American Graffiti | Water Street & the Great Petaluma Mill — The River Behind the Drag

Two blocks off the cruising route the town turns its back and becomes a port. Water Street runs along the Petaluma River's turning basin, and the film uses it the way the town always did: as the place where things end up. Toad finds Steve's stolen car down here, away from the lights, and the geography does the work. A hundred yards from the boulevard, and the night stops being a party.

The Great Petaluma Mill stands at 6 Petaluma Boulevard North, a four-building complex whose oldest section dates to the 1850s. It served as a meat warehouse for hunters working the marshes before it went into grain and feed under Isaac Wickersham and G. P. McNear. Across the water, the Water Street trestle carried a rail spur out to Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Forestville, hauling something like ten thousand carloads of produce and goods a year at its peak. This is why Petaluma had a downtown worth filming in the first place. The river paid for it.

The mill is shops and restaurants now, and Water Street has been made into a promenade with tables at the edge of the basin. Go at dusk. The boat masts click, the brick holds the day's heat, and the boulevard traffic comes over the rooftops as a distant hum. Lucas never explains that this town has a river. He just drives down to it when the film needs somewhere quiet, and the quiet is still there.

Building history from Visit Petaluma's historic downtown sites guide; Water Street is named as a filming location by Sonoma County Tourism. Photograph shows the Great Petaluma Mill, via Pexels.