Petaluma Things to Do

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This large brick factory is a Georgian revival industrial building, very rare in the western US. It is also very substantial and easy to notice. It was once the Carlson-Currier Silk Mill but then became the Petaluma Line and Twine, manufacturing those products. It closed only recently, in about 2003.

Petaluma's downtown post office, opened in 1932, is really a very nice building with tall windows and a lot of ornamentation. The basic style of the building is Spanish Colonial Revival, but it is a heavily modified version of that style.

Petaluma's old fire station, on D street near 1st and 2nd, and near the D St. Drawbridge, is an interesting old Art-Deco building still used as the central fire station. It is on the national register for historic places, like many buildings in Petaluma.

Petaluma's "Old Adobe" is the largest extant Mexican adobe house in California, built in the 1830s by Mariano Vallejo, the Mexican landowner who was the official in charge of Mexico's domain north of the San Francisco Bay.

Most of the ranch station is still standing and it offers a great glimpse into the life of the Mexican (Californio) rancheros who dominated California in the days before the U.S. nabbed it, and the Indians who worked the Californios' ranches. Vallejo's main home was in the town of Sonoma, a few miles away. At the time, in the 130s-1840s, California's non-Indian population was less than 10,000, and Sonoma County inluded a few landowners plus some people living in Sonoma. The ranch was the extent of settlement in what is now Petaluma, just as nearby Santa Rosa at the time consisted only of the smaller adode house of Dona Maria Carrillo, Vallejo's mother-in-law.

The Petaluma River flows right through downtown and it is the reason why Petaluma exists and why it was an important town early in California's history. The town is at the most navigable point of the river, a tidal slough, and still has a functioning draw bridge.

Downtown Petaluma has many ironfront and other victorian buildings. One, the 3-story Mutual Relief Building, has an old Coca-Cola ad that has been there for many decades. I don't remember how old it is, but I think it has been there since about 1920. The Mutual Relief Building (back seen here) , built in 1885, and the nearby McNear building epitomise Petaluma's downtown.

Petaluma has a beautiful old Carnegie library downtown, built in 1904, which has a stained-glass dome. It was used as the libary until 1976 and is now a museum.

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Here is a tip for boaters: The Petaluma Marina has 190 slips, free parking, phone service, utilities, restrooms, security, and other amenities.