The Real Main Street:
Petaluma’s Melting Pot of Commerce, Community, and Celebration

Presented via Zoom – October 2022
In Support of Our Exhibit: “Your Hometown Main Street, Petaluma”
In Cooperation with the Sonoma County Library

A small group of American capitalists are commonly known as Petaluma’s “founding fathers,” but the vibrant downtown was actually created by Irish, Chinese, German, Swiss-Italian, and Portuguese immigrants, as well as Black merchants. These individuals formed tight-knit ethnic, religious, and financial communities in pursuit of the American Dream.

Join local historian John Patrick Sheehy as he highlights three of these communities and their contributions to making Main Street a bustling, melting pot of commerce, community and celebration.

Be sure to visit John’s Blog PetalumaHistorian.com.