Historic Downtown Petaluma

Since Petaluma was fortunate to have been spared during the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, hundreds of pre-quake buildings are spread throughout the city. A concentration of such buildings is rare in an old California town, and Petaluma's downtown has an abundance. Numerous structures date back to 1870, but a large number are from the 1890s through 1920s, during Petaluma's chicken and egg boom. Downtown Petaluma is a virtual museum of turn of the century architecture.

Perhaps most noteworthy is the 1904 Carnegie Library, shown here. Most of the $16,000 funding was provided by Andrew Carnegie, who at the time was using profits from his steel fortune to build libraries across the country. This beautiful Neo-classical revival building includes the largest free-standing leaded glass dome in California. It was replaced by a larger modern library in 1976, but the building remains in use as the Petaluma Historical Museum.

The wide variety of architectural styles in the downtown area have made Petaluma a fully-functioning backlot for Hollywood Productions. Any era of buildings is available, and as many as 25 movies have taken advantage of Petaluma's architectural uniqueness.