California Preservation Award for historic train district

Depot, Maysonnave Cottage honored with state 'cultural resource’ recognition|

The Sonoma Train District and Maysonnave Train Cottage will be recognized with a Preservation Design Award for Cultural Resource Studies, one of 20 such awards to be given at an in-person and online event in October.

The recognition includes the Maysonnave Train Cottage, which at one time was slated for demolition by the city but saved in 2016 when a historic report recognized it as significant example of the “Victorian folk buildings … typical of rural American frontier towns and possessed a high level of integrity.”

When architectural historian Jerri Holan cataloged the buildings near the Sonoma Depot – now the site of the Depot Park Museum – it was found that “80% of the Victorian buildings around the Depot were intact and determined the ‘Train District’ eligible for the National Register,” according to the description from the California Preservation Foundation.

“I hope this recognition of both the Sonoma Train District and the Maysonnave Cottage will further inspire the City to take care of its historic assets and that it’ll put more support into the local groups that have been doing the work to preserve and educate,” said Rachel Hundley, who as former mayor helped develop the application to the California Preservation Foundation. Patricia Cullinan of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society sponsored the application.

The Maysonnave Cottage, built in about 1905, is currently used by the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation as its headquarters and archives; and the former Sonoma Train Depot is now the site of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society’s Depot Park Museum.

The Historic Train District was formally presented to the Sonoma City Council in 2018, and unanimously so designated. It includes 14 buildings along the bike path between First Street West and First Street East. Sonoma had train service from about 1880 until 1942.

The annual California Preservation Awards recognizes significant achievements in architecture, history, design and engineering. The awards will be formally issued on Oct. 21, from 6 – 7 p.m.

The jury selected 20 winners this year, each highlighting innovative approaches to preservation: restoring the brilliance of the classic Union Station in downtown Los Angeles, creating low-income housing and community spaces in a former funeral home, matching pets with people at a San Francisco animal shelter in a rehabilitated 1893 warehouse, and mapping projects and books that bring the historic architecture of California to life.

For photographs, a map of sites, sponsors, and additional information on all of the prestigious winning projects, visit californiapreservation.org/awards.

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