A snapshot history of the Derby Building at 199 Petaluma Blvd. North
Derby Building, 1875, 199 Petaluma Boulevard North (Photo Sonoma County Library)
The Great Petaluma Fire of 1872 changed the face of the gateway into town. The wooden buildings on both the northwest and southwest corners of Petaluma Boulevard and Washington Street were destroyed. Developers quickly swooped in to fill the void. [i]
On the northwest corner, wheat merchants John and George W. McNear erected a large Italianate building to house both the Bank of Sonoma County and the Washington Hotel.
On the southwest corner, Andrew B. Derby used the same elegant style for his Derby Building. [ii]
Italianate architecture was all the rage in the 1870s. To emulate the opulent homes of the Italian countryside, architects applied mass-produced cast-iron ornamentation to the buildings. The new McNear and Derby Italianate buildings set the trend for Petaluma’s Main Street architecture for the next two decades.
Like the McNears, Derby arrived in Petaluma from New England in the late 1850s, and quickly became as a dealer in local real estate.[iii] Before the 1872 fire, his main tenant on the corner of Main and Washington streets was a newspaper and magazine shop. The new Italianate building attracted a classier clientele.[iv]
For many years, Morris Cigar Store anchored the corner storefront, with a grocery or dry goods store in the Main Street storefront, and the Petaluma Courier newspaper and its presses in the Washington Street storefront. Upstairs was filled with the offices of dentists and doctors and a hall for performances, social gatherings, and community meetings. [v]
After Derby’s death in 1896, his heirs maintained the building until 1922, when it was purchased by John McNear’s son, George P. McNear. In 1925, McNear tore the Derby Building down, replacing it with a new Italian Renaissance style building to house the Sonoma County National Bank and the Petaluma Savings Bank. Covered in terra cotta tiles, the building was distinguished by its 28-foot high, cathedral-like ceiling, a popular style of banks at the time.[vi]
In 1928, the Bank of America purchased the building to serve as its regional branch. Two years later, the Bank of America also purchased the Bank of Italy across the street on the northwest corner of Main and Washington streets to serve as its Petaluma branch.[vii]
The Bank of America operated both corner locations until 1968, when it combined the two branches into a new building on the northwest side of Washington Street and Petaluma Boulevard.[viii]
The former Sonoma County National Bank building on the southwest corner served as a real estate office in 1970s and 80s, a rug and antiques store in the 1990s and 2000s, and headquarters of The Seed Bank, an heirloom seed company, from 2009 to 2018. Since that time it has remained vacant. [ix]
FOOTNOTES:
[i] “Real Estate in Petaluma,” Petaluma Argus, March 30, 1872.
[ii] “Work Progress,” Petaluma Argus, April 20, 1872.
[iii] Ad, Petaluma Argus, March 18, 1869; “A Sudden Summons,” Petaluma Courier, December 9, 1896.
[iv] The News Depot was originally operated by G.C. Codding until 1866, when Derby took it over, apparently for Codding’s indebtedness, and Codding moved across the street. Derby sold the business in 1867 to Mose Korn: Ad, Petaluma Argus, June 7, 1866; Ad, Petaluma Argus, June 21, 1866.
[v] Ad, Petaluma Argus, March 17, 1873; “New Firm-New Store,” Petaluma Argus, September 11, 1874; “Local Brevities,” Petaluma Argus, September 10, 1880; “Par Excellence Club,” Petaluma Argus, September 13, 1872; “Entertainment To-Night,” October 31, 1872; “Woolen Mill Meeting,” Petaluma Argus, April 18, 1873.
[vi] “M. Goldman Buys Derby Block,” Petaluma Courier, January 5, 1922; “National Bank to Have New Home,” Petaluma Courier, February 2, 1923; “Doors of New Bank Building to Be Thrown Open to Public Tomorrow,” “The Marble Work for New Bank is a Real Work of Art,” Petaluma Argus, April 24, 1926; “Big Corner Deal Formally Closed and Bank of Italy Now in Possession,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, April 1, 1927.
[vii] Local Banks Merged with Bank of America,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, December 4, 1928; “A.P. Gianni to Merge Banks,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, September 4, 1930.
[viii] “Bank Opening,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, January 10, 1969.
[ix] Ad for Westgate Realty, Petaluma Argus-Courier, April 15, 1972; “Westgate Merges, Moves Across Town,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, January 12, 1987; “Setting Up Shop,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, October 10, 1995; “Ad for Monarch Interiors, Petaluma Argus-Courier, March 7, 2007; “Old Bank Building ‘Goes to Seed,’” Petaluma Argus-Courier, June 11, 2009; “Seed Bank Leaving Iconic Petaluma Bank Building,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, January 4, 2018.