Official records of the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery from 1914 through 1974.

The Petaluma Cooperative Creamery was founded by 33 Petaluma area dairy farmers led by Silvio Gambinoni in 1913 to serve a booming San Francisco butter market. Meanwhile, Sonoma County dairy farmers needed a steady market for the milk and cream they produced. The new co-op built a plant at 619 Western Avenue, in Petaluma. In 1916, the Petaluma Cooperative Creamery began distributing Clover-brand dairy products in the Petaluma area. Soon, Clover products began showing up all over the North Bay. In 1929, the Creamery began bottling milk under the Clover brand, later adding cottage cheese to the brand line and in 1969, adopting Clo the Cow as the Clover mascot. In 1974, the Creamery changed its name to California Cooperative Creamery. A year later, a massive fire destroyed the milk processing and bottling operations, and the cooler; the co-op decided not to immediately rebuild the facility and Gene Benedetti, along with a group of employees, purchased the wholesale operation business from Cal Co-op and Stornetta's Dairy in Sonoma in August of 1977, forming Clover Stornetta Farms, Inc. The Creamery continued operations as California Gold, producing cheese and butter and processing milk. The plant was closed again in 2004 after being absorbed by Dairy Farmers of America, but Larry Peters, owner of Spring Hill Dairy, purchased the creamery, renamed it the Petaluma Creamery, and added new product lines and a retail operation. (Sources: Tesconi, Tim. Petaluma Creamery turns 100 and still keeps churning, Sonoma County Farm Bureau News, Sept. 1, 2013; Espinosa, Dyan. Still churning after all these years, Argus-Courier, Sept. 18, 2013; Clover Heritage, Clover website, retrieved July 10, 2019, )

1.08 linear foot 1 record storage box

Collection does not circulate and may be photocopied or photographed by arrangement only.

Conditions Governing Access: This collection is unprocessed. Please contact the Petaluma History Room for access; for contact info and current hours, see