Biohazard and Pathogen Disinfection in Eldridge, CA

Eldridge is a census-designated place in Sonoma County's Sonoma Valley, lying along Arnold Drive between Glen Ellen and the city of Sonoma, and it is named for James Eldridge, who owned part of the Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa land grant.

For more than a century, Eldridge was essentially the town of the Sonoma Developmental Center: the state institution was the entire community and even had its own ZIP code.

The Sonoma Developmental Center opened on November 24, 1891 with 148 residents, making it the oldest facility in California established specifically to serve people with developmental disabilities.

At its peak the center housed about 3,700 residents with some 1,700 employees and was the largest employer in Sonoma County; more than 45,000 people lived there between 1891 and 2018.

The institution changed names four times over its life, from the California Home for the Care and Training of Feeble Minded Children to Sonoma State Home in 1909, Sonoma State Hospital in 1953, and finally Sonoma Developmental Center in 1986.

The State of California closed the center in 2018 after 127 years, and the last resident moved out on December 17, 2018; the 945-acre campus is now planned for redevelopment under a Sonoma County specific plan adopted in 2022.

Nearly 2,000 former residents are buried in the center's cemetery, which is now commemorated by the Eldridge Memorial with granite plaques bearing their names.

The 2020 census counted 1,312 people in the Eldridge CDP living in 501 households, with an average household size of 2.61 people and about 42% of residents Hispanic or Latino.

Eldridge's median household income was estimated at about $111,983 in 2023, and local children are served by the Sonoma Valley Unified School District.