|
The
City of Sebastopol is a small semi-urban community
located on the western edge of the Santa Rosa plain.
It is 50 miles north of San Francisco, 8 miles west
of Santa Rosa, 10 miles from Bodega Bay, and about
15 miles from the Russian River. The City,
incorporated in 1902, currently has a population of
about 7,900 people and serves a trade area
population in excess of 35,000 people.
The
name of Sebastopol first came into use in the late
1850’s as a result of a prolonged and lively
fistfight in the newly formed town, which was
likened to the long British siege of the Russian
seaport of Sevastopol during the then-raging Crimean
War. Britain, France, Sardinia and Turkey fought
Russia in this war, one of the first wars
to be directly reported by journalists and
photographers. The Crimean War was also the origin
of improved medical care of the wounded, primarily
due to the efforts of Florence Nightingale, who
formed a nursing corps to care for wounded British
soldiers. Evidently, many Americans in the west
sympathized more for the Russian than for the
British cause as there were at one time four other
Sebastopol’s in California; one in Napa County,
renamed Yountville, one each in Tulare, Sacramento,
and Nevada counties.
The
apple industry brought a steady rural prosperity to
the town and Sebastopol was incorporated in 1902
with schools, churches, hotels, canneries, mills,
wineries, and an opera house to its credit. The 1906
earthquake reduced most of these early buildings to
rubble, but as elsewhere in the county, the town was
rebuilt.
In
the second half of the Twentieth Century, the apple
industry struggled to compete with other apple
producing regions and gradually declined in its
economic significance. With greater personal
mobility and the rise of larger shopping centers in
other Sonoma County communities, Sebastopol changed
from a full-service town with a complete range of
stores to one with a more limited range of goods and
services.
Today
Sebastopol has a Council-Manager form of government,
with five Council members elected at-large. The City
has its own Police, Fire and Public Works
departments, as well as other city departments. With
a very low crime rate, Sebastopol remains among the
safest cities in Northern California.
Sebastopol’s
public schools rank among the highest in the area in
terms of student achievement, and also enjoy strong
community and parent support.
There
are a diversity of housing types in the Sebastopol
area, ranging from 100-year old Craftsman bungalows
and farmhouses to modern subdivisions, apartments
and condominiums. In the countryside surrounding
Sebastopol, properties with vineyards, apple
orchards, redwoods, streams and other features are
not uncommon. Home prices and rental rates tend to
be higher than some other areas of Sonoma County.
|
707-545-0209