Bill Lynch: Kay Adams’s memories of the Toscano Hotel

Note: My March 15 column about the Toscano Hotel on the Plaza, which is now part of our state park on Spain Street, was read with particular interest by Kay Adams, an old friend and longtime Sonoman. Kay, who for years operated Kay's Fabrics here, actually lived at the Toscano when she was a schoolgirl. After reading my column, she sent me the following personal account.- Bill Lynch

I am probably the last person still alive who lived at the Toscano Hotel. Josie Morenzoni who is in her 90s now, had worked at the hotel, as well as her mother who was the cook there. I called them Big Josie and Little Josie.

I started working at the hotel, for the owners, Millie and Jack Walton, when I was 12. I was told they needed someone to help out in the kitchen, set up the tables and other jobs including waiting on tables, and I was excited to make some extra money.

Soon after I got the job, my mother made a decision to move back to Hollister. I had just started high school and didn't want to change schools so Millie Walton said I could live there. She paid me $25 a month and room and board.

My room was upstairs and Mrs. Cucci (Millie's mother) had the room across from me. We all shared the bathroom at the end of the hall – Jack, Millie, Mrs. Cucci and I.

At the foot of the staircase they had a Victrola. I think that is what they called it. I would wind it up and I could play these disc things that had music, Caruso and so many more. I was fascinated with that, as I love music.

One day, Mrs. Cucci took me to a room downstairs to show me things she had brought from Italy. One of the items was this brocaded taffeta dress in many colors that she had been married in. That year she let me wear it in the Vintage Festival. I think I was 14 or 15 at that time.

The hotel offered steak or a half chicken cooked on the huge wood stove, served with homemade ravioli's, soup, some sort of potato and, if you were one of Millie's favorites, her zucchini fritters.

We also brined olives and cleaned and cut up the chickens every Saturday.

Jack Walton had his spot at the table in the kitchen near the outside window and Mrs. Murphy (Bill Lynch's aunt, who lived in the Barracks), would come and chat with him every day as that was her back yard.

By that time I had moved back home as my mother had returned, but I worked at the hotel until I graduated and would fill in even after that time. They had an old piano in the little sitting room off the bar and I used to play it while the restaurant was closed.

I'd wait on the boarders for their breakfast then walk to school. After school I'd wait for their dinner. Sometimes if people I knew would ask, I would sing Irish songs. I was the high school soloist then also.

One of the reasons so many celebrities came to the hotel was to enjoy Jack's Old Fashioneds. All of Sonoma's old families ate there.

And so many people I made acquaintance with over the years, as many were repeat customers. Ty Cobb, Admiral Nimitz and his daughters, Hap and Eleanor Arnold, Hilo Hatti (the well-known San Francisco Hawaiian dancer), Herbert Slater (the blind senator), Dewey Donnell and his family who were frequent diners and loved Polly the Parrot who lived in the kitchen.

So many memories. These are just a few.