Lakeville is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...

Sonoma County Sonoma County () is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 488,863. Its county seat and largest city is Santa Rosa, California, Santa Rosa. It is to the n ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States. It is located near the

Petaluma River The Petaluma River is a river in the California counties of Sonoma and Marin that becomes a tidal slough for most of its length. The headwaters are in the area southwest of Cotati. The flow is generally southward through Petaluma's old town, ...

about southeast of

Petaluma Petaluma (Miwok: ''Péta Lúuma'') is a city in Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 census. Petaluma's name comes from the Miwok village nam ...

. The main thoroughfare is Lakeville Road, which passes north–south through Lakeville on its way from State Route 116 to State Route 37. The rear gate of

Sonoma Raceway Sonoma Raceway (originally known as Sears Point Raceway from 1967 to 1980 and 1982 to 2002, Golden State International Raceway in 1981 and Infineon Raceway from 2002 to 2012) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern S ...

empties onto Lakeville Road and can cause traffic delays on race days. Lakeville's name refers to

Tolay Lake Tolay Lake is a shallow freshwater lake in southern Sonoma County, California, United States. The lake, nestled within the southern vestiges of the Sonoma Mountains, is the site of significant Native American prehistoric seasonal settlement. In ...

, about east of the town. Lakeville has a

fire department A fire department (American English) or fire brigade (Commonwealth English), also known as a fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organization that provides fire prevention and fire suppression se ...

with one station, established in 1973. It is located east of the intersection of Lakeville Highway and Stage Gulch Road.

History

The Lakeville area was part of the

Rancho Petaluma :''This article refers to the land grant. For the Rancho Petaluma Adobe, see Rancho Petaluma Adobe'' Rancho Petaluma was a Mexican land grant in present-day Sonoma County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to Mariano Guadalup ...

grant to

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (4 July 1807 – 18 January 1890) was a Californio general, statesman, and public figure. He was born a subject of Spain, performed his military duties as an officer of the Republic of Mexico, and shaped the trans ...

by the Governor

José Figueroa José Figueroa (1792 – 29 September 1835), was a General and the Mexican Governor of Alta California from 1833 to 1835. He wrote the first book to be published in California. Background and governorship Figueroa was a Mestizo of Spanish a ...

Alta California Alta California ('Upper California'), also known as ('New California') among other names, was a province of New Spain, formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but ...

in 1834. In 1859, an emigrant named William Bihler purchased in the Lakeville area. In 1859 Bihler dynamited the natural dam of the historic Tolay Lake to drain the lake in order to raise potatoes and corn. Settled by C. H. Bodwell, Lakeville became the terminus for a steamship route connecting

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

with Sonoma County. In the 1870s, Lakeville was a stop on the

San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad (SF&NP) provided the first extensive standard gauge rail service to Sonoma County and became the southern end of the regional Northwestern Pacific Railroad. Although first conceived of by Asbury Harpend ...

. In an 1879 tourist guide, Lakeville was described as "not a very pretentious place." During the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (''Extreme''). High-intensity sha ...

, reported damage in Lakeville included that "chimneys were overthrown, plastering badly cracked, and dishes broken. Chimneys and objects were thrown to the southeast." Based on the 1910 United States census, the population of Lakeville at that time was computed as 67 persons. Gregory's (1911) ''History of Sonoma County'' stated with regard to Sonoma County towns that "some of these places are mere post office stations or small hamlets with nominal population, the figures of which are not given... Lakeville 67."

References

External links

Lakeville Volunteer Fire Department
Unincorporated communities in California Unincorporated communities in Sonoma County, California {{SonomaCountyCA-geo-stub