Checking up on Sonoma’s historic Toscano Hotel
Posted on November 14, 2018 by Sonoma Valley Sun
By Jonathan Farrell
Named after the Tuscany region of Italy, Sonoma’s Toscano Hotel on Spain Street is among the town’s most iconic old buildings along the plaza. The Sonoma League for Historic Preservation invited its new members and the public for a rare evening tour of the Toscano on Nov. 8.
Guests gathered in the Toscano Kitchen quarters, adjacent to the Hotel which faces the Sonoma Cheese Factory. SLHP Executive Director Chuck Bingaman and Board of Directors President Prema Behan welcomed a standing-room-only crowd.
Appetizers, wine, sparking water and some champagne were served as Bingaman and Behan spoke about the importance of the community working together to preserve the unique history that makes the town of Sonoma and surrounding valley special and a gem to be a part of.
Active members who helped organize and coordinate the gathering that Thursday evening provided impromptu docent tours. With its rustic wooden facade and “saloon-like” interior, the Toscano looks like and is something right out of the depictions of the Old West we see in movies.
Despite the inclination to romanticize it, the clapboard style two-story was essentially a boarding house more than a hotel. It was owned and operated by the Ciucci family. And it was Amelia Ciucci and her husband Jack Walton who made it available to guests and families. Many of them were the workers.
Italian immigrant workers, who provided most of the manual labor to the agricultural economy of Sonoma, left Italy for a chance for a better life in the United States. Immigrant workers flocked to areas like the Sonoma and Napa Valleys to work at any jobs available that they could find.
With its Mediterranean-like climate the Sonoma Valley was an ideal place for agriculture, especially grapes, olives, produce and livestock.
Today, Italy is considered a place of wealth, high fashion, sophistication and fine food. But over a century ago, much of Italy, especially southern Italy where the immigrants came from was rural and very poor.
The demand for laborers in the then new and growing United States attracted people from all over the world. But especially from places struggling with political turmoil and hardships, like Italy; and with famine, like Ireland, the opportunity to immigrate became a magnet.
The Italian influence is obvious in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys, with names like Sebastiani who became its most prominent citizens as well as leaders.
When her husband Jack Walton died in the early 1950’s Amelia Ciucci decided to close the Toscano. Sold to the State of California, Plans were considered to have it torn down. But after 10 years of being boarded up, locals rallied to save the ill-fated structure. From that effort in 1969, the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation was born.
Since 1969, the League’s mission has been an active encouragement of the preservation of Sonoma. As well as, the maintenance of an Archives and Research Center with the development of a growing collection of historical photos. The League also seeks the protection of historic landmarks and an awards program honoring the owners of Sonoma Valley properties who have demonstrated their attention to preserving the historic fabric of those properties.
Many members and guests participate in the varied League activities and events each year and they remain attentive to all plans and developments that impact the historical integrity of the town and surrounding valley.
The gathering on Nov. 8 was an effort to gain new membership and renewal of current membership. The League is a 501-(c) Not for Profit corporation. To learn more about the The Sonoma League for Historic Preservation, visit the web site at WWW.SONOMALEAGUE.ORG.
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The Toscano Hotel was built long before the early 20th century. It was built by Christian Leiding on the site of the previous Nathanson’s Store and lending library, probably in the mid1860s. It occupied most of the frontage between the Barracks and Vallejo’s Casa Grande. Settimo Ciuci only bought the hotel from Leoding in 1898.
C. Frederick Leiding sailed around the Horn to get here, in the immediate years after the Gold Rush. His house is the really cool one just past the Public Works and County yards off 8th Street East.