Santa Rosa's Historic Railroad Square - Sonoma County Wine Country Lifestyle

Santa Rosa is blessed to have a fantastic historic district called Railroad Square.  Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, its located between 3rd, and 6th, and is just west of US 101. 

Come visit and step back in time to the 1870's, a time when Santa Rosa had just 6000 residents.  The railroads where exploding across the United States and had just arrived in Santa Rosa.  Some of the earliest settlers where Italian immigrants who came to Sonoma County to farm, and work on the railroads.  They found Sonoma County very similar to their native country in agricultural potential, beauty, and weather.  Trains stopped in Santa Rosa 10 times a day on their route between San Francisco and Eureka.

Four Italian stonemasons went to work and created five of the most historic buildings still standing in Railroad Square.  The Northwestern Pacific train depot, The Western Hotel,  Railway Express Agency building (currently A'roma coffee house), and the La Rose Hotel.  So well constructed, these buildings survived the 1906 earthquake that took down San Francisco, and most of Santa Rosa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Rosa re-built itself from 1906 to 1915, and added a new architecture of brick buildings that were more of a warehouse style but continued to serve the railroad community.  Factories, canneries, and breweries have turned into todays great restaurants, wine tasting, and antique shopping.  A list of current businesses and can be found at: RailroadSquare.net 

Commonly referred to as "restaurant row" Railroad Square hosts a nice variety of restaurants to include:  Don Taylor's Omelet Express,  La Gare French Restaurant, LoCoco's Cucina Rustica (my favorite), Chevy's and others.  Looking for entertainment, stop by A'roma Roasters Coffee House, or the 6th Street Playhouse.

So is that all... restaurants and antique shopping? Here are some other things you might want to do while visiting Railroad Square:

• Go see Santa Rosa's "other round barn" on Donahue.
• visit the train museum in the depot
• try some wine at one the wine bars
• see a play
• take a self-guided walking tour
• visit in August for the Art in the Park and Heritage Days
• check out Charlie Brown and Snoopy's bronze statue
• Bike, jog or walk along the Prince Memorial Greenway
• visit in October for Railroad Scare family halloween
• Check out the many sculptures
• have a great cup of coffee at Santa Rosa's famous A'roma Roasters
• walk over the Simon's Santa Rosa Plaza for some shopping
• visit in December for the Holiday horse and carriage rides

DeTurk Round Barn (9th at Donahue)

View Larger Map

Map of Railroad Square

 

Jim Cheney, Broker "Your Rincon Valley Realtor"

Serving Rincon Valley's real estate and property needs

Rincon Valley, Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, CA