Old Sonoman remembers older Sonomans

For the longest time, I relied on my father, Robert Lynch, to identify people in old photos that he had in his files, which I occasionally searched for material related to a current story.

When he died in 2003, I was glad that he had spent some of his time writing names and approximate dates on the back of many of those pictures.

But I still found a pile of unidentified ones. Many of the people look familiar to me, but I can’t pull up a name.

So I had this idea.

I will present some columns with photos and information I have about them, along with some for which I only have the photo and no information.

I hope there are folks out there in our community, who might be able to identify them.

JOHN J. STEINER (right), was for many years proprietor of the old Union Hotel with his sister, Josephine Andrieux. When the hotel was torn down in 1956 to make way for the Bank of America, John moved his popular hotel bar, Steiner’s Tavern, to the historic Fitch adobe on First Street West. He remained in business there until his death on Feb. 5, 1978, at the age of 74. Born in San Francisco, he lived in Sonoma for 71 years. He was an ardent sports fan and golfer, and a gold badge holder of the Sonoma Volunteer Fire Department. Steiner’s sponsored many local teams.

More recently Steiner’s, under new ownership, was moved in 2000 to its present location in the Masonic Building on First Street West.

BATISTE MORI, (left) was for 30 years the proprietor of the old Mission Fruit Market, located next door to The Sonoma Index-Tribune (where Sisters is today). I remember salami curing on strings hanging from the ceiling, pickle barrels and the fragrance of garlic and other Italian grocery items.

A cheerful, friendly man, he was devoted to his family, the many organizations he belonged to, and to fishing for striped bass in the sloughs in Schellville. He died here on Oct. 3, 1977 at the age of 90.

He was the father of Leonore Gardener of Glen Ellen, and William Mori, Juanita Trombetta and Carlos Mori.

Now I have a photo I need help identifying. A man (above) sweeping in an old local store. A Flamo sign in the foreground.

Anybody know who he is? The store name and location?

If you do please email me at flyfisherbill@me.com. I will run that information in a future column.

I’ll try also to do at least one of these old photo columns each month.