We will start our new blog series titled, "The Petalumans of Yesteryear" with one of Petaluma's earliest outstanding citizens: Capt. Thomas Baylis. The texts of these blogs were written and posted several years ago on one of our community's first website, by PetalumaNet volunteers. (They were not written by this [...]
Readers of my "Then & Now" series may have noticed how the Petalumans associated with the various buildings featured in these blogs have been highlighted as well. From its beginning, our favorite river town owes its historic growth and development, as well as its uniqueness, to citizens from all walks [...]
Everyone in Petaluma knows where the former Golden Eagle Shopping Center (renamed River Plaza) is located (Now); but how many readers know what was there years ago (Then)? According to Adair Heig, "In 1885, S.C. and W.C. Percival teamed up with the Hill and the Fairbanks families to build the [...]
Since its beginning in the 1850s, Petaluma has had several hotels built, relocated, and/or destroyed over the years. The American Hotel, the Brooklyn Hotel, the Washington Hotel, the Union Hotel, the City Hotel, and the Revere House were five of the large, commodious, and well-constructed hotels built years ago. [...]
As we launch our ninth year as a blogger for the Argus-Courier's Petaluma360, we realize that our current "Then & Now" series involves prominent Petalumans from its earlier years and should be recognized as well as featuring the buildings they constructed way back "Then." For example ... Edward Spalding Lippitt, [...]
You may have read some of the newspaper articles about the need to keep our town clock in tune with the correct time. Both Katie Watts and Janelle Wetzstain wrote articles in 2013 that provided readers with significant information about the history of our town clock on top of the [...]
Prohibition ended 80 years ago, December 5, 1933 at 5:32 p.m., as the 21st Amendment was ratified. Last Thursday, Volpi's was the site for a local historical celebration. The U.S. Constitution prohibiting the manufacture, sale, and importation of intoxicating liquors was ratified on January 16, 1919. Its provisions went into [...]
The first American Hotel was built on Main Street in 1852, six years before Petaluma became an incorporated city. It was a one and one-half story hotel, used as a boarding house, erected by George B. Williams, but destroyed by a fire in 1862. It was replaced by a brick [...]
This Then & Now blog should be called the "Now & Then" blog. Why? The current building of Fourth Street was built in the 1930s (way back Then for some Petalumans). It is still there Now, 80 years later. This Spanish Colonial Revival and Spanish Gothic style structure was designed [...]