Editing Cotati, California (section)

===Development of a town===
[[File:Church of the Oaks 10252.jpg|thumb|The Church of the Oaks (built in 1907)]]
[[File:CotatiCityHallEdit2704.jpg|thumb|201 West Sierra {{As of|2007|lc=y}}]]

Cotati's hexagonal plaza and street grid plan was designed during the 1890s by Newton Smyth as an alternative to the traditional grid. Dr. Thomas Page's barn once stood where the plaza is today, and each of the streets surrounding the plaza is named after one of his sons. In 1892, the Page family created the Cotati Land Company to subdivide their ranch into parcels of five to twenty acres (two to eight hectares).<ref name="downtown plan">{{cite web|url=http://www.ci.cotati.ca.us/sections/departments/downtown-specific-plan-draft-022006-ch1.pdf |title=City of Cotati Downtown Specific Plan Draft |access-date=November 30, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061013160711/http://www.ci.cotati.ca.us/sections/departments/downtown-specific-plan-draft-022006-ch1.pdf |archive-date=October 13, 2006 }}</ref> By 1901, good land was selling for $30 to $60 per acre.<ref>{{cite book|editor=Charles Fletcher Lummis|title=The Land of Sunshine: Magazine of California and the West, Volume XV|url=https://archive.org/details/landsunshine00lummgoog|year=1901|publisher=The Land of Sunshine Publishing Company|page=[https://archive.org/details/landsunshine00lummgoog/page/n328 313]}}</ref> Page family ownership ended in 1944.<ref name="downtown plan"/>

The Cotati area was shaken up by the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]]. After the quake, Drury Butler reported that "the chimneys were as a rule thrown down". In particular, the Stony Point School at {{Coord|38.34325|-122.74166|region:US-CA_type:edu|name=Stony Point School}}<ref>{{gnis|1701281|Stony Point School}}</ref> suffered a chimney failure.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2005/1135/1906_locations.html|title=Notes on Locating and Assigning Intensities to the Shaking and Damage Descriptions in Lawson (1908)|access-date=November 30, 2007|first=John|last=Boatwright|author2=Howard Bundock}}</ref>

The [[Northwestern Pacific Railroad]] built the Cotati Depot in 1907. It was located near the East Cotati Avenue crossing, almost {{convert|1|mi|km|1|abbr=on}} east of the plaza.<ref>Draper, p. 22</ref> It was demolished to make way for [[Sonoma–Marin Area Rail Transit]]'s [[Cotati station]].

Prior to 1915, the major north–south roads (Petaluma Hill Road and Stony Point Road) bypassed Cotati. In that year, the state routed the Redwood Highway (part of [[U.S. Route 101 in California|U.S. Route 101]]) onto the mostly unpaved Cotati Boulevard.<ref>Draper, p. 53</ref> U.S. 101 passed through the downtown plaza until 1955, when the highway was rerouted further west.<ref name="downtown plan" /> U.S. 101 still bisects Cotati, and the former route is called Old Redwood Highway.

In February 1921, the old schoolhouse at 201 West Sierra burned down. A new school built on the same site opened in 1922.<ref>Draper, p. 51</ref> This building has served as City Hall since 1971. The rear of this building housed the Cotati Police Department until September 3, 2003, when the department moved into a new building next door.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ci.cotati.ca.us/sections/police/facility.cfm |title=New Police Facility |publisher=Ci.cotati.ca.us |date=October 17, 2003 |access-date=March 2, 2013}}</ref>

The Cotati Speedway, a wooden oval track for automobile racing, was built near the depot around 1921. It was about {{convert|1.25|mi|km|0|abbr=on}} in circumference. World records were set there, but it failed in its first season and was torn down in 1922.<ref name="early20th">{{cite web|url=http://www.ci.cotati.ca.us/sections/about/history3.cfm|title=History of Cotati: Early 20th Century|publisher=City of Cotati|access-date=November 30, 2007}}</ref>

In 1927, the Cotati Volunteer Fire Department was organized.<ref name="early20th"/> Since 1993, Cotati has been part of the Rancho Adobe Fire Protection District.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rancho-adobe-fire.org/|title=rancho-adobe-fire.org|access-date=October 3, 2014}}</ref>

A local weekly newspaper called ''The Cotatian'' was established by E. A. Little in 1944 and lasted until 1964.<ref>Draper, pp. 78-79</ref> The current local paper is ''The Community Voice'', published in neighboring [[Penngrove, California|Penngrove]].