Name: The Petaluma building that houses Amy’s Kitchen new HQ is well known to longtime residents
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The Petaluma building that houses Amy’s Kitchen new HQ is well known to longtime residents

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Last year, Amy’s Kitchen moved into their new headquarters within Petaluma’s Historic Commercial District, housed in a 1940s-era, Streamline Moderne-style building many longtime locals knew as Carithers.
The familiar downtown structure was originally built in 1941 for Mose Goldman, proprietor of the Leader department store who had outgrown his shop of 16 years on Main Street (now Petaluma Boulevard North). Goldman hired San Francisco architects Wayne Hertzka and William Knowles to design a larger, modern building for his popular women’s fashion store.
According to local historian Katherine J. Rinehart, a grocery store block on the corner of Kentucky Street and Western Avenue was razed to build “what was considered the largest and most modern department store in the North Bay devoted entirely to ladies’ wear.” Groundbreaking began in January 1941 and construction was finished by August.
On the day before the Leader’s grand opening on Aug. 8, 1941, the Petaluma Argus-Courier published an “unprecedented” eight-page special section congratulating Goldman on “his magnificent department store.” The section included well wishes for Goldman from over 100 local merchants along with details of the unique structure — made with imitation limestone, an orchid-colored terra cotta exterior, uniquely placed show windows and a lighted Otis elevator.
The Petaluma Argus-Courier asserted that “the building of the new home of the Leader can be accepted as a substantial and permanent improvement in the business life of the city.”
In 1946, Goldman sold the store to W.R. Carithers &amp; Sons, operators of the White House department store in Santa Rosa, for nearly $400,000, according to a June 2, 1946, article in The Press Democrat. The addition of the Petaluma store expanded Carithers &amp; Sons to one of the largest firms in the North Bay area, having two other stores in Napa and Vallejo.
The iconic Kentucky Street store was henceforth known as Carithers, which prided itself on supplying top quality and nationally advertised merchandise, now for the whole family as opposed to strictly women’s fashion.
Desiring to retire in the 1960s, the Carithers brothers decided to sell their four popular stores in 1966 to P.N. Hirsch and Company, according to a Feb. 1, 1966, Petaluma Argus-Courier article. “With the continuation of the business assured by the sale to the P.N. Hirsch Corporation,” Donald E. Carithers said, “our main worry, the future of our employees, has been solved.”
Philip N. Hirsch, president of the St. Louis-based Hirsch company, planned to continue operating the four Carithers stores with the same merchandising policy that made them local successes. The Petaluma Carithers remained a community staple for decades, even making an appearance in the 1986 film “Peggy Sue Got Married.”
However, Carithers had closed down the previous year after losing its lease over disagreements with Wells Fargo Bank, according to the July 31, 1985, Press Democrat. “Everybody is sad to see the store go,” said Del Deide, general merchandising manager for Idaho Department Co., then Carithers’ owner. “It’s sort of a landmark.”
The empty Carithers building was sold in 1986 to Petaluma brothers Michael and Mark Thomas, co-owners of Couches, Etc. furniture store, according to the April 16, 1986, Petaluma Argus-Courier. The grand opening of Couches, Etc. was held in August 1986, and it remained in the old Carithers location until its closure in 2007. A Sleep City moved into the building in 2009, and in 2016 it was leased to Ramos Furniture.
The downtown landmark was vacant again for some years before Petaluma’s Historic and Cultural Preservation Committee, in July 2022, approved plans submitted by Amy’s Kitchen to modify the historic building to use as its new headquarters.
Next month, Amy’s Kitchen will be among the 15 statewide honorees at the California Preservation Foundation’s 41st annual Preservation Awards ceremony, having earned an award for its sustainable, seismic retrofitting of the building.

Last year, Amy’s Kitchen moved into their new headquarters within Petaluma’s Historic Commercial District, housed in a 1940s-era, Streamline Moderne-style building many longtime locals knew as Carithers.
The familiar downtown structure was originally built in 1941 for Mose Goldman, proprietor of the Leader department store who had outgrown his shop of 16 years on Main Street (now Petaluma Boulevard North). Goldman hired San Francisco architects Wayne Hertzka and William Knowles to design a larger, modern building for his popular women’s fashion store.
According to local historian Katherine...

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Maci Martell

Sonoma County News - powered by staff of The Press Democrat, Santa Rosa, CA. Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting.

The Petaluma building that houses Amy’s Kitchen new HQ is well known to longtime residents

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