Authenticy of Place – Petaluma’s Aqus Cafe and Foundry Wharf

Aqus Café at Foundry Wharf in Petaluma is one of my favorite places to meet with friends and clients. There are several reasons for this – welcoming staff, good food, coffee, and easy to get to on foot or bike (just one mile from my house). But one of the most appealing aspects of the place is its unique setting. The cafe is located within a rehabilitated building that dates to 1908.

The Chamber of Commerce enticed the Corliss Gas Engine Company to move their San Francisco plant, which had shut down in 1907 following labor disputes, to Petaluma, where access to rail and river transportation made for a desirable location. The Corliss Company was considered an essential enterprise that would provide high-paying jobs for mechanics and other workers. With this in mind, the City of Petaluma provided the land for the plant at the corner of Second and H Streets, and the Chamber covered moving expenses. In January 1908, the plant was completed and the Corliss Gas Engine Company opened for business.

By August 1911, Corliss was doing so well that they awarded a contract to H.P. Vogensen to construct an addition to the south side of the building which doubled the size of the plant.

In 1916 Standard Gas Engine Company purchased Corliss and moved the operation to Oakland and the building was leased to R.H. Hencken, who stored wheat on site.

In 1919 the Dow Herriman Machine Works and Foundry leased the former Corliss Gas Engine Works. Like Corliss, this San Francisco firm was lured to Petaluma by the Chamber of Commerce.

Dow Herriman moved back to San Francisco in 1923 and shortly afterward, G.P. McNear purchased the property. He converted the building into a warehouse, installed a concrete floor, and made other improvements. In 1929 McNear leased the building to the Shank Bag Company for a short period before they got a better offer and moved to Oakland.

McNear leased the building to the California Cherry Growers Association, which manufactured maraschino cherries and employed nearly 100 people, primarily women, in 1936.

The Petaluma Shipbuilding Company occupied the former Corliss plant during World War II and, in 1944, took delivery of a 2,000-ton Navy cargo vessel that required superstructure work. The 300-foot ship was towed to Petaluma from a Stockton shipyard by two large tugs.

The Kresky Company, producer of the first automatic oil-burning stove for brooding baby chicks, bought the property from McNear in 1945. Again, a selling point for the site was its proximity to the waterfront and rail facilities, the latter being required in connection with its eastern business, which was done in carload lots.

By 1952, the Kresky Manufacturing Company had expanded its footprint at Second and H Streets to include over 100,000 square feet of working area. In 1971, operating under the parent name of Zero Manufacturing Company, Kresky’s precision sheet metal plant shut its doors and Kresky Signs, Inc. moved into a warehouse at 429 First Street, now home to Watershed.

In 1987, Walter and Linda Haake purchased the old Corliss Gas Engine building and surrounding property, which previously served, among other things, as the City’s corporation yard, the site of the Petaluma Box Factory, and later a poultry processing plant.

Walter Haake transformed the property into a thriving mixed-use development that preserved the character of an existing building while constructing new spaces that provide for various industrial, office, creative, retail, and agriculturally centric uses. Foundry Wharf and Aqus Café offer an inviting and authentic experience for those who work there and patronize its businesses. Now if only Haake’s short lived battery-powered water taxi service could be brought back.