1970 - June
Italian-Swiss architecture comes to Cloverdale; well, sort-of. In December 1967, the Chamber of Commerce held a Congress for Community Progress to elicit opinions on various topics. One idea was for businesses to adopt an Italian-Swiss architectural theme to bring in tourists in anticipation of the proposed freeway bypass. The goal was to piggy-back on the Italian Swiss Colony’s success as a big tourist draw. The theme was strongly promoted by the Chamber, and approved by the City Council in June 1970. However, the architectural elements that were implemented on a dozen or so buildings consisted of little more than mansard rooflines and a few dormers. These can still be seen on several buildings around town such as the one at 207 N. Cloverdale Blvd., currently the Encore Dance Theatre. By mid-1975, the effort was largely over.
PHOTO COURTESY OF KEVIN MOORE
1976 - July
Cloverdale celebrates the Bicentennial with a two-day, smashing good time. In November 1974, the City Council asked the American Legion Auxiliary to coordinate the local Bicentennial festivities in conjunction with the nationwide event. Marie Hill was appointed chairperson overseeing 1 ½ years of planning, organizing, and fund-raising. The Bicentennial celebration on July 3 and 4, 1976 included horseshoe and frisbee tournaments, booths for food, games and souvenirs, sack races, a variety of music from traditional to fiddling to rock, a picnic, barbecue, and the Lions Club’s famous pancake breakfast, baseball and softball games, a costume ball for adults and a teen dance, a decorated bicycle parade, a color guard and fireworks display, and participation in a nationwide bell-ringing ceremony 300 years to the hour after the Liberty Bell first rang in Philadelphia. It was all a big success.
As a Bicentennial project, the committee chose restoration of the old Northwestern Pacific Railroad Depot at the end of Railroad Avenue. In February 1976, the Cloverdale Bicentennial Building Committee submitted the depot for consideration as a National Historic Site. The designation was granted in December 1976. For the next 15 years a dedicated group of locals including the Cloverdale Historical Society, Cloverdale Art Commission, and Chamber of Commerce, attempted to raise funds to save the depot with the intent of making it a museum, art gallery, and tourist information center. Caltrans agreed to move it out of the way of the planned bypass to a site a short distance away. However, all plans came to an end on Saturday morning, September 21, 1991 when the depot burned to the ground, the victim of suspected arson.
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1972 - February
A new Fire Station on Broad Street is dedicated. In May 1966, the City purchased the residence across from the Post Office with the goal of building a combined fire station and police department. The house was to be torn down, but the Fire Dept. used it for practice and burned it. The local Green Thumb Garden Club was asked if they wanted to relocate some of the shrubbery. They did, and some was removed for potential replanting at Kleiser Park and the Citrus Fair grounds. The lowest bid in 1967 to construct the new building was $99,000, but financing could not be found and the project was put on hold. In the meantime, the Cloverdale Volunteer Firemen’s Auxiliary held fund-raisers and collected Betty Crocker coupons to purchase dishware and utensils for the anticipated kitchen. In 1970, the City adopted a “pay as you go” building approach with the fire station to be built first. It wasn’t until the end of 1978 that the two-story addition to house the Police Dept. was completed. [Location: 112 Broad Street]
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1979 - June
The new Cloverdale Library is dedicated. In 1967, the Cloverdale Free Library merged into the Sonoma County Library system. Ten years later, the Woman’s Improvement Club decided it was time to sell the little, brown library built in 1921 and invest in a larger structure. In 1979, with funding from the City of Cloverdale, the County, a Public Works Act grant, the sale of the old building, and additional funds raised by the Woman’s Improvement Club and Friends of the Library, the new library building was completed on the former site of the James Kleiser residence. The landscaping was completed by volunteers with donated materials and equipment. The bridge over the ditch at the back of the parking lot was built by the building architect and volunteers, after seeing kids using the shortcut path. [Location: 401 N. Cloverdale Blvd.]