Nestled in east Santa Rosa between Farmers Lane and Hahman Drive, the 280,000-square-foot Montgomery Village shopping center has remained a boon to the city and beloved by residents for 75 years.
In the fall of 1949, renowned developer Hugh B. Codding outlined a plan for a million-dollar residential development that called for 112 homes in a “planned community” containing a focal shopping center and recreation area. The eastern Santa Rosa subdivision would be known as Montgomery Village, named after William “Billy” Montgomery, the city’s first known citizen to be killed in World War II.
According to a Sept. 21, 1949, article in The Press Democrat, Codding’s plans for the homes surrounding the shopping center stressed diversification in design, with each house having an individual layout “to get away from too much uniformity,” Codding said…