Sonoma State Historic Park
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.
Governor Figueroa issued a regulation (Reglamento Provisional para la secularizacion de las Misiones) on August 9, 1834, outlining the requirements for the distribution of property (land, cattle and equipment) to each mission's neophytes.
[5] It was built by order of Lieutenant (Teniente) Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo to house the Mexican soldiers that had been transferred from the Presidio of San Francisco in 1835 as part of the secularization of the Mission.
The Presidial Company and its commander, Lieutenant Vallejo, were also responsible for controlling the Native Americans living on the northern border of Mexican California.
[8] 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.
[11] Built in an L-shape, the rear section contained a kitchen and sleeping quarters for Vallejo's staff of Native Indian servants.
[12] 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.
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 determined to move his growing family from La Casa Grande after returning from Monterey and California's 1849 Constitutional Convention.
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 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.
[15] The land, between the Sonoma Barracks and La Casa Grande, that houses the Toscano Hotel complex was sold by Mariano Vallejo to Mrs. M.M.
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.
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.
[22][23] Vallejo had been instructed to establish a pueblo at the site of the old Mission and he began laying out Sonoma with its residential lots, central square and broad avenue to the south.
Vallejo was also named Director of Colonization with the ability to initiate land grants (subject to confirmation by the Governor and the diputación {the territorial legislature}) for other Mexican citizens.
He was responsible for guarding the northern border from incursion by foreigners and maintaining control over the Native population north of the Bay.
While the El Cuartel de Sonoma (barracks) was built to house troops, most of the space was used as a headquarters and for supply, equipment and weapons storage.
Vallejo granted the first pueblo lot (#35) to Antonio Ortega, the majordomo he recruited to assist him in overseeing the secularization of the Mission (the one-room adobe at that location comprised the core of what was to become the Blue Wing Inn).
