History
of the Leese-Fitch Adobe

Jacob Premier Leese began construction of the Leese-Fitch Adobe in 1842, completing it in 1845 with the aid of 221 Native Americans. Leese, who'd migrated to California in the early 1830s from Ohio, had married Colonel (later General) M.J. Vallejo's daughter, Rosalia, sometime after 1836 - much against Vallejo's wishes.

The adobe originally ran south and west from its present location. Local materials including redwood, clay, and fieldstone were utilized. Cut lumber came from Mark West's operation north of Santa Rosa. The adobe was made from sand clay dug from a pit in the Plaza, leaving a large hole for many years thereafter. It was mixed with sand and straw-manure, and sun dried in wooden boxes. Foundations consisted of Sonoma fieldstone laid in a linear pit and mortared with wet adobe. There were balconies on all sides, in the traditional manner, similar to Vallejo 's adobe in Petaluma.

Vallejo leased the adobe as a store until 1849, when he sold it to his wife Benicia 's sister, Josefa Carrillo de Fitch and her husband Captain Henry Delano Fitch. Their first tenant was General Persifer Smith, Commander of the Pacific Division of the U.S. Army, then headquartered in Monterey. Major General Joseph Hooker of Civil War fame was responsible for significant remodeling prior to General and Mrs. Smith's occupancy, installing the first fireplace in Sonoma, painting and papering, raising ceilings on the second floor, and adding a new shingle roof. Hooker's workers removed a portion of an interior adobe wall, including an adobe gable in the attic to install the fireplace.

After General Smith moved his troops to the Benicia arsenal in 1853, Mrs. Fitch leased the building to the Episcopal Reverend, J.L. ver Mehr, who ran a girls school, St. Mary's, for one year. After 1854, the adobe was used as a hotel and saloon. By 1859 it was known as "The Fitch House" until sometime in the 1860s, when a fire is believed to have destroyed the southern portion.

Not much is known about the adobe's occupancy after the 1860s fire. Peter Yenni bought the building in 1907 and ran the Welcome Saloon until 1920, when prohibition ended his business. His wife ran an ice cream parlor next door, which later became a dry goods store run by the Valente family.

A restaurant was added on the west side between 1911 and 1923. According to Sonoma Historic League records, it was called the Plaza Restaurant in the early 1920s. Two saloons were on the ground floor between 1930 and 1941 - one at the north end, another at the south end. The space was then divided into three similarly sized spaces, as it is today.

Sidewalks replaced boardwalks in 1911, utilities were added, and it appears there was a city ordinance requiring the removal of porch or canopy posts at that time. In 1912, Fred Bulotti purchased the Yenni Building to the south for $10 plus an unrecorded note. Bulotti also gained the right of access to the adobe patio for use of the newly installed toilets, which had a clay tile sewer line that ran to Napa Street west of the old Yenni Building. In 1927, the Sonoma Index-Tribune reported wallpapering and interior painting was under way, and newspaper accounts show that there were fires in 1942 and 1975.

The Detert Family bought the Leese-Fitch Adobe in 1968. The building, which has recently been remodeled by the owners of Sonoma Saveurs for the bistro, wine bar and gourmet boutique which now occupies the historic building.