Page 26 - Healdsburg, CA Citywide Design Guidelines

Healdsburg’s History
The following information regarding Healdsburg’s history is from
the Healdsburg Community Entryways Revitalization Plan and the
Healdsburg Museum. More information can be found at: http://
www.healdsburgmuseum.org/home/healdsburg-history.asp.

The City of Healdsburg has a rich history and a legacy of places,
events and personalities that have contributed to its character
today. This rich history provides opportunities to inform the design
contexts and appropriate development in each Character Area.

For thousands of years, Western Wappo and Southern Pomo-
speaking people lived on the bounty of this generous land and
created some of the finest woven baskets in the world. The
territory that is now Healdsburg was claimed in 1841 by Captain
Henry Fitch, brother-in-law of Governor Mariano Vallejo, as part
of Fitch’s 48,800-acre Sotoyme Rancho. Fitch’s Mexican land grant
title was thrown into dispute when Mexico ceded California to the
United States in 1848.

The Gold Rush of 1849 brought hordes of people to California
gold country, many of whom drifted south, preferring a life of
farming to failing in the mines. In 1851, would-be gold seeker
Harmon Heald, a native of Ohio, left mining and built a cabin on
the west side of the well-traveled path between San Francisco
and the northern mines (now “Healdsburg Avenue”). Heald built
a small general store and opened a post office in the store in
1854 around which a small settlement grew. In 1857, Heald hired
a surveyor to lay out a central plaza with streets and 85 lots, and
a town was born, incorporated in 1867, populated by 300 (non-
Native) residents.

18 Healdsburg Citywide Design Guidelines