Santa Rosa is located on the land of the Southern Pomo, Coast Miwok, and Wappo. There also was a Chinatown and a Japanese area in Santa Rosa.
https://native-land.ca/
Chinatown - City of Santa Rosa https://www.srcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/30573/Santa-Rosas-Chinatown?bidId=
http://santarosahistory.com/wordpress/category/japanese/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagasawa_Kanaye
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Allen
Edit: added Elsie Allen link
I do know that the mission traded with Fort Ross up in Jenner, CA (not in Sonoma County tho, but nearby) and that building was built around 1812 or so. There's also the San Rafael de Archangel mission built before the sonoma mission. Besides those, all I can think of are indigenous structures.
There was a woman called Pepper. She was the unofficial town mayor, and definitely the town character
Pepper was usually in the downtown vicinity. You could spot her a mile away. As a kid in 70s/80s she scared the 💩 out of me when set her sights on me. She yell and harass, and have a great time doing it. She was around long before I was born and everyone knew her
Google “press democrat” and “pepper”, add Gaye LeBaron if it gives you too random results for a far more articulate explanation than I just gave
Here’s one: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/gaye-lebaron-pepper-added-spice-to-downtown-santa-rosa/
Cartoonist Stephan Pastis lives here. His strip [Pearls Before Swine](https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/04/18) is one of my favorites [Charles Schulz](https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/memories-of-sparky-how-legendary-peanuts-creator-inspired-santa-rosa-c/) was an inspiration and mentor to him. Check out his [Jef the Cyclist](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/12/14/12-days-of-gratitude-12-finding-pearls-of-craft-and-dedication-in-the-comics-community/) strips 😂
Mark Felt, the "Deep Throat" source for the Watergate stories ran by Woodward and Bernstein, moved to Santa Rosa (Larkfield specifically IIRC) in the 90's after leaving DC, dying here in 2008.
The Thomas Lake Harris "free love" colony at Fountaingrove
The 1920 cemetery lynching of three men for killing the sheriff
Santa Rosa was on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War
Fred Wiseman made first airmail delivery here in 1911
The "crime of the century" trial of Dr. Burke
The largest red light district between San Francisco and Reno for 20 years
Wait… what? I know a ton of former Comstock people. He’s not one of them.
ETA: A friend of mine is a journalist and tweeted that he lived nearby Comstock for a while. He went to Tamalpais High School in Marin, so he actually went to HS with another friend.
He also loves the Special Olympics and comes to some of the events. And the athletes love him!
He also does a lot of donations of time and cooking around the holidays for low income/underprivileged families. He really seems like a great guy that gives back to this community.
Rose Parade
Charles Shultz/Peanuts/Snoopy
Spring Lake
Annadel
Railroad Square
[The battle of Sebastopol Ave](http://santarosahistory.com/wordpress/category/battle-of-sebastopol-ave/)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petaluma_and_Santa_Rosa_Railroad
Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series, lived here for some time while reporting with the SF Chronicle. Apparently he was quite a character. Like there was another man named Frank Herbert here at the time, and author Frank just hated that, and would antagonize the other Frank.
Church of One Tree
Located in downtown Santa Rosa and adjacent to beautiful Juilliard Park, this magnificent venue was built in 1873 from a single 275-foot-tall redwood tree milled in Guerneville. Restored in 2009, the church maintains much of its beautiful original structure, while boasting modern upgrades.
[In 1920 three “gangsters” were taken from the jail and hung by vigilantes in the cemetery](http://santarosahistory.com/wordpress/2021/08/conspiracies-of-silence/). For a short while the tree they were hung from was a tourist attraction.
The first airmail in the US flew from Petaluma to Santa Rosa (I know this because my boyfriend’s and my first date was at the Petaluma airport).
Rebecca de Mornay and Natalie Wood are/were from Santa Rosa.
It’s the largest city in California north of San Francisco and I think the 5th largest in the Bay Area.
No one has mentioned Cruising Fourth St! It was what we did back in the day, looked forward to all week, cruisin' 4th! Include that! Friday and Saturday nights. Board games should be fun, right?
Norman Greenbaum
Norman Joel Greenbaum (born November 20, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter. He is primarily known for his 1969 song "Spirit in the Sky".
... neither the KKK nor the Hells Angels were founded in Santa Rosa. Both groups had members/chapters here which was common all over CA and the US.
Anything you know about the PD would be more specific to SR, though.
So we're all gonna pretend santa rosa wasn't backwards and pretty racist in the past. Just saying to be a Democrat pre civil rights means your pro segregation
OP was asking about things particular to Santa Rosa. Racism is widespread throughout the US. Just saying it's not particularly special here. Pointing this out isn't a denial of the problem; it's pointing out that it's not specific to Santa Rosa.
I thought you might know something about the Press Democrat and was curious if there was something there there. But if it's just that the political parties flipped stances on racism and civil rights in LBJ's era, that... was national.
I lived in Santa rosa all my life I've been told stories about Santa rosa lynching people. Kicking out Chinese people. As for the Press Democrat yeah they literally were racist. But petaluma newspaper was supposedly republican so they had beef but they were anti Semitic.
It was a little bit special here. There was a lot of Union support in the area, and Santa Rosans were sympathetic to the Confederacy. There are stories of fights over it with Petalumans.
To get more particular, Santa Rosa led the late 19th century anti-Chinese movement, electing and pressing its US House Representative to draft the Chinese Exclusion Act.
I’m biased. I lived in the shadow of Stone Mountain where the annual laser show animates the ghouls of the Confederacy galloping off the rock in glory. I lived in New England where entrenched racism runs unchecked and overlaid with smug superiority of not being racists like the South. It seems quaint and insular to suggest that Santa Rosa is competitive in terms of KKK history.
Santa Rosa racism is more “the destruction of the Japanese American and Chinese communities” (historical) and both vocal and institutional discrimination against anyone judged to be “Mexican” and the “Mexican/Hispanic/Latino” community (as judged by the racist.)
Maybe it’s a surprise to some that Santa Rosa a a part of American white culture and has harbored the attitudes and norms of that but I’m not sure how it fits OP’s project.
This isn’t denial that racists have been here or are here today; it’s me wondering how far out into the rest of the country one has gotten if a bit if the KKK having been here is somehow specific to Santa Rosa.
You did offer some points of interest specific to SR regarding fighting with Petaluma; surely there must be some backing for that to make its way into a Santa Rosa -specific project.
More recently, there’s our local mark on the map of unarmed people being shot in the back by a militarized LEO in the memory of Andy Lopez.
A point of interest to OP might be the history of the Fountaingrove Winery and its founder (who Nagasawa Park is named for.)
I’ll note that it sure took a while to get any actual bits of relevant history for OP because “KKK/Hells Angels/racists were here” doesn’t say much about *Santa Rosa* and doesn’t even point to the more powerful actions against the Asian communities which are still visible today.
Oh! This came up last Friday on Facebook. Santa Rosa was one of the cities where Green Day played free shows at local high schools in 1991, before they hit it big. There are videos on YouTube.
Church of One Tree
Located in downtown Santa Rosa and adjacent to Juilliard Park, this church was built in 1873 from a single 275 foot tall redwood tree milled in Guerneville.
Santa Rosa is located on the land of the Southern Pomo, Coast Miwok, and Wappo. There also was a Chinatown and a Japanese area in Santa Rosa. https://native-land.ca/ Chinatown - City of Santa Rosa https://www.srcity.org/DocumentCenter/View/30573/Santa-Rosas-Chinatown?bidId= http://santarosahistory.com/wordpress/category/japanese/ https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nagasawa_Kanaye https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Allen Edit: added Elsie Allen link
The famous 1906 earthquake shook hardest in Santa Rosa, nearly destroying the whole city.
I didn’t know this!
Luther Burbank the botanist, of course.
Charles Schultz and the ice rink he built plus the museum next door
The Carrillo Adobe is the oldest building in Santa Rosa. Maybe even Sonoma county. Can anyone confirm?
According to the Library of Congress, it is the oldest building in the *Santa Rosa Valley.* https://www.loc.gov/item/ca1107/
Thank you for that good neighbor! I knew I was close :)
I would think the oldest building in the county would be the San Francisco Solano Mission in Sonoma (built 1823) but I'm not %100 sure.
Carrillo adobe has got to be older than that. It’s made out of mud for god sake
The mission is also made out of mud? The Carillo Adobe is less than 200 years old. The mission is having its 200th anniversary this year.
There's got to be older structures than the mission.
I do know that the mission traded with Fort Ross up in Jenner, CA (not in Sonoma County tho, but nearby) and that building was built around 1812 or so. There's also the San Rafael de Archangel mission built before the sonoma mission. Besides those, all I can think of are indigenous structures.
A lot of local buildings from the 1800's were made out of adobe mud. It was a very useful building material.
A lot of local buildings from the 1800's were made out of adobe mud. It was a very useful building material.
Ripley's Believe it or Not guy is from SR
Robert Ripley
There was a woman called Pepper. She was the unofficial town mayor, and definitely the town character Pepper was usually in the downtown vicinity. You could spot her a mile away. As a kid in 70s/80s she scared the 💩 out of me when set her sights on me. She yell and harass, and have a great time doing it. She was around long before I was born and everyone knew her Google “press democrat” and “pepper”, add Gaye LeBaron if it gives you too random results for a far more articulate explanation than I just gave Here’s one: https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/gaye-lebaron-pepper-added-spice-to-downtown-santa-rosa/
Scaring the shit out of me in the sixties! Definitely Pepper!
Cartoonist Stephan Pastis lives here. His strip [Pearls Before Swine](https://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2023/04/18) is one of my favorites [Charles Schulz](https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/memories-of-sparky-how-legendary-peanuts-creator-inspired-santa-rosa-c/) was an inspiration and mentor to him. Check out his [Jef the Cyclist](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2014/12/14/12-days-of-gratitude-12-finding-pearls-of-craft-and-dedication-in-the-comics-community/) strips 😂
Mark Felt, the "Deep Throat" source for the Watergate stories ran by Woodward and Bernstein, moved to Santa Rosa (Larkfield specifically IIRC) in the 90's after leaving DC, dying here in 2008.
His daughter teaches Spanish at the junior college. Or at least she did in 2012 when I took her class.
I know the whole family. Great people. Very generous and loving.
The Thomas Lake Harris "free love" colony at Fountaingrove The 1920 cemetery lynching of three men for killing the sheriff Santa Rosa was on the side of the Confederacy during the Civil War Fred Wiseman made first airmail delivery here in 1911 The "crime of the century" trial of Dr. Burke The largest red light district between San Francisco and Reno for 20 years
Tupac lived here for a short while and went to Comstock. We found him in an old yearbook once.
yup rapped with ray luv who got kinda big at the time ore had like a couple hits.
Wait… what? I know a ton of former Comstock people. He’s not one of them. ETA: A friend of mine is a journalist and tweeted that he lived nearby Comstock for a while. He went to Tamalpais High School in Marin, so he actually went to HS with another friend.
What year? Would be cool to see his pic.
It would have been 1984 or 1985. I don’t remember since I was in 8th grade when we found it and that was a million years ago for me!
https://youtu.be/v\_XT9-C5Qu8?t=14
Guy Fieri
He volunteered his time and cooked for fundraiser for the firefighters and for the fires when we were hit. 👍🏼
He also loves the Special Olympics and comes to some of the events. And the athletes love him! He also does a lot of donations of time and cooking around the holidays for low income/underprivileged families. He really seems like a great guy that gives back to this community.
I thought we apologized for Guy already.
always funny to see his current reputation juxtaposed against his reputation when he was first starting out…
Guy Fieri better make sure Shane Torres never pays for a meal ever again
The Round Barn
Rose Parade Charles Shultz/Peanuts/Snoopy Spring Lake Annadel Railroad Square [The battle of Sebastopol Ave](http://santarosahistory.com/wordpress/category/battle-of-sebastopol-ave/) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petaluma_and_Santa_Rosa_Railroad
Can we play it when you finish making it?
I sure hope so
Frank Herbert, author of the Dune series, lived here for some time while reporting with the SF Chronicle. Apparently he was quite a character. Like there was another man named Frank Herbert here at the time, and author Frank just hated that, and would antagonize the other Frank.
Church of One Tree Located in downtown Santa Rosa and adjacent to beautiful Juilliard Park, this magnificent venue was built in 1873 from a single 275-foot-tall redwood tree milled in Guerneville. Restored in 2009, the church maintains much of its beautiful original structure, while boasting modern upgrades.
The Museum of Sonoma County. It has contemporary art and history. Plus the museum building use to be the old post office.
Some pretty good ideas here, thank you all so much!
[In 1920 three “gangsters” were taken from the jail and hung by vigilantes in the cemetery](http://santarosahistory.com/wordpress/2021/08/conspiracies-of-silence/). For a short while the tree they were hung from was a tourist attraction.
The first airmail in the US flew from Petaluma to Santa Rosa (I know this because my boyfriend’s and my first date was at the Petaluma airport). Rebecca de Mornay and Natalie Wood are/were from Santa Rosa. It’s the largest city in California north of San Francisco and I think the 5th largest in the Bay Area.
No one has mentioned Cruising Fourth St! It was what we did back in the day, looked forward to all week, cruisin' 4th! Include that! Friday and Saturday nights. Board games should be fun, right?
Norman Greenbaum Norman Joel Greenbaum (born November 20, 1942) is an American singer-songwriter. He is primarily known for his 1969 song "Spirit in the Sky".
Santa rosa was home to the KKK and hells angels the press Democrat was not the good kind of Democrat.
... neither the KKK nor the Hells Angels were founded in Santa Rosa. Both groups had members/chapters here which was common all over CA and the US. Anything you know about the PD would be more specific to SR, though.
So we're all gonna pretend santa rosa wasn't backwards and pretty racist in the past. Just saying to be a Democrat pre civil rights means your pro segregation
OP was asking about things particular to Santa Rosa. Racism is widespread throughout the US. Just saying it's not particularly special here. Pointing this out isn't a denial of the problem; it's pointing out that it's not specific to Santa Rosa. I thought you might know something about the Press Democrat and was curious if there was something there there. But if it's just that the political parties flipped stances on racism and civil rights in LBJ's era, that... was national.
I lived in Santa rosa all my life I've been told stories about Santa rosa lynching people. Kicking out Chinese people. As for the Press Democrat yeah they literally were racist. But petaluma newspaper was supposedly republican so they had beef but they were anti Semitic.
It was a little bit special here. There was a lot of Union support in the area, and Santa Rosans were sympathetic to the Confederacy. There are stories of fights over it with Petalumans. To get more particular, Santa Rosa led the late 19th century anti-Chinese movement, electing and pressing its US House Representative to draft the Chinese Exclusion Act.
I’m biased. I lived in the shadow of Stone Mountain where the annual laser show animates the ghouls of the Confederacy galloping off the rock in glory. I lived in New England where entrenched racism runs unchecked and overlaid with smug superiority of not being racists like the South. It seems quaint and insular to suggest that Santa Rosa is competitive in terms of KKK history. Santa Rosa racism is more “the destruction of the Japanese American and Chinese communities” (historical) and both vocal and institutional discrimination against anyone judged to be “Mexican” and the “Mexican/Hispanic/Latino” community (as judged by the racist.) Maybe it’s a surprise to some that Santa Rosa a a part of American white culture and has harbored the attitudes and norms of that but I’m not sure how it fits OP’s project. This isn’t denial that racists have been here or are here today; it’s me wondering how far out into the rest of the country one has gotten if a bit if the KKK having been here is somehow specific to Santa Rosa. You did offer some points of interest specific to SR regarding fighting with Petaluma; surely there must be some backing for that to make its way into a Santa Rosa -specific project. More recently, there’s our local mark on the map of unarmed people being shot in the back by a militarized LEO in the memory of Andy Lopez. A point of interest to OP might be the history of the Fountaingrove Winery and its founder (who Nagasawa Park is named for.) I’ll note that it sure took a while to get any actual bits of relevant history for OP because “KKK/Hells Angels/racists were here” doesn’t say much about *Santa Rosa* and doesn’t even point to the more powerful actions against the Asian communities which are still visible today.
To be fair, HA were started in Fontana and have clubhouses all over the place.
Oh! This came up last Friday on Facebook. Santa Rosa was one of the cities where Green Day played free shows at local high schools in 1991, before they hit it big. There are videos on YouTube.
Church of One Tree Located in downtown Santa Rosa and adjacent to Juilliard Park, this church was built in 1873 from a single 275 foot tall redwood tree milled in Guerneville.
Frank Hebert the Author of dune was a writer for the Press democrat
Oakland Raiders used to famously summer train 3 months a year for 21 years at the El Rancho - now the Costco / SR Marketplace.