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West Petaluma's architectural heritage dates from the late 1800s when the city served as a supply center for the gold camps, and later a river town which shipped goods throughout the region. By the 1920s, the chicken boom of the early century transferred Petaluma into a charming farm town and the World's Egg Basket which produced hundreds of poultry farms, thousands of chicken houses and millions of eggs.
Today, West Petaluma encompasses the historical downtown district with brick and iron-front buildings that are considered some of the finest examples of this architecture in the United States, antique shops and covered sidewalks. Miraculously untouched by the 1906 earthquake, a substantial stock of quaint Victorian homes, mansions, and commercial buildings remain as well as ranch estates and recently developed residential areas.
Downtown Petaluma is on the National Register of historic Places and was the location of numerous films such as "American Graffiti," "Peggy Sue Got Married," "Basic Instinct," "Howard the Duck," and "Phenomenon." Travel & Leisure Magazine named Petaluma one of the "Nation's Top Ten Getaways Near a Major City".
The population of Petaluma is 55,175. The average income is $81,661. 40% of the population commutes to San Francisco, Marin or Santa Rosa. The average home price is $649,281 in Petaluma.
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