Petaluma timeline

1776

• Capt. Fernando Quiroz, a Spanish explorer, sails up from San Francisco Bay to see if the Petaluma Creek will lead to Bodega Bay.

1831

• John Martin, a runaway sailor, leases the Two Rock-Chileno Valley-Petaluma area from the Mexican governor. He is the first non-aboriginal settler.

1836

• Mexican General Mariano G. Vallejo, commander of the northern frontier, begins construction of his adobe hacienda. The project takes 10 years to complete.

1846

• The three-week Bear Flag Revolt ends with the American flag being raised at Monterey on July 7, ending the Mexican era. Vallejo, once the most powerful man in Northern California, loses much of his land and influence.

1852

• Garrett W. Keller commissions the first official survey of Petaluma, establishing lots and streets.

• The first American Hotel is constructed on Main Street.

1853-54

• Petaluma’s first bridge is built across the Petaluma River — connecting Hopper and Bridge streets near the current site of Hunt & Behrens.

1855

• Petaluma’s first newspaper, the Petaluma Journal and Sonoma County Advertiser, is established by Henry Weston and Thomas L. Thompson.

• The Petaluma Brewery, the first of its kind in Sonoma County, is established by Christlich & Erbe.

1856

• John A. McNear and his wife, Clara, arrive in Petaluma to join Clara’s father, George Williams, the proprietor of the first American Hotel. McNear becomes one of the largest property owners in Petaluma.

1857

• The first fire company in Petaluma is established on June 10.

• Petaluma’s population is 1,338.

• Water is introduced into Petaluma for the first time by William Henley.

1858

• An act to incorporate the town of Petaluma is approved by the state Legislature on April 12.

• The first municipal policeman, John Brown, is appointed at a salary of $60 a month.

1860

• The B Street School, a 48-by-48-foot brick building, is constructed at the corner of B and Fifth streets, replacing an earlier wooden, one-room schoolhouse.

1864

• John A. McNear and his brother, George, erect a brick warehouse on what in later years would be known as the site of the Golden Eagle Milling Company.

1865

• Isaac Wickersham, one of the area’s earliest settlers, establishes the county’s first private banking firm.

1866

• Charles Minturn opens the Petaluma & Haystack Railroad, only the third such railroad in the state at that time. The train runs 21⁄2 miles along the west bank of the river from Haystack Landing into town.

• George Purdy builds the three-story Cosmopolitan Hotel on Main Street.

• Cypress Hill Cemetery is established by John A. McNear.

• Mark Twain visits Petaluma and lectures on the Sandwich Islands.

1867

• St. Vincent’s Academy is established by two members of the Order of Charity, founded in France by Vincent de Paul.

• The Independent Order of Odd Fellows of Petaluma organizes the first public library.

• Professor E.S. Lippitt establishes a private academy on D Street that is purchased by the Board of Education in 1873 for use as a public high school.

• J. Cavanagh’s Lumber Yard is established on East Washington Street.

1868

• A disastrous fire destroys several downtown buildings on Oct. 1.

1871

• Peter Donahue initiates regular service on his newly constructed San Francisco and Santa Rosa railroad line, securing Petaluma’s position as a commercial hub as products could now be shipped by both steamer and train.

1872

• Another disastrous downtown fire causes $75,000 in damage on March 23.

1873

• The Citizens Gas Company receives rights to lay gas mains in Petaluma.

1879

• The first practical egg incubator is invented by Petalumans Lyman Byce and Isaac Dias.

1880

• President Rutherford B. Hayes, accompanied by Secretary of War Alexander Ramsey, Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman and Gov. George Perkins, visits Petaluma in September, at the invitation of his former Cincinnati law partner Ed-ward S. Lippitt, a Petaluma attorney.

1883

• A drawbridge at D Street over the Petaluma River is constructed. • Main Street is paved with basalt blocks.

1885

• Some of Petaluma’s most ornate buildings are constructed featuring cast-iron facades and Italianate detailing.

1886

• One hundred walnut trees are planted at the D Street Plaza (now known as Walnut Park).

1887

• Petaluma City Hall, designed by prominent architects, Samuel and Joseph Newsom, is completed at a cost of $16,000.

1892

• The Carlson Currier Company builds a silk mill on property purchased from John A. McNear at Jefferson and Erwin streets. The building is the only one of its type in Sonoma County.

1895

• The Petaluma Woman’s Club is organized.

1898

• The Petaluma Street Railroad runs for the last time.

1900

• The Olmsted family assumes ownership of the Petaluma Argus.

1902

• Lyman Byce patents the first incubator.

1904

• The first spike for the Petaluma & Santa Rosa Railway is driven on Copeland Street.

• Construction begins on the Petaluma Free Public Library at Fourth and B streets, funded mostly by a $12,500 donation from Andrew Carnegie. The Brainerd Jones-designed building, which opened in 1906, today serves as a museum.

• A government report states that 90 percent of the people living near Petaluma are raising poultry.

1905

• The Petaluma Chamber of Commerce is formed.

1911

• Fred J. Wiseman makes the first airmail flight, delivering a letter from Petaluma to Santa Rosa. The airplane is now at the Smithsonian Museum.

1912

• Elsa Little opens Petaluma General Hospital at Sixth and I streets. The 33-bed hospital operates until 1974 and is torn down in 1975 to make room for a cluster of apartments.

1913

• The Petaluma Cooperative Creamery is organized with 35 stockholders and 1,900 cows.

1915

• Philip Sweed, president of the Board of Education, signs the contract for construction of the new high school on Fair Street.

1916

• The Poultry Producers of Central California is formed by a marketing cooperative of Petaluma chicken farmers.

1918

• Bert Kerrigan, promoter and Petaluma Chamber of Commerce manager, dubs Petaluma “The Egg Basket of the World.” The first Egg Day celebration is held.

1923

• J.E. Keyes opens the world’s only chicken pharmacy on Main Street. An avian pathology institu-tion — also the only one of its kind — is established in Petaluma.

1925

• The Petaluma Jewish Center (now Congregation B’nai Israel) opens on Western Avenue.

1926

• The last of Petaluma’s “China Town,” located on the east side of Petaluma Boulevard between C and D streets, is torn down. This is the current site of Theatre Square.

• George P. McNear and his wife, Ida, donate a six-acre parcel of land bound by F, G, Ninth and 11th streets to the city with the stipula-tion that it be developed as a park.

1932

• Passenger service is terminated on the Petaluma & Santa Rosa Railway.

1933

• A new post office is built at the corner of Fourth and D streets.

• A steel bascule bridge is con-structed at D Street, replacing an earlier turn bridge that was built in 1883.

1938

• Several public projects are undertaken:

• Wickersham Park becomes a reality years after the land was bequeathed to the City of Petaluma by the late Elizabeth Wickersham Maclay along with a gift of $15,000 for its maintenance.

• The fire station on D Street is completed. George P. McNear had donated the land that the station was built upon to the City of Petaluma in 1926.

• A state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant is constructed on Hopper Street. Harry N. Jenks, a pioneer in the sanitary engineering field, designed the plant, only the third of its type to be used in the country.

1940

• Sunset Line & Twine moves to Petaluma from San Francisco.

1946

• The Petaluma Leghorns, a semi-pro football team, is formed and plays one game. The team continues until 1958.

• The Petaluma Hospital District is formed to oversee health care and administration of Petaluma General Hospital. An elected board of directors oversees the district, which later becomes known as the Petaluma Health Care District.

1947

• Petaluma residents vote for a new city charter adopting a city manager form of government, ending a 12-year struggle. The move was opposed by the City Council.

1949

• McKinley Elementary School is built on Ellis Street.

• Sky Ranch Airport opens. It is later renamed Petaluma Municipal Airport.

1950

• The Petaluma, the last steamboat on the Petaluma Creek or any California river, makes its final trip.

1951

• McDowell Village, the first subdivision to be built east of Highway 101, is constructed. It is bound by McNeil, McDowell, McKenzie and Coronado.

1952

• The first wristwrestling match is held in Gilardi’s Corner, a tavern on the northeast corner of Washington and Kentucky streets. The contest, between Oliver

Kullberg and Jack Homel, is the forerunner of the annual world wristwrestling championships.

1955

• Petaluma’s new City Hall at 11 English St. is dedicated, replacing the old City Hall which had been built in 1887 on the site of what is now the A Street parking lot.

1956

• A new four-lane freeway is completed, bypassing downtown Petaluma.

1957

• A new hospital, Hillcrest, opens on Hayes Lane.

• A fire begins in the balcony of the then-California Theater (now the Phoenix) and burns for about seven hours before it is brought under control.

1958

• Main Street and Third Street are renamed Petaluma Boulevard North and Petaluma Boulevard South. The new names are thought to be more modern.

1959

• The Petaluma Creek is upgraded to a river by an act of Congress and signed by President Eisenhower.

1967

• The Golden Eagle Milling Co. at Second and C streets is destroyed by fire.

1968

• Fire destroys the Continental Hotel at Western Avenue and Kent-ucky Street. Washington Mutual Bank is now located at the site.

1969

• The Healey Mansion, once known as one of Petaluma’s most stately homes, is demolished and replaced by a gas station at the corner of Washington and Keokuk Streets.

1970

• Petaluma Plaza shopping center on North McDowell Boulevard opens.

• Eastside elementary schools begin holding double sessions, creating a public uproar over city growth policies.

1971

• One hundred years of passenger service on the Northwestern Pacific Railroad comes to an end.

1972

• Casa Grande High School, a new public high school, opens at 333 Casa Grande Road.

• The City Council enacts a controversial ordinance limiting new construction to 500 residential units per year. The ordinance is challenged in the courts by the building industry, but is eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in a landmark ruling in 1976.

• Movie director George Lucas comes to Petaluma to shoot scenes for “American Graffiti.” In the following years, more filmmakers use Petaluma as a location for movies like “Peggy Sue Got Married,” “Lolita” and “Mumford.”

1973

• The Washington Square Shopping Center opens for business.

1974

• The City of Petaluma adopts a Historic Preservation Ordinance and establishes a Historic and Cultural Preservation Committee.

1975

• Skip Sommer begins a major renovation of the Great Petaluma Mill, a complex of stone, brick and wood buildings. At the time this project was considered the biggest rehabilitation project to be undertaken in the downtown area.

• The Petaluma Cooperative Creamery at Western Avenue and Upham Street is damaged by a fire.

1976

• The Petaluma Growth Plan, which limits new construction to 500 units per year, is upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

1977

• The new library at East Washington and Payran streets is dedicated on July 10. The project costs $750,000 in library bonds, plus $200,000 from Sonoma County.

1978

• The old Carnegie Library at Fourth and B Streets is officially named the museum and historical library by the City Council.

• The Friedman Brothers Hardware building on East Washington Street is destroyed by a fire. The Downtown River Apartments are now located on the site.

1980

• Lucchesi Park, a 31-acre park, opens. It is named in memory of Mario “Moch” Lucchesi, a Petaluma native and beloved supporter of youth activities in Petaluma.

• Petaluma Valley Hospital opens on North McDowell Boulevard, replacing Hillcrest Hospital.

1982

• The first of a series of winter floods inundates residents in the Payran Street area, causing millions of dollars of damage. City and federal officials eventually work out a flood control project, which is finally completed 25 years later.

• Voters reject a proposed development called Frates Ranch at Lakeville and Frates roads.

1985

• The 177-acre Helen Putnam Regional Park is dedicated.

1987

• Optilink, founded by Don Green, is the first telecom corporation to locate in Petaluma. Other high-tech companies soon follow suit and Petaluma becomes a magnet for telecommunications firms such as Alcatel, Advanced Fibre Communications and Cerent. Over the years the North McDowell Boulevard area earns the name “Telecom Valley.”

• Furniture cleaning rags left in the basement of the Apple Box at 124 Kentucky St. spark a spontaneous combustion, causing $300,000 in damages to the kitchenware and gift store. After a community fund-raiser, the business re-opens in the Great Petaluma Mill.

1989

• The Corona Ely Specific Plan is adopted which opened up the entire northeast section of the community to a new type of development. Chicken ranches and hay farms give way to residential subdivisions and other development.

1993

• Twelve-year-old Polly Klaas is abducted from her bedroom by a bearded, knife-wielding stranger. The case attracts national atten-tion as the community mobilizes to search for the girl. Two months later, a suspect is arrested and Polly’s body is found. Richard Allen Davis is convicted and sentenced to death for the crime.

1994

• Sonoma County’s first factory outlet mall opens in Petaluma.

• Mattei’s Clothing Store, a Petaluma landmark for 87 years, closes its Kentucky Street doors.

1995

• The Petaluma campus of Santa Rosa Junior College opens at 680 Sonoma Mountain Parkway.

• Petaluma’s downtown is formally listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1996

• The visionary Petaluma River Access and Enhancement Plan is approved by the City Council after five years of planning. The $1.6 million plan reaches 30 years into the future, making the Petaluma River the focal point for the community.

1997

• The Petaluma Health Care District signs a contract with St. Joseph Health System of Sonoma County, stipulating that SJHS will operate the hospital for the next 20 years. The contract was maintained during a due-diligence review in 2006.

1998

• Petaluma voters approve a 20-year urban growth boundary.

• Four people plead guilty or no contest to felony charges of circulating petitions with forged signatures for two proposed 1996 ballot initiatives involving Lafferty Ranch, a city-owned property in Sonoma Mountain. Both initiatives would have denied public access to Lafferty. The property remains closed to the public today.

1999

• Petaluma telecom startup Cerent Corp. is acquired by San Jose networking giant Cisco Systems for $7.3 billion, the largest buyout in Sonoma County history.

2002

• A faulty water heater ignites a fire that guts five businesses in the 100 block of Kentucky Street, including Buona Sera restaurant. Damage is placed at $3.5 million. Less than two years later, a new structure is completed that now houses Infusions bar, Louis Thomas men’s wear and other businesses.

2003

• The Central Petaluma Specific Plan, encompassing a 400-acre project area, is adopted after six years of effort by city staff, elected officials and volunteer committee members. The plan, a blueprint for development, is intended to kick-start an economic revital-ization of the downtown area.

2004

• In May, the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery closes after 91 years of operation.

2006

• Petalumans wake up Jan. 1 with muddy floodwaters soaking stores, homes and roads throughout the northern part of town — and causing $56 million in damage. In the next six months, the city’s response ranges from ordering new stormwater studies for the draft General Plan to enacting a temporary building moratorium in the floodplain.

• A two-alarm fire guts Tomasini’s Rex Ace Hardware and Country Store at 313 B St. on June 24. There is an outpouring of community support and owner Jeff Tomasini vows to rebuild. A new store reopens on the same site a little over a year later.

2007

• Theatre Square, the last piece of a $100 million downtown renovation project by Basin Street Properties, opens. The six-block Theatre District includes a 12-screen movie theater, restaurants, offices and living units.