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Keeping History Alive at the Sonoma Mission, Barracks, Vallejo's Home and Petaluma Adobe


Petaluma Adobe

 

  

Petaluma Adobe

Petaluma Adobe 3

Petaluma Adobe 5

Petaluma Adobe 2

Petaluma Adobe 4

Petaluma Adobe 6

Open to Public: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily except
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day

Docent Tour Hours: Sat. and Sun. 1 & 2 p.m.

Petaluma Adobe is one of the oldest preserved buildings in Northern California. It was by all accounts the largest and richest privately owned Mexican estate north of San Francisco and one of the most important in Alta California.

Rancho Petaluma was a land grant of ten leagues or about 44,000 acres granted to Mariano G. Vallejo by the Mexican government in 1834 by Governor Jose Figueroa. In 1844, another governor added another five leagues to bring the total acreage to more than 66,000 acres.

In 1834, Vallejo started building houses, corrals and other improvements. Construction of the massive adobe ranch house began in April 1836 but was still not completed in 1846 when California’s Mexican era ended.

The main economic activity of the ranch revolved around the hide and tallow trade. But the rancho was far more than a cattle ranch. Hundreds of Indian laborers lived and worked there tending large herds of horses, sheep and cattle. They also planted wheat, barley and corn.

In 1857, faced with an ever increasing number of “squatters,” and plaqued by other legal and financial problems, Vallejo decided to sell the adobe and some land around it. In 1910 the adobe was purchased by the Native Sons of the Golden West and preserved until California took title of the building in 1951.

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