05/12/2026
This May, AAPI Heritage Month and National Historic Preservation Month remind us that preservation is about more than saving places—it’s about protecting the stories and legacies tied to them.
This year’s Preservation Month theme, “All People Are Created Equal,” calls us to recognize whose stories have been preserved, and whose have been overlooked.
In our current exhibit, "Time and Tide," we tell the little-known story of the Chinese workers who helped build Petaluma’s early water systems by digging ditches, shaping creeks, and building reservoirs to enable the growth of our city.
They did this work while facing discrimination, low wages, and exclusion under laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Today, places like Historic Chinatown Park (formerly Center Park) offer space to remember these histories—but it’s up to all of us to ensure the full story is told.
Visit "Time and Tide" through June 7 to learn more.
With thanks to Dr. Chingling Wo and Terry Park for their research, and to our friends and Petaluma Historic Chinatown Park Committee for their partnership in bringing these stories to light.
Photo: An unidentified Chinese laborer on a Sonoma County farm, 1902, courtesy Sonoma County Library.
