THE RENAMING OF CENTER PARK AS HISTORIC CHINATOWN PARK
Nothing casts a spotlight on an old landmark like a new name. Center Park’s recent redesignation as “Historic Chinatown Park” pays tribute to the 19th century, when the site was part of Petaluma’s Chinatown. During that time it evolved from a makeshift hitching post into the pocket park that served as Petaluma’s pop-up town square for the next century.
Ironically, it did so after driving out the Chinese.
The history of the site dates back to Petaluma’s founding. In 1852, George H. Keller, a failed gold miner from Missouri, staked out a squatter’s claim on 158 acres of a Mexican land grant he didn’t own. He then laid out on 40 acres of the claim a street grid for the town of Petaluma.[1]
Centered around Hill Plaza (today’s Penry Park), Keller’s grid ran parallel to the Petaluma slough, extending from Main to Liberty streets, and Western Avenue to Oak Street. After selling off a number of lots, Keller returned to Missouri. Before he did, he sold a large section of his remaining claim to 26-year-old Columbus Tustin.
Tustin first ventured west with his parents on the Oregon Trail in 1847. He arrived in the area in 1851, after a brief stint in gold country. In 1853, he developed the land he acquired from Keller into Petaluma’s second subdivision, Tustin’s Addition. Centered around D Street Plaza (today’s Walnut Park), it extended from First to Eighth streets, and A to F Streets. [2]
Like Keller, Tustin aligned his street grid with the slough, presumably to provide shipping access to prospective businesses along First Street. Because the slough took an eastward bend at Western Avenue, his street grid intersected with Keller’s original grid at a 45-degree angle. That produced a slanted junction where Kentucky Street met Fourth Street, Keller Street met Fifth, and Liberty Street met Sixth.
At the angled intersection of Main and Third streets, Tustin created a rectangular square. He did so by cutting off half of the north side of B Street between Third and Fourth streets. Farmers hauling goods into town quickly claimed the space for parking their horse-drawn wagons.
The entire block between Western Avenue and B Street, incorporating the intersection of Main and Third streets, soon became known as Lower Main Street. (Main and Third streets were combined into Petaluma Boulevard North and South in 1958, with B Street serving as the dividing line).[3] In the 1860s, Lower Main became the commercial hub of the local Chinese and German immigrant communities.
The German district extended along the west side of the street, anchored by two German-owned hotels, the Union at the corner of Main Street and Western Avenue, and the Cosmopolitan, now the site of the parking lot made famous by the film “American Graffiti.” In between sat the Centennial Building (today’s Lan Mart Building), which housed German shops, a horse stable, and the Druids Lodge, where the local German community held social gatherings.[4]
The rest of the block was part of Chinatown, which extended down Third Street between B and D streets. Home to Chinese dwellings, laundries, restaurants, tobacco shops, and a herbalist doctor, the district also included a Chinese Freemasons Lodge, the Chinese Mission School, and a joss house, or Taoist-Buddhist temple.[5]
In 1871, merchants in Lower Main enhanced Tustin’s square with hitching posts, a horse trough, and a well.[6] A decade later the city removed them, reportedly to build a parking garage for sheltering horses from the sun and rain. Instead, the site reverted to being a makeshift parking lot during a lull in the city’s growth.[7]
While the national recession of the 1870s had receded, the California wheat boom, a major source of Petaluma’s prosperity since the late 1850s, collapsed in the 1880s.[8] The city’s population, which grew to 3,500 by 1870, dropped in 1880 to 3,300. It would remain under 4,000 until the early 1900s, when a local egg boom revitalized the local economy.[9]
Attempting to address the lull, business leaders launched a commercial redevelopment of the Lower Main Street area. It began in 1882 with construction of the Masonic Building at the corner of Main Street and Western Avenue. A town clock was installed atop the building to signify this intersection was the new center of town, replacing Keller’s original center at Main and Washington streets.[10]
The Masonic Building was soon joined by three new iron front buildings along Western Avenue, beginning with the Mutual Relief Building at the corner of Kentucky Street. It replaced Wah Lee’s Chinese laundry, which was torched by an arsonist in 1883. After that, the city banned laundries—new and existing—from operating in a downtown “fire limit” zone that included Lower Main Street.[11]
In 1886, the Chinese were temporarily driven from Petaluma during a surge in anti-Chinese sentiment across Sonoma County. In their absence, capitalist John A. McNear, the largest employer of Chinese laborers in the area, razed a group of Chinese dwellings on Lower Main, constructing the 1886 McNear Building in their place.[12]
That same year, members of the city council, then known as the Board of Trustees, personally funded an upgrade of Lower Main’s ad-hoc parking lot. Installing new hitching posts, a water trough, cobblestone paving, and shade trees for the horses, they rechristened it Lower Main Street Plaza.[13]
A commercial gentrification of Lower Main soon followed, pushing returning members of the Chinese community to Third Street between B and D streets.
By the 1890s, Lower Main Street Plaza had become Petaluma’s pop-up town square, regularly hosting political orators, concerts, parade stands, National Guard drills, street vendors, estate auctions, horse sales, Christmas festivities, and the city’s Fourth of July fireworks.[14]
In 1920, with automobiles having replaced horse-drawn wagons and carriages, the city council voted to raze Lower Main Street Plaza for additional parking. Outraged citizens called instead for its beautification, pointing out it served as a perfect gateway to Petaluma for passing auto tourists en route to the Russian River and California’s redwood groves. A chastened city council quickly reversed its decision, outfitting the plaza with grass and new plantings.[15]
During Petaluma’s Egg Day Celebration in 1921, two local banks sponsored a contest to rename Lower Main Street Plaza. “Mainway”—a combination of Main Street and highway—was chosen as the winner. The name “Center Park,” signifying the plaza’s location between Hill Plaza (today’s Penry Park) and Walnut Park, came in third.[16] The actual renaming was postponed until 1925, when Park Commissioner Hiram “Hoppy” Hopkins successfully lobbied the city to rename it Center Park.[17]
For Christmas in 1930, the Petaluma Garden Club planted a living Norway spruce in the park in place of the large Christmas tree traditionally erected for the holidays. More trees were added in subsequent years until overcrowding led the city to reduce them to just three redwoods in 1963.[18]
In the 1970s, Center Park found itself at the heart of a downtown historic revival that began with the adaptive reuse of the Lan Mart, Great Petaluma Mill, and two McNear buildings. In response, the city upgraded the park with new benches, brick pathways, bicycle racks, and an extension of its northern end.[19]
A facsimile of the El Camino Real Bell was also mounted in the park, in recognition of the Spanish missionaries who passed through the area on their way to establishing a new mission in Sonoma.[20]
Today, the pocket park is dominated by three towering redwood trees. Its new renaming as Historic Chinatown Park commemorates part of the rich history the site has borne witness to since its mysterious creation by Columbus Tustin in 1853.
A version of this story appeared in the April 11, 2025 edition of the Petaluma Argus-Courier.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Munro-Fraser, pp. 259-260; “Tustin’s Family Traced,” The Tustin News, March 25, 1982; “The Story of the True Founder of Petaluma,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, February 11, 2021.
[2] “A Bend in the River: The Legacy of Columbus Tustin,” Petaluma Historian.com, July 10, 2021, https://petalumahistorian.com/category/columbus-tustin/
[3] The boundaries of Tustin’s Addition and Keller development, entitled Brewster’s Survey, are specified in Thos. H. Thompson’s Map of Sonoma County, 1877, Sonoma County Library; “Supervisors Vote to Change Name of Old U.S. 101,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, July 9, 1958.
[4] Ad for Pfau’s purchase of livery, Petaluma Argus, April 13, 1865; Ad, Petaluma Argus, October 1873; “Local Brevities,” Petaluma Argus, July 23, 1875; “Pfau’s Centennial Building,” Petaluma Argus, March 3, 1876 “Centennial Headquarters,” Petaluma Argus, July 14, 1876; Ad for Centennial Saloon and Music Hall,” Petaluma Courier, March 7, 1878; Ad for Eureka horse, Petaluma Courier, May 31, 1877; Ad, Petaluma Courier, March 24, 1880; “The Druids,” Petaluma Courier, December 22, 1880; Adair Heig, History of Petaluma: A California River Town (Petaluma, CA: Scottwall Associates, 1982), p. 143.
[5] Chinese stores and dwellings of “shanties” are listed in the 1883 Sanborn map of Petaluma extending along Western Avenue from Kentucky to Main Street, and from there down Main and Third streets to D Street, as well as along B Street from Main Street to Fourth Street: “Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Petaluma, Sonoma County, California,” Library of Congress.gov, https://www.loc.gov/item/sanborn00756_005.
[6] “Board of Trustees,” Petaluma Argus, August 19, 1871.
[7] “Will Be Restored,” Petaluma Argus, December 2, 1881; “Should Be Replaced,” Petaluma Courier, January 4, 1882; “Hitching Posts Needed,” Petaluma Courier, December 17, 1884; “Hitching Posts,” Petaluma Courier, January 7, 1885;
[8] James Gerber, “The Gold Rush Origins of California’s Wheat Economy,” Open Access Library (OALib.com), 2010, https://www.oalib.com/research/880871.
[9] U.S. Census, http://www.bayareacensus.ca.gov/cities/Petaluma.htm; Petaluma’s population in 1870 is cited in: “Incorrect,” Petaluma Argus, November 5, 1870, and “Population of California Cities,” Petaluma Argus, November 19, 1870.
[10] “Let’s Have A City Clock,” Petaluma Argus, July 29, 1881; “Dedication of Masonic Temple,” Petaluma Argus, April 21, 1882; “Courierlets,” Petaluma Courier, May 24, 1882.
[11] “Another Blaze,” Petaluma Courier, February 14, 1883; “Polly Larkin’s Pot-Pourri,” Petaluma Courier, October 1, 1884; A downtown fire limit zone was first established regarding the new construction of wooden buildings in 1875. It was amended in 1884 to include a ban on laundries within the city’s fire limits, which extended from Washington to B streets, and Main to Kentucky and Fourth streets: “The Fire Limits,” Petaluma Argus, April 2, 1875; “Legal Notice: Ordinance No. 11,” Petaluma Courier, November 19, 1884.
[12] “A Terrible Crime,” Petaluma Courier, January 27, 1886; “Ah Ti, the Murderer,” Petaluma Argus, January 30, 1886; Anti-Coolie Meeting,” Sonoma Democrat, February 6, 1886; “Going Below,” Petaluma Argus, February 13, 1866; “Sebastopol Anti-Chinese League,” Sonoma Democrat, February 27, 1886; “Blew Them Up,” Petaluma Argus, March 10, 1886; Chinatown fires (no headline) Petaluma Courier, September 21, 1887; “An Additional Story,” Petaluma Argus, April 3, 1886; Jeff Elliot examines holes in the accusations against the Wickersham’s cook: “The Wickersham Murders,” “Who Killed the Wickershams,” Santarosahistory.com, http://santarosahistory.com/wordpress/2017/05/the-wickersham-murders/.
[13] “Improvement,” Petaluma Argus, January 28, 1886; “Good,” Petaluma Courier, June 1, 1887; “About Streets,” Petaluma Courier, July 6, 1887.
[14] “Town Topics,” Petaluma Courier, May 21, 1893; “Courierlets,” Petaluma Courier, October 8, 1895; “Independent Foresters,” Petaluma Courier, October 9, 1896; “Salvation Meeting,” Petaluma Courier, November 13, 1896; “Courierlets,” Petaluma Courier, July 19, 1897; “Socialist Speaker,” Petaluma Courier, October 12, 1897; “The Day,” Petaluma Courier, July 3, 1901; “The Day Fireworks,” Petaluma Courier, July 5, 1902; “Tonight’s Band Concert,” Petaluma Courier, July 5, 1902; “Local Notes, Petaluma Argus, May 23, 1903; “City Trustees,” Petaluma Courier, August 16, 1904; “Congressman D.E. McKinlay,” Petaluma Argus, August 6, 1910; “Opening Band Concert,” Petaluma Courier, May 13, 1915; “G.W. Hoyle Will Be Speaker at Saturday’s Demonstration,” Petaluma Argus, April 15, 1918; “Band Concert Here Tonight,” Petaluma Argus, August 22, 1925; “Armistice Day Parade,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, November 8, 1930; “1934 Parade of Witches,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, October 17, 1934.
[15] “Council Votes Parking Place on Lower Main,” Petaluma Courier, October 19, 1920; “Beautify Main Street,” Petaluma Courier, October 20, 1920; “The Lower Main Street Park Will Remain as Originally Planned,” Petaluma Argus, November 2, 1920.
[16] “Official Program for the Great Egg Day Celebration,” Petaluma Argus, April 19, 1921; “Prize Winners For Park Name,” Petaluma Argus, July 1, 1921; “Park Name is Debated by Council,” Petaluma Argus, July 6, 1921; “City Council Takes First Steps for Street Improvements and Repairs,” Petaluma Argus, July 19, 1921.
[17] “City Council Staged Forum on City Rezoning and the Type of Street Pavement to Be Used on Three Thoroughfares,” Petaluma Argus, August 4, 1925; “Hiram Hopkins Rounds Out 50 Years at G.P. McNears,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, June 1, 1951.
[18] “News Notes,” Petaluma Argus, December 13, 1916; “Living Yuletide Tree Planted,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, April 10, 1930; Petaluma Argus-Courier, November 8, 1930; “Santa Claus Will Arrive Here Tonight for the Big Christmas Festival,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, December 2, 1933; “Grand Xmas Opening Here to Take Place Tonight; Band Concert at Center Park,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, December 3, 1938; “Yuletide Street Decorations Dedication Here Tonight,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, November 30, 1946; “McDowell Park Work Urged by Recreation Unit,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, January 18, 1963; “Full Agenda Before City Rec Group,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, February 7, 1963.
[19] “The Birth of Petaluma’s River City Revival,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, May 10, 2023; “Center Park Facelift,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, April 30, 1980; “Park Refurbishing Completed,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, May 30, 1980.
[20] “Petaluma May Soon Receive El Camino Real Mission Bell,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, June 4, 1976; “Council Rejects Zoning for Apartment Complex,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, November 17, 1976; “Bell Marks Visit by Mission Priests,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, December 2, 1977.