Toscano Hotel Happenings

Toscano Hotel                                                                       Toscano Kitchen

Located on Spain Street on the Plaza next to The Barracks, The Toscano is a wonderful building with fascinating history. The Hotel is open daily at 10 a.m.

Free docent tours are offered Saturday, Sunday and Monday 1-4 p.m.

For more information, contact: Sharon Douglas, 707 939-8300 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              707 939-8300      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              707 939-8300      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or email sdouglas@icfi.com

Docent News

Annual Toscano Tea, April 21, 2010

The tea was quite a nice event.  More than 50 people attended, including several League members, Board members, SP docents, SP staff,  women from the Woman's Club, and quite a few of our Toscano docents. Cookies were outstanding and Karla (Noyes) made some delicious tea.  I think everyone had fun (I could tell by the decibel level of the conversation and laughter each time I went into the kitchen to get more tea and cookies). Tamra Rollins made corsages for docents, but then decided to give one to all who attended. Bernie Fredell poured the tea (an honorary position). We used to have the tea and other events in the hotel - but in the past two years or so we have moved all events involving food to the dining room and it has been a great venue.  

Built in 1851, the building now known as the Toscano Hotel is the oldest commercial wood-frame structure in Sonoma and has a colorful history. In its early years, the building served many different purposes including warehouse, general store, and lending library. In 1886 an Italian immigrant from Tuscany, Settimo Ciucci and his partner, L. Quartaroli, rented the building and turned it into a working man's hotel (the Toscano, which means-man from Tuscany) to accommodate Italian immigrants who were hired to quarry basalt out of the hills behind the hotel. The basalt blocks were used to pave the streets of San Francisco.

In 1902, the kitchen and dining room were added providing additional rooms on the second story. The two-story building to the west of the hotel was also purchased and provided even more rooms to rent.

The Ciucci family operated the Hotel as a worker's boarding house, and later a summer resort for families. In 1922, Settimo Ciucci died. His wife died in 1949. Their daughter and her husband Jack Walton continued to run the hotel and post-Prohibition, the place was famous for Jack Walton's Brandy Old Fashioned. Both Jack London and Air Force General Hap Arnold were among Walton's regular customers. The Toscano Hotel closed following the death of Jack Walton in 1955.

In 1957, the California Department of Parks and Recreation acquired the Casa Grande property on the Plaza. There were plans to demolish the Toscano and build a replica of Casa Grande, but these plans never materialized. The hotel was boarded up from 1957 until 1969 when the Toscano Hotel's architecture was seen as representative of an important era in California history, as were the adobes. In April 1973, SLHP signed a 10-year lease for the Toscano Kitchen and Dining Room from the State of California. The new lease, signed in 2003 expires in 2007.

Refurbishing of the Hotel was undertaken by the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation in 1972. The League acquired the furniture, made curtains, wallpapered, painted, and laid carpets. All of the furniture, except the pump organ in the woman's parlor, the back of the bar, and a cradle upstairs which were part of the original furnishing, were donated by members of the League or came from the State Parks Museum Warehouse in Sacramento. Nevertheless, all of the furnishings are of the late 1800s and early 1900s.

In April 1973 the Toscano Hotel, under the ownership of the State Parks Department and with leadership from docents from the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation opened its doors for tours. The dining room and kitchen were restored and opened for tours in 1980.