Category: Steiger Building

The Steiger Building

A snapshot history of the Steiger Building at 132 Petaluma Blvd. North

Steiger Building, c. 1870s, occupied upstairs by George Ross’ Photographic Gallery, and downstairs to the right by Charles Kubie’s tailor shop, and to the left by Wm. A. Steiger Gunsmithing, 132 Petaluma Blvd. North  (photo Petaluma Historical Library & Museum)

The Steiger Building may be the oldest building on Petaluma’s Main Street. Built in 1856 by Capt. Palmer Hewlett, commander of the Petaluma’s early militia, the Petaluma Guards, the two-story brick building was erected on the north side of the town’s first general store, Kent, Smith & Coe, which opened in 1852.[i]

Throughout the 1850s and 1860s, the storefront housed a series of groceries and dry goods, beginning with Elder & Hinman’s Dry Goods.

Elder & Hinman Dry Goods, 1857 (illustration from 1857 map of Petaluma, Sonoma County Library)

The upstairs floor initially served as the Petaluma Reading Room, a literary center where subscribers could read newspapers and journals from around the world, as well as books of philosophy, history, theology, romance, and poetry.[ii]

In 1870, the building became occupied by three tenants who would remain for more than two decades, Scottish photographer George Ross, German gunsmith Wilheim Steiger, and Czech Jewish tailor Charles Kubie. All three had been in business elsewhere on Main Street since the mid-1850s.[iii]

After Wilheim Steiger died in 1878, his son Peter took over the store with his own two sons, Joe and Bill. Rebranded Steiger’s Sporting Emporium, it became a local hub for anglers and hunters, and beginning in 1881, headquarters of the Petaluma’s Sportsman Club, which maintained a rod and gun club and game preserve along the river south of town.

Steiger Building occupied by Petaluma Photo Parlors on second floor and Steiger Sporting Goods Emporium on first floor , c. 1900  (photo Sonoma County Library)

The Steigers purchased the building in 1894, turning their shop into something of a technological innovation center. One of the first telephones used in the city in the late 1870s was developed at Steiger’s, connecting the store with the Steiger family home on Second Street. The store also introduced the first pumpguns and automatic revolvers in town, as well the first Victorola phonograph.[iv]

The young Joe Steiger became a transportation trailblazer, selling the first safety bicycles in town in 1892, the first autos in 1902, and establishing the first auto livery, or taxi service, in 1907. He also began offering Indian Motorcycles at the shop in 1908.[v]

In 1902, the tailor Kubie retired, providing the Steigers with the entire first floor, which they extensively remodeled, exchanging the brick storefront with plate glass windows to display their wares. They also installed an iron front cornice on the front of the building, adding their name at the top. In 1905, the Steigers expanded the back of building by 50 feet to open the city’s first auto repair garage, accessed via Water Street.[vi]

Joe Steiger took over the store after the deaths of his father in 1907 and brother in 1912. He himself died in 1924, along with his best friend, city councilman and contractor Hugh McCargar, while the two were bass fishing aboard a boat that capsized on the Petaluma River.[vii]

Steiger Building, c. 1930, occupied by California Water Services Company on the first floor (photo Sonoma County Library)

In 1928, the Steiger Building became the new local headquarters of the California Water Services Company, which had recently purchased the Petaluma Water and Power Company. After the City of Petaluma purchased the water company in 1959, the storefront was occupied by Century 21’s Petaluma Realty until 1997. The upstairs featured a rotating number of tenants including the Camp Girls Center.[viii]

Steiger Building, 1977, occupied by Century 21-Petaluma Realty on first floor (photo Sonoma County Library)

Since 2007, the storefront has been home to the Riverfront Art Gallery. The upstairs was occupied by Murray Rockowitz Photo Studio for more than 20 years until 2018.[ix]

Steiger Building, 2022, occupied by the Riverfront Art Gallery on the first floor (photo John Sheehy)

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FOOTNOTES:

[i] “Worked on Original Building,” Petaluma Courier, April 15, 1902; “Fire Bell,” Sonoma County Journal, December 25, 1857; “Real Estate Petaluma,” Sonoma County Journal, January 28, 1859;  “Death of Major Hewlett,” Petaluma Courier, January 8, 1896; Munro-Fraser, History of Sonoma County (Allen, Bowen & Co, 1880), pp. 260-261.

[ii] “The Work Goes Bravely On,” Sonoma County Journal, February 20, 1857; “Petaluma Reading Rooms,” Sonoma County Journal, January 16, 1857; Ad for Elder & Hinman’s, Sonoma County Journal, March 20, 1857; “Dr. Miles Hinman,” Petaluma Courier, May 25, 1897.

[iii] “Removed,” Petaluma Argus, July 30, 1870; “A Card,” Petaluma Argus, October 15, 1870; “For Rent, Petaluma Argus, August 13, 1870;  Munro-Fraser, p. 587; Ad for Steiger’s Gunsmith shop, Petaluma Argus, December 27, 1878 (note: established 1858);“On the Move,” Petaluma Argus, December 3, 1870; “Will Make Improvements,” Petaluma Courier, January 27, 1902; “Charles Kubie Dies at Age of 90 Years,” Petaluma Courier, July 9, 1919; “Remains Removed to the Family Home,” Petaluma Courier, July 9, 1919.

[iv] “Sportsmen’s Club,” Petaluma Courier, June 1, 1881; Petaluma Sportsmen Club,”Petaluma Courier, December 21, 1881; Ad for Victor Talking Machines at Steiger’s,” Petaluma Argus, March 30, 1905, “Mrs. P.J. Steiger Enters Last Rest,” Petaluma Argus, January 27, 1926; “Walter H. Dado Buys The Jos. Steiger Sporting Goods Store on Tuesday,” Petaluma Argus, December 10, 1924;

[v] Ad, Petaluma Courier, January 28, 1892; “The Pesky Thing Would Note Drink,” Petaluma Argus, September 17, 1902; “Two new Automobiles for Petaluma People,” Petaluma Courier, October 31, 1903; “Briefs,” Petaluma Argus, April 23, 1907; “Sold Two Indians,” Petaluma Courier, June 13, 1911.

[vi] “Briefs,” Petaluma Courier, April 12, 1902; “Will Make Improvements,” Petaluma Courier, January 27, 1902; “Briefs,” Petaluma Courier, April 9, 1902; “Steiger’s New Building a Big Improvement,” Petaluma Argus, July 27, 1905.

[vii] “Jos. Steiger and H.S. McCargar Lose Lives,” Petaluma Argus, June 9, 1924.

[viii] “Water Company in New Office,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, February 1, 1928; “City Carries Off Water Finance Deal,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, September 2, 1959; “Realty Firm Goes to New Quarters,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, January 5, 1962; “Fictitious Business Name Statement,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, February 3, 1976; “DDT Ban Allows Continuing Bat Problem,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, July 26,1978; “Century 21 Offices Merge,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, February 21, 1997.

[ix] Ad for Acorn shop, Petaluma Argus-Courier, April 21, 1999; “A Cooperative Gallery, Petaluma Argus-Courier, October 10, 2007; “Revamp for Historic Building,” Petaluma Argus-Courier, March 21, 2019.

Historic Steiger Building Threatened

Steiger Building, built 1876 (Photo by Scott Hess)

While much of Petaluma is caught up in a furious debate over what constitutes acceptable public art along Water Street, developers are busy pursuing their own agendas for the area, with little regard for the historic guidelines set out in the Central Petaluma Specific Plan. The area’s first major proposed development—the Haystack Pacifica complex intended for the former Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railway yard between Weller and Copeland streets—is an ultra-modern complex with no visual compatibility to the historic downtown.

Now, the new owner of the Steiger Building, home to the Riverfront Art Gallery at 132 Petaluma Boulevard North, is proposing to hollow out much of this prominent landmark, while preserving its street-facing façade (“Revamp for Historic Building,” Argus-Courier, March 21, 2019). Known in the development trade as “architectural facadism”—preserving the face of a building while constructing an entire new building behind it—the practice is popular in older cities like San Francisco that are looking to build up rather than out.

For the Steiger Building however, there’s a hitch—it was built in two phases, the Greek Revival storefront in 1876, and a back addition in 1905. Both halves were placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995 as they were part of a continuous family business. In order to hollow out the Steiger Building and construct a new three-story structure, the developer is reportedly challenging the historic status of the building’s back half.

The Steiger Building is steeped in Petaluma history. It occupies the site of the town’s first grocery—Kent, Smith & Coe—established in 1852. It was here, according to meat hunter John E. Lockwood, founder of Petaluma’s initial trading post in 1850, that the town’s first 4th of July celebration was held, with a grand ball that lasted for three days.

William Steiger, a colorful German immigrant, arrived in town in 1856 and opened up a gun and locksmith shop on Main Street near where the current day Odd Fellows Lodge sits, later moving in the 1860s roughly to where Thistle Meats resides today. In 1876, he moved again into the newly constructed building at 132 Petaluma Boulevard North, sharing the building with its owner, George Ross, who operated a photo gallery on the second floor. Not long after, Steiger purchased the building from Ross, and posted an iconic large sign in the shape of a rifle above the front entrance. Upon his death in 1878, his son, P.J. Steiger, renamed the shop Steiger’s Sportsman Emporium, and made it the founding headquarters of the Petaluma Sportsman Club, which operated a rod and gun preserve down the river through the 1920s.

One of P.J. Steiger’s sons, Joseph, turned out to be an adventurous entrepreneur. After purchasing Petaluma’s first bicycle, he convinced his father to open the town’s first bicycle outlet at the store just as the bicycle craze of the Gay 90s was taking off. In 1902, he purchased one the town’s first automobiles, a single cylinder Oldsmobile Runabout, and the next year persuaded his father to establish in the store Petaluma’s first automobile agency. After his father added the back extension to the building in 1905, Joe used the space to open Petaluma’s first auto repair shop, as well as its first “livery auto,” or taxi service. In 1907, after he and his brother Will assumed ownership of the store upon their father’s death, they began selling Indian motorcycles in addition to guns, fishing gear, automobiles, Victor phonographs, and sewing machines.

Joe Steiger (middle), with Don Cella and Bill Palmer, outside Steiger Bldg, 1924

Steiger’s eclectic sporting goods store remained a popular downtown anchor until Joe’s tragic death in 1924, when he and a close friend, city councilman H.S. McCargar, both drowned while fishing for bass in a rowboat near the Sportsman’s Club. Joe’s premature death put an end to Sonoma County’s oldest family-owned business. The Steiger Building went on to house many businesses over the years—including the Petaluma Power and Water Company, a real estate office, and most recently Murray Rockowitz’s photo studio and a co-op art gallery—as well as to become a cornerstone of the Golden Concourse.

If there’s a site that deserves protected landmark status, it’s the Steiger Building—both halves of it. The downtown needs to continue evolving and being revitalized, but not at the price of losing its historical fabric. Merely paying lip service to that fabric by retaining a storefront façade undermines the downtown’s authenticity. Unlike the debate raging over public art, there can be no question of the Steiger Building’s legitimate standing in town.

A version of this article appeared in the Petlauma Argus-Courier on March 28, 2019.