{"nrhp_refnum":"92000293","name":"Sonoma Plaza (Boundary Increase)","other_names":["See Also:Sonoma Plaza"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Area S and E of town plaza, along Broadway and the N side of E. Napa St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sonoma","county":"Sonoma County","state":"CA","lat":38.285916873000076,"lon":-122.460830526,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1992-05-06","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state","local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A historic district centered on the central town plaza of Sonoma, California, plus the surrounding streets (including East Spain Street, East Napa Street and Broadway), with buildings dating from the 1830s through the 1930s. This is an increase to an existing district's boundary.","why_significant":"The district keeps the look and character of a small country town center, with a Mexican-era plaza, mission site and adobes alongside later commercial and residential buildings. It records the town's development from the Mexican period and the 1846 Bear Flag events through early 20th century civic improvements. Integrity is described as very high, with few intrusions.","narrative":"Sonoma Plaza and its surrounding blocks form a historic district in Sonoma, California, with a large, flat, tree-filled plaza at the center and a grid of streets extending outward. Commercial buildings of one to four stories face the plaza, while the side streets are mostly one-story houses. Buildings date from the 1830s to the 1930s and include adobes, Italianate storefronts, Queen Anne and Eastlake houses, bungalows, and Mission Revival structures. The plaza was once a Mexican-era parade ground and later gained Bear Flag monuments, the 1906 City Hall, a 1910 Carnegie Library, a duck pond and extensive plantings. The district also includes the Mission San Francisco Solano site, the Casa Grande site and the Swiss and Toscano hotels. The period of significance runs from 1835 to 1944. Few high-rise or modern intrusions exist, and most changes are low-rise construction or replaced windows. The district keeps the character of a small country town center, and the boundary increase adds areas along Broadway and East Napa Street.","period_of_significance":"1835-1944","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Mid-19th Century California Monterey Colonial; Late Victorian (Queen Anne, Eastlake); Beaux Arts, Mission and Spanish Colonial Revival; Bungalow","criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as retaining very high integrity with minor change; several buildings are in commercial, civic and residential use, and the 1891 Mission Hardware building was lost to fire in 1990.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.950323-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/92000293.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000293/dea43bebb4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/92000293/dea43bebb4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":null,"credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sonoma_City_Hall.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown author</a>, <a href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sonoma_City_Hall.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123862132","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonoma_Plaza","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7562188"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/sonoma-county/sonoma-plaza-boundary-increase-92000293/"}