The evolution of Petaluma’s Walnut Park

The Petaluma city block known as Walnut Park is a glowing example of how energetic public spirit can affect a community. It has taken 143 years, a great deal of effort and a lot of fund raising, but we now have a park in which the whole community can be proud.

In 1873, what is now Petaluma’s Walnut Park was built as the second park in town - Hill Plaza was the first. The City Trustees - the precursor to the City Council - had purchased the block just 14 years after the incorporation of Petaluma.

Mill owner John McNear donated half the purchase price of $1,250 and school master Edward Lippitt donated a plan for the plaza. Later in 1886, 76 walnut trees were purchased to provide shade.

In 1876, the Petaluma Ladies Improvement Club, led by Mrs. Addie Atwater, jumped aboard the cause of improving the 3-year-old park, which had lapsed into poor condition. The park was located directly across the street from Mrs. Atwater’s home on the corner of 4th and E streets. That home, a magnificent Italianate Victorian with separate carriage house, was originally constructed by Petaluma banker, Isaac Wickersham.

In 1875, he sold it to his bank manager, Henry Atwater.

The Atwaters had come to Petaluma from the East Coast via the Isthmus of Panama in 1859. There were just 867 residents here then, and the dynamic Addie Atwater became very busy, as she soon founded both the Petaluma Ladies Improvement Club and the Petaluma Humane Society.

When viewing the unkempt park, Addie exclaimed: “For the shame of it all, there is no place in town for children, without fear of runaway horses or stock!”

Addie championed landscaping plans for many Petaluma streets and parks, and later, in 1900, she promoted the sale of her lot on Kentucky and B streets to the city for our Carnegie Library.

Her sales price of $2,500 in gold coin was just half the lot’s value then. The Carnegie building, completed in 1906, is now the Petaluma Historical Library & Museum.

Pioneer Addie Atwater passed away in 1912, 15 years after her husband Henry, had died. Her noted pallbearers included Frank Lippit, Thomas Maclay, John Camm and G. P. McNear.

In 1925, famed architect Brainerd Jones donated the design of a playroom at Walnut Park. Years later, that small structure was remodeled into public restrooms, when the Petaluma Rotary Club donated the children’s playground and equipment.

In 1927, the bandstand was created by donations from the Petaluma Host Lions Club and fellow Lions. Walter Singleton built it and George Van Bebber donated the iron fence.

The concrete foundation was put in by Will Silva. A marble tablet commemorates the Petaluma Host Lions Club at the foundation.

In 2000, the U.S. Library of Congress officially recognized Walnut Park as a “Historic American Landscape” that was “significant in social history as a community builder.”

Through the years, Walnut Park has been the center of activities ranging from farmer’s markets, art shows, flea markets, music functions, parades and political gatherings.

Presidential Candidate Adlai Stevenson spoke there in 1952 and President Ronald Reagan’s TV commercial, “Morning In America,” was shot there in 1984. Scenes from the Hollywood movies “American Graffiti” and “Heroes” were also shot there.

Historic Walnut Park is indeed a treasure to this community, and it has now received much needed upgrading and beautifying, thanks to the vigorous three-year effort of the Petaluma Service Alliance, an amalgam of seven service clubs, led by Petaluman Maureen Francis.

Our little jewel of a park is now prepped to function well for future generations to enjoy.

(Historian Skip Sommer is an Honorary Life Member of Heritage Homes and the Petaluma Historical Museum. Contact him at skipsommer@hotmail.com.)