Cotati's six-sided plaza makes the whole town easier to remember

Cotati has one of those downtowns where the map itself tells part of the story. Instead of a plain grid, the streets gather around a six-sided plaza.

The older town grew near Page’s Station, a wood and water stop tied to the railroad. The City of Cotati says the railroad was completed through the area in 1870, but the town did not really begin to gather until the Page ranch could be divided and sold in the 1890s.

That is when the unusual plan took shape. The state historic marker says Newton Smyth designed Cotati’s hexagonal town plan in the 1890s as an alternative to the normal grid. The marker also notes that the six streets around the plaza were named after sons of early settler Dr. Thomas Page.

Today, La Plaza Park keeps that shape visible. Festivals, farmers market days, music, and ordinary downtown errands all happen around the same six-sided center. It is a small design choice that still changes how Cotati feels: more like people are circling a shared room than passing through a standard crossroads.