HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Swiss Hotel

Sonoma, Sonoma County, California

Marker Inscription

Swiss Hotel Constructed about 1850 by Don Salvador Vallejo, this adobe adjoined his first Sonoma dwelling built in 1836. Occupied by various pioneers, it was the house in 1861 of Dr. Victor J. Faure, vintner of prize-winning wines made from the grapes of the Vallejo family vineyards. Later, it became known as the "Swiss Hotel", because of its use for hotel and restaurant purposes. Historical Landmark No. 496

Erected by California State Park Commission

The Story

Built around 1850 by Don Salvador Vallejo beside his earlier 1836 dwelling, this adobe passed through many hands. In 1861 it was home to Dr. Victor J. Faure, who made prize-winning wines from the Vallejo family's grapes, tying the building to Sonoma's founding role in California viticulture. Later use as a hotel and restaurant gave it the name Swiss Hotel.

Why it matters

It reflects both Mexican-era Sonoma and the birth of the California wine industry that would become world-renowned.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · Salvador Vallejo
  • · Victor J. Faure

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionIndustry & InventionFrontier HistoryLandmark

Nearby & related markers

Old Borges Ranch

Walnut Creek, CA

The Old Borges Ranchhouse anchored a working cattle ranch in the hills above Walnut Creek, built in 1899 by Francisco "Frank" Borges and his wife Mary with their children. In an era when the East Bay was still open range and grazing land, families like the Borgeses turned Spanish- and Mexican-era rancho country into productive American cattle operations. The house sheltered five generations of a hard-working ranching family before the land became a public open-space preserve.

Beermann Plaz

Lincoln, CA

Fritz Beermann and his son Charles arrived in the young railroad town of Lincoln, California, in 1880 and worked side by side in a harness and saddle shop at 5th and F Streets—an essential trade in a horse-drawn frontier economy. Charles went on to serve as Lincoln's Town Treasurer after the 1892 election, a mark of how immigrant craftsmen put down roots and helped govern the communities they helped build. Their story traces the rise of a Gilded Age California town from its earliest tradesmen.

Forbes Flour Mill

Los Gatos, CA

These remains mark a four-story flour mill built in 1854 by James Alexander Forbes near Los Gatos, at the edge of the Santa Clara Valley. Forbes was a Scottish-born settler and one-time British vice-consul in Mexican California who invested in milling as American settlers poured in after the Gold Rush. Water-powered mills like his turned the valley's grain into flour for a fast-growing state.

The Sonoma Cheese Factory

Sonoma, CA · est. 2008

Celso Viviani, an Italian immigrant who arrived in Sonoma in 1910, began making cheese in 1921 and launched his own business a decade later. In 1944 he built this factory, opening it in 1945 as both a manufacturing plant and retail store, hand-making jack cheese in the back. Still run by the Viviani family, it embodies the immigrant food traditions that helped define Sonoma Valley.