The Ice House History
PETALUMA'S HISTORIC BURDELL BUILDING
Scotsman James Black came to California in 1832 and, for a short period, became a Sea Otter hunter in Monterey. In 1845, General Mariano Vallejo, whom had become very leery of the Russian occupation of Fort Ross, granted Black 10,787 acres to develop in Sonoma County,... specifically as a hindrance to anticipated Russian expansion. Soon after that, Black added another 16,000 acres of Northern Marin County, that he would call Rancho Nicasio and made a fortune raising beef cattle and selling them to the gold miners. By 1853, Black had become the largest land-owner in Marin, with over 35,000 acres from the Petaluma River to Tomales Bay! (Black Mountain is named after him).
James Black married 15 year old Maria Saez in 1844 and they produced two children, one of whom died in infancy and the other, Mary Black, grew-up on the huge ranch, learned a great deal about running it and, at age 17, when she married Dentist Galen Burdell in 1863, her father gave her the 8,877 acre Rancho Olompali, (a Miwok term meaning "Southern Village"), plus 900 head of cattle, as a wedding gift. Mary was half Galen's age, but very equal in maturity and skills. Her Father died in 1869, of a brain injury suffered from a fall from his horse, and eventually, another large tract of land came to the Burdells, via a contentious lawsuit against her Father's second wife, bringing their entire plot then, to about 20,000 acres!
Galen Burdell had come to California around the horn, for the Gold Rush in 1849, when he was 21 years old. He became the first dentist to practice in San Francisco and had been very popular there. Six years after his marriage to Mary, Galen retired from dentistry to manage their vast estate and by 1887, (according to The Marin County Journal), the Burdell Ranches contained "17 dairies, 10 orchards and many acres of bearing vineyard”.
In 1875, the train from Southern Marin, ran North to Olema Station on the Burdell property. It was just a cow pasture and offered no hotel, no sandwich stand, not even a saloon. The RR barrier to the immediate
North then, was Paper Mill Creek and a year later, a bridge was built over that and Galen Burdell constructed a hotel and saloon, just across the road from the new train depot. That property was to eventually become the site of the future Pointe Reyes Station and by 1880, bragged of a black smith, a livery station and a butcher shop. The first general store there, had been built by Petaluma's A.P. Whitney and the first post office opened in 1882, with the town renaming itself from Olema Station to Pointe Reyes Station. It was said that the development of Pte. Reyes had been "a favorite plaything of Galen Burdell". Mary Burdell died in 1900 and Galen, in 1906. (just one week prior to the Great Earthquake). They were seceded in life by their ambitious son, James Black Burdell, born in 1869.
James Burdell at age 23, married the prominent Marinite, 18 year old Josie Sweetser in 1892. James went-on to found Petaluma's Western Refrigerating Co. and the Petaluma Ice & Cold Storage Co. for the huge brick building, his Mother had constructed in 1897 at the corner of E. Washington and Lakeville Hwy., (now 405 E, 'D' St.), which housed those companies plus The Burdell Creamery and eventually, The Petaluma Electric Light & Power Co., with four dynamos that produced all of Petaluma's electricity between 1897 and 1907. At the time, Petaluma's Burdell structure boasted the longest continuous frontage of any building in Sonoma County. The RR spur, running the length of the building, made deliveries and pick-ups, right at the plant.
The 32,000 square foot Burdell Building soon became the hub of both the booming poultry and dairy industries in Petaluma in the early 1900s. The creamery then, had the ability to produce 20,000 pounds of butter each day and to process 4,000 gallons of milk per hour! As Petaluma's first cold storage facility, it kept eggs, milk, butter and cheese fresh, while awaiting transport to markets. It's ice manufacturing room could produce 5 tons of ice per day, in blocks of 100 lbs. each. Some of these usages continued into the 1970s.
In 1910, Pacific Gas and Electric arrived in Petaluma and in 1911, James Burdell Sr., his wife and small son, James Jr., moved back to Olompali and enlarged it to a 26 room mansion. In 1913, James Sr. became President of the First Novato Bank. His amazing energy goes to prove that, indeed, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree'. Mt.
Burdell was named for him. James Black Burdell Jr. and his wife and daughter, Charmaine, moved to Petaluma in 1943. James Sr. had died in 1933 and, in 1943, his widow sold Olompali and also moved to Petaluma, where she lived until her death in 1964.
Petaluma's historic Burdell building is now owned by David Martin and Jim Nelson of the Creedence Construction Co. and they have undertaken some excellent improvements that fit-in with the building's history. Recognizing that the former main entrances on Lakeville Hwy. had become unfeasible, due to the heavy traffic, the commuter trains and lack of parking there, they have remade the East side of the structure into a new frontage façade, adding two architecturally compatible towers for elevator/stairway access and enlarging the parking area for shops and offices. Already a Petaluma historic site, the Burdell Building will be declared a State Historical Landmark by the Native Sons of the Golden West, this summer.