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| Landmark #879 | Sonoma County | Visited: May 9, 2012 | Plaque? YES! 🙂 |
| What is it? | A plaque in the central plaza of the city of Cotati! |
| What makes it historical? | THE GUIDE SAYS: Cotati’s hexagonal town plan, one of only two such in the United States, was designed during the 1890s by Newton Smyth as an alternative to the traditional grid. Each of the streets surrounding the six-sided town plaza, where early settler Dr. Thomas Page’s barn once stood, is named after one of Page’s sons. “Cotati” derives from the name of a local Indian chief.
OTHER TIDBITS: The Kota’ti people were members of the Coast Miwok tribe and lived peacefully in their valley until Thomas Reed tried to settle here in 1827 and they ran him out. They were not able to stem the flow of westward migrants, though, and by 1844, this became part of the Mexican land grant, Lomas de Kotate! Thomas Larkin, the first and only US Consul to California, then sold the rancho to a third Thomas (Page), who had just arrived from Chile with his family! Dr. Page decreed in his will that his rancho should remain intact until his youngest son, William, turned 25. When the occasion arrived, his oldest son, Wilfred, subdivided the rancho around the family’s hexagonal barn and named the surrounding streets after his six brothers. His three sisters got no such honor, and as for himself, he gave his name to a street he thought would be a main thoroughfare, but it never amounted to much as time went on. Now that’s a shame name game! |
| How can I Help the Helpers? | HERE’S HOW:
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| Where is this place? | LISTED DIRECTIONS: Downtown plaza SE corner of Old Redwood Hwy and E Cotati Ave Cotati, CA 94931 ANNOTATIONS: From Los Angeles: ~420mi (676km) — 7hrs |
| When should I go? | Whenever the mood strikes you! |