Sonoma’s downtown Clydesdale farm for sale

Sonoma’s iconic pasture on East Spain Street that has featured picturesque grazing Clydesdale horses for decades went on the market on Monday for $7.6 million.|

Sonoma’s iconic pasture on East Spain Street that has for decades featured majestic grazing Clydesdale horses went on the market on Monday for $7.6 million.

The 2.72 acre property, which includes two barns and the two-story white farmhouse at the corner of East Spain and Second Street East, is owned by Deana Castagnasso.

According to the Castagnasso Clydesdale website, the extended Castagnasso family has bred the draft horses for five generations and they own and operate several Clydesdale horse farms across the United States.

According to the listing agent, Mark Stornetta, of Alain Pinel Realtors, the owner seeks to “consolidate multiple farming operations.” He declined to elaborate as to where the consolidation would occur.

The family’s horse breeding website provides some background. In 1922, Henry Castagnasso and his son Harry had a hauling business which used 22 teams of horses to make deliveries. This got them into breeding Clydesdales. Through the years, Deana’s uncle Don Castagnasso – who was Harry’s son – kept the tradition alive. The tradition is now carried on by Deana’s son, Tony Knecht, who currently has 25 horses spread throughout Sonoma in various pastures.

The 196 E. Spain St. property, also known as Mission Bell Farms, is one of the larger single residential lots in downtown Sonoma. According to the listing, the property is actually three parcels, zoned “residential multiple” for seven to 11 dwellings. The listing states that the land is within City of Sonoma Historic Overlay zone but that the “the City adaptive uses for historic preservation allow multiple uses.”

Although the property is zoned residential, so far the listing only appears on LoopNet, a website that connects tenants and investors to commercial real estate available for sale and lease.

According to real estate records, the farmhouse was built in 1900.

Prior to the Castagnasso family, the previous owners of the property included C. Leiding and “Wild” Bill Russell, according to documents provided by the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation.

“This is one of the most unique settings left in Sonoma,” reads the League document. “The property, unaltered, with a rural environment include(es) a unique farmhouse, two impressive barns and open fields and an old vineyard, (and) is situated in a comfortable residential neighborhood.”

League executive director Chuck Bingaman stressed that the group’s property records have been collected over many years by volunteers and from public documents. He said the League can’t attest to the accuracy or completeness of such records.

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