One of the nicest Northeastern Pacific rail depots still in existence, is to be found in the Sonoma County city of Petaluma.

This 1914 depot is designed in the Mission Revival style by Southern Pacific Railroad architect, D. J. Patterson. The passenger station originally cost $7,000 to build. The new station replaced the 1871 wooden stations. Patterson also designed the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio station. He also designed the Willits Station for the Northwestern Pacific, north of Petaluma.

This was a busy station with 14 passenger trains stopping at Petaluma daily. The construction of the Golden Gate Bridge cut into the passenger numbers and the last passenger train departed from this station in 1958.

That was until almost 60 years later in June 29, 2017 that a passenger train stopped In Petaluma.

The spot now housed the Petaluma Visitor’s Center but passenger service still lives in the form of SMART trains that travel from Santa Rosa to the ferry terminal at Larkspur.