[2] It was built by stonemasons Peter Maroni, Natale Forni, Massimo Galeazzi, and Angelo Sodini of northern Italy, who "had acquired their skill of cutting hard stone in the Italian Marble Quarries."

[2] The stone it is built with is "'andesite, an indigenous rock of the volcanic group, which is difficult to work and used on buildings of monumental character, slabs for floors, wall lining and paving.'

"[2] It is an anchor of what is now known as Railroad Square, the portion of Santa Rosa's downtown that is on the west side of U.S. Route 101 and has the highest concentration of historic commercial buildings.

Using stone from a quarry on the east side of Santa Rosa, Italian stonemasons built the four-story Hotel La Rose in 1907 in Railroad Square, an area of town that bustled with activity.

"[3] The hotel was run by Claus Neumann, "a renowned hotelier", who also operated the Los Robles Lodge on Cleveland Avenue in Santa Rosa.