Historic photos show how Sebastopol's Main Street has changed over the years

From shopping to protests to festivals, everything happened on Main Street. Sebastopol’s Main street is no exception, with a changing collection of local shops and offices that have serviced the agricultural community for over a hundred years.

The area’s main thoroughfare has seen a lot of changes since the town’s inception in the 1850s. Starting out with a U.S. post office and a small trade center, the street grew to include banks, restaurants and stores of national renown. In the early 1900s portions of the street were covered by railroad tracks. The Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad brought passengers from Petaluma to Forestville on an electric train.

For more than 100 years, festivals and parades celebrating the area apple industry also have occurred on Main Street.

Click through our photo gallery at pressdemocrat.com to see the town transform from a sleepy road stop to a bustling city.

Janet Balicki Weber