Tour History & Plaque Donors

The first walking tour of downtown Dixon was in 1997, prepared for the City of Dixon by the Community Design & Planning Services at UC Davis with assistance from local historian, Ardeth Riedel, as part of the revitalization of downtown Dixon. This project included a booklet with hand drawn pictures of the buildings, a map and very brief write-ups of the historical sites downtown. Another tour was created in 2007 by the Dixon Historical Society on printed tri-fold papers, with printed photos of buildings, a map and brief write-ups of each historic location. 15 bronze plaques were originally purchased by one, or both, of these projects and possibly by other donations of citizens in the community. However, only 2 of the original plaques were ever installed. One at Women’s Improvement Club Park and one at 100 S. 1st Street. The projects stalled and the remaining 13 plaques were stored in various locations in town through the years, until December of 2021, when Councilman Don Hendershot, reignited the project.

He, along with Jill Orr, Angela Meisenheimer, Wendi Hendershot, Shauna Manina, and Denise McBride had to reconfigure the original walking tour route to follow along Dixon’s historical timeline more accurately. So, plaque #1 had to be removed from Women’s Improvement Club Park by Dixon’s City workers, and reinstalled at the new starting point, the Dixon United Methodist Church. Research on current site owners and contact was made for permission to include their historic property in the tour and to affix a plaque to their building(s). They also investigated and located where the original plaques were made, so more could be manufactured to match the originals. Lastly, they had to raise funds to cover the cost of the new plaques added to the now 34 site Historic Walking Tour.

We would like to thank the following community members and businesses listed below in order of funds generously donated to purchase the 19 new plaques.

BENEFACTORS:

Angela Meisenheimer

Taylor Builders

Don & Wendi Hendershot

Recology

SPONSORS:

Joseph & Vickie Azevedo

Michel Liu & Patti Sousa Liu

Dixon Firefighters

Tully Consulting Group

Jill Orr

Dixon Police Officers' Association

Kay Cayler

PARTNERS:

Gary & Kathy Archer

DONORS:

Johnson Group Powered by RE/MAX Gold

Ted Jorgensen, Dixon Tire & Auto Pro

Shauna Manina

Herb & Lois Cross

Barrett-Leber Realty

Ramtown Karate

Kim Schroeder-Evans

Martha Dukes

FRIENDS:

Raffi Boloyan

Debra Dingman

Sarah Villec

Weathered Plaque #1 was removed from Women's Improvement Club Park, cleaned up and reinstalled at the Dixon United Methodist Church.

The beautiful, bronze plaques were manufactured in Pittsburg,Pennsylvania