Our Sonoma retro logo carries the California Republic bear and star — the same bear and star Todd hand-painted in the Plaza in 1846, the same bear and star that became the state flag in 1911. The "Est. 1850" date marks California statehood, the year the Republic settled finally into the United States. Rendered in black-and-white with a hand-printed, distressed feel, the design reads less as a souvenir and more as a piece of California's actual paperwork — the original flag, the original star, the original year. On a tee or a cap it carries the simplest possible statement: California started here.
Walk Sonoma Plaza today and the town is still organized around it: the adobe ring on every side, Mission Solano on the northeast corner, the Sonoma Barracks beside it, the Toscano Hotel and Swiss Hotel along the north edge, the Sonoma Hotel of 1880 to the west, the Bear Flag Monument standing on the northeast lawn where Todd's flag went up. The Plaza is a National Historic Landmark district. Beyond it the Sonoma Valley AVA runs north toward Glen Ellen and the Mayacamas; the Sonoma Coast lies forty miles west on the Pacific. Where California began — and where the flag was born.
Why People Visit Sonoma California
Sonoma is the rare California town where the state's earliest chapters are still standing on the same square. Visitors come for the Plaza — the largest town plaza in California — and the adobes that ring it. They come for the Bear Flag Monument and the story of the 25-day California Republic. They come for Mission San Francisco Solano, the last of the California missions. They come for Buena Vista and the Sonoma Valley AVA, where California's premium wine country began. And they come because Sonoma is, in the most literal way, where California started.
