Touring Historic Sonoma

Today was our last day to roam out and about in the San Francisco Bay Area.  We decided we'd like to explore downtown Sonoma, especially the historic buildings.  We weren't disappointed!

We parked the truck and started walking, looking for a place for lunch.  What do we stumble on right away but a great Belgian beer bar!  Here's Kathy standing proudly in front of her discovery:

The tavern had a great selection of beers - particularly Belgian style beers.  We, however, selected a local winter ale:  Anderson Valley Brewing's "Winter Solstice," which was very fruity and complex.  We tried a scrumptious pumpkin soup and then each had a salad to round it out.

The restaurant grows hop vines decoratively around its biergarten, although the tavern doesn't brew its own beer.  Kathy couldn't resist plucking a hop flower from the vine, crushing it, and smelling those wonderful aromatic oils:

Time to get historic.  Sonoma State Historic Park consists of several historic buildings located in downtown Sonoma.  One of the most famous is the Mission San Francisco de Solano, which was the northernmost of the Spanish missions built along El Camino Real, or the King's (or Royal) Highway.  It was constructed in 1823.  Eventually, it was secularized in 1834 but served as the parish church of Sonoma until 1881.  Eventually purchased for restoration in 1903, it became part of the California State Park system in 1926.  Here is how it looks today:

Chris Jorgensen, a brilliant Norwegian artist who married the heir to the Ghirardelli chocolate fortune, embarked on a celebrated project to paint all of the missions of California.  In 1903 and 1904, he and his wife travelled throughout California, camping near each mission, and painted them as they were then.  Some were mere ruins but the mission in Sonoma still stood.  Here is Jorgensen's painting of it.  The church itself, on the left in the painting, was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake.

What is left of the mission still has a chapel, which has been beautifully restored.  Here is a photo of the chapel:

Across from the street is the Blue Wing Inn, reputedly the first hotel built north of San Francisco in California, was constructed in 1836 and hosted many famous characters if the mid-1800's including Ulysses S. Grant, William Tecumseh Sherman, General Philip Sheridan, and others.  Today it has been preserved, but is presently closed for a complete restoration of the interior:

The highlight of our trip was the residence of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, one of the most interesting and formative figures in early California history.  Born in Monterrey, California in 1807, he was serving as the secretary to the Spanish Governor of California when Mexico won its independence.  He went on to become Mexico's Commandant of the Presidio of San Francisco, then became Mexico's senior military officer for Northern California.  He formed alliances with local Native American tribes and worked to limit Russia's influence in California during the Colonial Period.  In 1846, he was arrested at his Sonoma home by John Fremont's irregulars at the commencement of California's Bear Flag Revolt.  He was released from custody when he agreed to remain neutral in California's battle for independence from Mexico.  He eventually sided with the United States and accepted U.S. control after the defeat of Mexico in the Mexican War.  He went on to become very influential in California state politics.  In his honor, the first state capital of California was located in the City of Vallejo, where we are staying.  It subsequently moved to nearby Benicia, named for his wife, before moving permanently to Sacramento.

General Vallejo and his wife Benicia established their lifelong home in Sonoma, on a 500-acre estate he named "Lachryma Montis" (Latin for "tears of the mountain"), to reflect the name the local Native American tribe of Suysin gave the place ("Chiucuyem") for the spring of clear water that arises on the property.  On the property, he established one of the first vineyards and wineries in California, but his wine estate was wiped out in the phylloxera (American root louse) epidemic of 1873.

Here is a photo of the main residence, which was built in an eastern Gothic-American-Victorian style, prefabricated in the East and shipped to California around Cape Horn:

General Vallejo and his wife had 16 children.  A granddaughter sold the property to the State of California in 1933 and it was established and preserved as a state historic park.

The spring on the property still flows, and fills a small pond behind the house, located in a beautiful, landscaped setting.  Here is Kathy admiring the pond:

If you'd like more information about the home, including more photos, try this page of the website titled, "A Virtual Tour of the California Missions."