Postcard view of Sebastopol, Sonoma County, California over the orchards to the town
Sebastopol is a town in Sonoma County, California, United States, approximately 52 miles
north of San Francisco. The population was 7,774 at the 2000 census, but its businesses also serve surrounding rural portions of Sonoma County, totaling about 50,000
people, per the town's
website. It is about a 20 minute drive from the Pacific Ocean, between
Santa Rosa and Bodega Bay, and is known for
its progressive politics and small-town charm. It was once primarily a plum- and apple-growing
region; wine grapes are now predominant, and almost all ex-orchards are now vineyards. World-famous
horticulturist Luther Burbank had gardens in this
fertile region. The city hosts an annual Apple Blossom Festival
and Gravenstein Apple Fair.
Sebastopol is the home of publisher O'Reilly
Media, which publishes books on open-source software. Primus lead singer/bassist
Les Claypool, singer/songwriter Tom Waits,
singer/songwriter Nick Gravenites and actor Peter
Krause currently reside in the area. Sebastopol is home to Analy High School, Laguna High School, Brook Haven Middle
School, Gravenstein Elementary School, Hillcrest Middle School, Twin Hills Middle School, Pine Crest Elementary, Apple Blossom
Elementary, along with many other private and charter schools. It is also the sister city of Chyhyryn, Ukraine, and Yamauchi-Machi, Japan.
History
The area's first known inhabitants were the native Coast Miwok and Pomo peoples. The town of Sebastopol formed in the 1850s with a
U.S. Post Office and as a small trade center for the farmers of the
surrounding agricultural region. As California's population swelled after the westward
migration and the Gold rush of the 1850s, more and more settlers drifted into the fertile
California valleys north of San Francisco to try their hand at farming.
The name of Sebastopol first came into use in the late 1850s as a result of a prolonged and
lively fist fight in the newly formed town, which was likened to the long British siege of the
Russian seaport of Sevastopol during the then-raging Crimean
War. At one time, four other California towns were also named Sebastopol (specifically, one in Napa County renamed Yountville, and others in
Tulare, Sacramento and Nevada counties). There is some debate in the rumour mill about how the name "Sebastopol" came
into being. The town was originally called Pinegrove, and how the name change occurred is rumored to have something to do with a
bar fight. The original name can be seen in the names of two of the longer standing downtown businesses, Pinegrove consignment
store, and the Pinecone restaurant.
Sebastopol became known as the Gravenstein Apple Capital of the World. The apple
industry brought a steady rural prosperity to the town. In 1890 the Northwestern
Pacific Railroad opened a branch to Sebastopol. The town was incorporated in 1902 with schools, churches, hotels,
canneries, mills, wineries, and an opera house to its credit. The 1906 earthquake reduced most of these early buildings to
rubble, (Sebastopol is only seven miles from the city of Santa Rosa, the worst hit town in the 1906 earthquake) but as elsewhere
in the county, the town was rebuilt.
In the second half of the Twentieth Century, the apple industry struggled to compete with other apple producing regions and
has gradually declined in economic significance. With greater personal mobility and the rise of larger shopping centers in other
Sonoma County communities, many residents now often commute to work and shop in the neighboring towns of Rohnert Park or Santa Rosa, while Sebastopol
maintains its small town charm.
It is often incorrectly stated that until the 1990s, Sebastopol was the last remaining town in Northern California that still
had working railroad trains going down Main Street. The tracks were actually removed in the late 1980s. Passenger service had
ceased in the 1930s and regular freight service ended in the late 1970s, which Analy High
School students documented in the 1979 video, Our Train Down Main: a History of the Petaluma and Santa Rosa Railroad. The canneries have disappeared from downtown, and
the apple processing plant as well, while vineyards and new housing developments have replaced some of the apple orchards
eliminating the need for a train service to town.
It is often also incorrectly stated that the tracks were removed in the 1990s when the downtown area was redesigned with two
one-way streets to enhance traffic along Gravenstein Highway (Route 116). Main Street and Sebastopol Avenue were actually
designated one-way streets in 1985 in a perhaps misguided attempt to deal with the town's perennial traffic problem.
Some famous residents of Sebastopol include: the horticulturist Luther Burbank who
established an 18-acre Gold Ridge Environmental Farm in the township in the late 1800s; Willard
Libby, inventor of carbon dating went to Analy High School; the cartoonist
Charles Schulz; and the musicians Les Claypool
of Primus and both Jerry Garcia and Mickey Hart of the [[Grateful Dead] .
Geography
Sebastopol is located at 38°23′57″N, 122°49′37″W (38.399163,
-122.827034)1. Its elevation is 65 to 250
feet above sea level. Its downtown is at the intersection of state highways 12 and 116 (aka Gravenstein Highway), approximately
nine miles west of U.S. Highway 101.
Sebastopol is situated on the edge of the Laguna de Santa Rosa, which is fed by
Santa Rosa Creek and other tributaries. The Laguna is a wetland area that is home to many species of wildlife and vegetation, and divides the town from the neighboring Santa Rosa. Nearly every winter the Laguna floods,
cutting off State route 12, and often flooding the low lying businesses and
homes on the eastern side of Sebastopol. The Pitkin Marsh lily and
White sedge are two rare species of plants that are found
in the vicinity of Sebastopol.
The town currently sits atop several sites of Pomo Indian villages, and arrowheads are found in gopher holes with some frequency in the less
disturbed areas of town bordering the flood plain.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area
of 4.9 km² (1.9 mi²), all land.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there were 7,774 people, 3,250 households, and 1,953 families residing
in the city. The population density was 1,596.6/km² (4,138.8/mi²). There were 3,321
housing units at an average density of 682.0/km² (1,768.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the city was 89.85% White, 0.66% African American, 0.78% Native American, 1.52% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 3.86% from other races, and 3.23% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9.26% of the population.
There were 3,250 households out of which 31.8% included children under the age of 18 in the house, 41.5% were married couples living together, 14.2% were led by a female householder with no husband present, and 39.9% were
other living arrangements. 31.8% of all households were made up of a single individual and 14.3% had someone living alone who was
65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.33 and the average family size was 2.95.
For the most part the population is spread out across the age groups, although the young adult population is drastically lower
than the other groups, indicating that most young people leave, at least temporarily. The reasons for this are probably a
combination of the high cost of living and the lack of other young adults. The percent distribution on the 2000 census by age was
as follows: 23.6% under the age of 18, 7.4% from 18 to 24, 25.0% from 25 to 44, 27.6% from 45 to 64, and 16.5% who were 65 years
of age or older. The median age was 42 years.
For every 100 females there were 81.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $46,436, and the median income for a family was $55,792. Males had a median
income of $40,538 versus $32,399 for females. The per capita income for the city was
$22,881. About 4.7% of families and 6.9% of the population were below the poverty
line, including 6.7% of those under age 18 and 6.0% of those age 65 or over.
Politics
The city council consists of five members, each serving four year terms. City council races are not partisan, so each member
does not officially represent any party, however since 2000 there has been a decent amount of attention given to the individual
party membership of city council members in Sebastopol. This happened because in 2000, with the election of Craig Litwin and Sam
Spooner to the city council, the town had a Green Party majority. Or would have, if city council races were partisan. This was
only the second time this had ever happened, the first being the town of Arcata, CA in 1996.
As this indicates, Sebastopol tends to support environmental policies. In 1986, the citizens approved an initiative declaring
Sebastopol a "Nuclear Free Zone", The town does not use pesticides in city landscaping, and several years back, when the police
needed a new vehicle, the city council voted to purchase a hybrid instead of a standard police car.
Current issues facing the city include a high cost of living and ongoing difficulties with traffic (the town has two highways
going through downtown).
The current city council members (as of October 2006) are:
- Sarah Glade Gurney, Mayor
- Sam Pierce, Vice-Mayor
- Linda Kelley
- Craig Litwin
- Larry Robinson
Notable natives
- Charles M. Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comics, once lived in Sebastopol.
As a result the character 5, whose name is entirely made up of numbers, has the Sebastopol
zip code 95472 as his last name.
- Megan McDonald, author, resides in Sebastopol. Screamin' Mimi's, an
ice cream shop in Sebastopol, is featured in the Judy Moody Series.
- Shuggie Otis, soul and R&B musician, currently resides in Sebastopol.
- Willard F. Libby, winner of the Nobel Prize in
chemistry in 1960 for developing Carbon-14 dating, attended Analy High School, which
named its library for Libby.
- Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead
- Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead.
- Rider Strong of "Boy Meets World"
- Sarah Lane of TechTV and G4
- The Jenkins, country music trio consisting of Nancy Jenkins and her daughters, Brodie
and Kacie
- Peter Krause, of Six Feet Under, Dirty Sexy Money
Places of interest
Sebastopol, while small, has several points of interest.
- *National Register of Historic Places
See also
References
Our Train Down Main : a History of the Petaluma & Santa Rosa Railroad. Sebastopol, CA: Analy High School,
1979. Videocassette (ca. 22 min.)
External links
Coordinates:
38.399163° N 122.827034°
W
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