page_title: Sonoma, California
section_title: Plaza
hierarchical_section_title: Sonoma, California / Other history / Plaza
context_page_description: Sonoma is a city in Sonoma County, California in Sonoma Valley. Known as a part of Wine Country in the Sonoma Valley AVA Appellation, Sonoma is the home of the Sonoma International Film Festival and an historic town plaza, a remnant of the town's Mexican colonial past. Sonoma's population was 10,648 as of the 2010 census, while the Sonoma urban area had a population of 32,678.
context_section_description: El Pueblo de Sonoma was laid out in the standard form of a Mexican town, centered around the largest plaza in California, 8 acres (32,000 m²) in size. This plaza is surrounded by many historical buildings, including the Mission San Francisco Solano, Captain Salvador Vallejo's Casa Grande, the Presidio of Sonoma, the Blue Wing Inn, the Sebastiani Theatre, and the Toscano Hotel. In the middle of the plaza, Sonoma's early 20th-century city hall, at the plaza's center and still in use, was designed and built with four identical sides in order not to offend the merchants on any one side of the plaza. The plaza is a National Historic Landmark and still serves as the town's focal point, hosting many community festivals and drawing tourists all year round. In the 1920s, a local election was held to determine if a gasoline service station should be built on the South-East corner of the Plaza. It was defeated. There are approximately thirty restaurants in the plaza area, including Italian, Irish, Mexican, Portuguese, Basque, Mediterranean, Himalayan, and French. It provides a central tourist attraction. It is also the location of the Farmer's Market, held every Tuesday evening from April to October. In 2015, the town was named a Preserve America Community.
caption: Sonoma City Hall in the town plaza
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