The horses ran through it, but our children will never see it

There are some amazing and tragic things you will see if you look back to places that we lost, saved or moved in the interest of progress. For example, the Sorensen Funeral Parlor (also known as the Healey Mansion), on the corner of Keokuk and Washington streets, had a date with a wrecking ball. It was torn down in 1969 to build a gas station that is no longer there. What remains is a vacant lot.

Community outrage was the impetus to start Heritage Homes of Petaluma, a nonprofit organization that encourages and supports the preservation of historic structures for the community to savor.

The building that was constructed at the corner of Petaluma Boulevard North and Sycamore Lane for the new funeral home was operated for a few years and then was vacant for about five years after its unsuccessful financial operation. That building is now the headquarters of the Petaluma Police Department.

The police department was moved there when it had outgrown the facilities on the Bassett Street side of City Hall between Bassett and English streets. Back then, the building at the “five corners” that now houses the Polly Klaas Performing Arts Center was the United Church of Christ. Copperworks on the corner of Howard Street and Western Avenue was once a frozen food locker and later became Baccala Grocery. The Baccala family lived in the house next door.

Back then, the little piece of Post Street between Western and English was connected to the continuation of Post on Bassett. On the west side of Post was the Washington Grammar School, where the boys' physical education yard was on one side and the girls on the other. The music room was in the back.

Across the street were little two-bedroom bungalows with porches facing each other. My Aunt Ruth and Uncle Joe lived in one of them. Lovely trees lined the sidewalk on English Street. That piece of Post Street, along with the school, tree-lined streets and bungalows, were all removed in order to build the “beautiful new City Hall” at 11 English St. that we have now.

When the original portion of the current City Hall was built, the police department and court was on the Bassett Street side. The planning department, general city operations like finance and city manager as well as the City Council chambers were on the English Street side.

By the way, the art piece that hangs on the wall in the council chambers was created by local window dresser and musician Earle Bond. It is the round brown medallion encircled by gold with the characters PCH on the brown center. At some point in time it was removed and later lost. But a few years ago was found again at a flea market in Sausalito, purchased and returned to the city to be restored to the historic location behind the mayor in the council chambers.

When that City Hall was constructed in 1955, the old city hall on Fourth Street on the corner of the A Street parking lot was torn down. The horses ran through it, but our children will never see it.

That building had the fire and police departments on the ground level on either side and originally had the stable for the horses in the middle. On the second floor were the court and city administrative offices and on the third floor was office space. At one time, the teen dances called roost (like chicken roost) dances were held there before they were moved to the American Legion.

In 1976, the new library was built after years of efforts to persuade the community that they needed to raise the money to do so. That public library now stands on the corner of Payran and East Washington streets The beautiful and historic Carnegie Historic Museum and Library at the corner of Fourth and B streets was spared from the wrecking ball.

The land has been acquired for a new downtown fire station on Petaluma Boulevard South between E and F streets. Do you think we will be wise enough to save the historic Brainerd Jones structure that currently houses the fire station?

(Joann Ritko Pozzi is a Petaluma native and certified public accountant who has been entertaining local residents with her snippets of Petaluma oral history for years.)