NBC Bay Area. To keep one from falling and hurting someone, crews fenced the area that morning and the city issued a public safety alert.

The palms are not incidental to this spot. The ring encircles a California State Seal set into the concrete, and the plaza marks California Historical Landmark #461 — the site of the state's first capitol, where the first Legislature met in 1849 and 1850. In winter the Downtown Association lays an ice rink inside the circle. For now the circle is behind fencing.

What happens next is not on a timeline. The city said it will bring in a contractor to determine the scope of the damage and set a schedule for removing the affected trees. Until that assessment is done, the plaza stays closed.

Anyone walking up South Market past the museum this weekend finds the same thing: the palms still standing, the seal at their center, and a fence around all of it.