Lakeville is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

Sonoma County Sonoma County ( ) is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 488,863. Its seat of government and largest city is Santa Rosa. Sonoma County comprises the Santa Rosa-Petaluma ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, 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 is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, 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 named ''Péta ...

. 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, Golden State International Raceway and Infineon Technologies, Infineon Raceway) is a road course and dragstrip located at Sears Point in the southern Sonoma Mountains of Sonoma County, Cal ...

empties onto Lakeville Road and can cause traffic delays on race days. Lakeville's name refers to Tolay Lake, about east of the town. Lakeville has a

fire department A fire department (North American English) or fire brigade (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English), also known as a fire company, fire authority, fire district, fire and rescue, or fire service in some areas, is an organi ...

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 grant to

Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo Don Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (July 4, 1807 – January 18, 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 tran ...

by the Governor José Figueroa of

Alta California Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva 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 was made a separat ...

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, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

with Sonoma County. In the 1870s, Lakeville was a stop on the San Francisco and North Pacific Railroad. In an 1879 tourist guide, Lakeville was described as "not a very pretentious place." During the

1906 San Francisco earthquake At 05:12 AM Pacific Time Zone, Pacific Standard Time on Wednesday, April 18, 1906, the coast of Northern California was struck by a major earthquake with an estimated Moment magnitude scale, moment magnitude of 7.9 and a maximum Mercalli inte ...

, 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 1910 United States census, conducted by the Census Bureau on April 15, 1910, determined the resident population of the United States to be 92,228,496, an increase of 21 percent over the 76,212,168 persons enumerated during the 1900 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