Mission San Francisco Solano Mission San Francisco Solano was the 21st, last (founded in 1823) and northernmost mission in
Alta California. It was the only mission built in Alta California after Mexico gained independence from Spain. The California Governor wanted a robust Mexican presence north of the San Francisco Bay to keep the
Russians who had established
Fort Ross on the Pacific coast from moving further inland. A young
Franciscan friar from
Mission San Francisco de Asis wanted to move to a location with a better climate and access to a larger number of potential converts. In 1833 the Mexican Congress decided to close all of the missions in Alta California.
Governor Figueroa issued a regulation () on August 9, 1834, outlining the requirements for the distribution of property (land, cattle and equipment) to each mission's neophytes. Mariano Vallejo was appointed administrator (
comisionado) to oversee the closing of the Mission. The Mission was successful given its short eleven year life but was smaller in number of converts and with lower productivity and diversity of industries than the older California missions.
Sonoma Barracks (El Cuartel de Sonoma) The
Sonoma Barracks (
El Cuartel de Sonoma) is a two-story, wide-balconied, adobe building facing the central plaza of the City of Sonoma, California. The original building, constructed in 1836, was a simple one-story adobe home. However, in 1848 during the
California Gold Rush it was purchased by seafarer James Cooper and ship's carpenter Thomas Spriggs, who together expanded the hotel to incorporate a
saloon. They added an upper floor and expanded the ground floor from one room to three; further expansion in 1852 included balconies and two more rooms on the second floor. Up to that point, the hotel had been known as
Sonoma House. It was Spriggs who named it the Blue Wing, in July 1853.
La Casa Grande La Casa Grande was the Vallejo family's first home. At the time one of the most imposing and well-furnished private residences in California. It stood with its wide second-story balcony overlooking the town's plaza. Although the house was not finished until 1840, there is reason to believe that a portion of it was completed in time for Vallejo's second daughter to be born there on January 3, 1837. In all, eleven Vallejo children were born in the house. Over the years La Casa Grande became the center of social and diplomatic life north of San Francisco Bay. About 1843, Mariano Vallejo added a three-story adobe tower to the southwestern corner of the house. From this vantage point it was possible to look out over several miles of the Sonoma Valley. An adobe wall connected the tower and Salvadore Vallejo's house to the west. Built in an L-shape, the rear section contained a kitchen and sleeping quarters for Vallejo's staff of Native Indian servants. It was in La Casa Grande on the morning of June 14, 1846 that Vallejo, his brother Salvadore, and his brother-in-law Jacob Leese, were confronted by leaders of the
Bear Flag Revolt, and following several hours of negotiations, were taken prisoner and sent to
Sutter's Fort for detention. Vallejo's family lived at La Casa Grande until 1852, when their new residence,
Lachryma Montis, was completed. Vallejo, however, maintained an office at La Casa Grande, where in the 1860s he worked on his history of California. Vallejo also leased rooms to other residents and army officers. In 1853, a Dr. John Van Mehr established his boarding school, St. Mary's Hall for Young Ladies, in La Casa Grande, expanding into the Servants’ Quarters building the following year. Unfortunately, a diphtheria epidemic broke out in the late summer of 1856 killing four of Van Mehr's students and resulting in the permanent closure of the school in December. Vallejo's home was built beside the spring and its pool in 1851–1852. The two-story, wood-frame house was prefabricated, designed and built on the east coast of United States. It was shipped around Cape Horn on a sailing ship and then assembled at its present site. The design was
Victorian Carpenter Gothic highlighted by a large Gothic window in the master bedroom, twin porches, dormer windows, and elaborate carved wooden trim along the eaves. Bricks were placed inside the walls of the house in order to keep it warm in winter and cool in summer. Each room had its own white marble fireplace. Crystal chandeliers, lace curtains, and many other furnishings including the handsome, rosewood, concert-grand piano, were imported from Europe. The estate included pavilions and other outbuildings, a large barn and houses for the working staff. The Cook House was a three-room rectangular wooden building behind the main house. The cook lived in one room while the other two rooms were used for food preparation and cooking.
El Delirio is a small wooden structure in the garden next to the main house It served as a retreat for the Vallejo family and guests. A special warehouse was erected in 1852 in order to store wine, fruit, and other produce. The original timbers were cut and numbered in Europe and shipped to California. Eventually the building was converted to residential use and became known as the "Swiss Chalet". Grapevines were transplanted to the new site along with a wonderful assortment of fruit decorative trees and shrubs. The quarter-mile-long driveway lined with cottonwood trees and Castilian roses. A vine-covered arbor shaded a wide pathway around the pool into which the spring flowed, and a number of decorative fountains and delightful little outbuildings also graced the grounds. Following a fire that destroyed the nearby Eureka Hotel in 1877, proprietor Frank McKeague leased the Leiding building as the location for the new
Eureka Hotel. A notice for the hotel placed in the
Index Tribune advertised that German was spoken and all employees were white (not Chinese). For fire safety reasons, a second stairway was added to the building, enclosed within an 11-foot extension to the building's west end. A new front façade and balcony were also constructed. Between 1880 and 1886 Leiding leased the building to other tenants including John and Maggie Phelan who ran it as a hotel and boarding house for laborers at Solomon Schocken's nearby quarries. Historical accounts indicate that, at least for a time, the Phelans ran it as a temperance hotel, advertising "no alcoholic beverages on the premises." An 1886, directory lists the hotel's name as
Tuscano - the proprietors as Settimo Ciucci and Leonido Quatoroli. In 1891, Ciucci is listed as the hotel's proprietor and the 1897 Sanborn Map indicates that the name of the hotel had changed to the
Toscano. In November 1898, Stefano Martinoni, Settimo Ciucci's father-in-law, purchased the Toscano for $10.00 in gold coin. The site at this time held the hotel with two one-story rear additions, a small two-story dwelling (now called the Tank House) and a one-story dwelling at the front lot line (now the 2nd floor of the Hotel Annex). In 1902 Settimo Ciucci constructed the Kitchen Annex, which housed a kitchen, dining room, and additional boarding house accommodations upstairs. The Ciucci's daughter, Amelia, married Jack Walton, a railroad worker, in 1914. When Settimo Ciucci died in 1922, she and her husband assumed proprietorship of the hotel, continuing its operation as a combined boarding house for quarry workers and a summer resort for families of modest income. A 1925 brochure for the Northwestern Pacific Railroad noted that the hotel was a block and a half away from the railroad depot and could accommodate seventy-five guests (this number may have been slightly inflated). The going rate at that time was $12 a week for adults. By the 1930s Jack Walton had gained wide renown for his welcoming hospitality and for his famous "Old Fashioned" cocktails. When he died in August 1955, Amelia closed the hotel, though she continued to live on the property. She sold it and related buildings to the State of California for $50,000 in 1957. Today, the Toscano Hotel is furnished with period furniture and looks much the way it did around the turn of the century. ==Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and the Historic Structures==