The Press Democrat from Santa Rosa, California • 2

2 THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1 99 1 GAVE LeBAROKU'S UOTEBGUICX ADVENT OFFICE FURNITURE ALVIN AMBASSADOR v3 Htlflhf liltfuion Conversion Ktt fee Mwvct cruMrt dritoman' modi Adda appfOi CHAIR CLOSEOUT! Economically upholstered seat and medium back. Backrest (built-in lumbar support) and seat adapt synchronously to every body movement. Colors Available: Grey, Brown, Charcoal, Burgundy Ring i '-'i. -jit $99 DiMinclnwty Myttd nd con-Htuciw) ol (JwaW ABS htr motdad rttntotctd ptMtK Eut-y (man on Ambwudor efwt. Bf own only lV7-i 00 $295 Reg.

S579 Now Only Supply limited to stock on hand. WWUTWTUSTt ai rtr -taaa 71 riner noun' annxo noso jj-uvu 'A. ANNIE WELLSPREM DEMOCRAT Only archways remain after fire destroyed the Duhring Building. WE ARE GETTING READY TO TAKE OUR PHYSICAL INVENTORY AND WE WILL BE CLOSED FEBRUARY 28TH. BUT BEFORE WE DO, WE NEED YOUR HELP.

WyKsM SONOMA VALLEY BANK COME IN AND BUY AT SPECTACULAR SAVINGS. WE ARE GOING TO PUT A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF FINISHED and UNFINISHED 'Sonoma City' won't let its history go away TJihe late historian and teacher Harvey Hansen 1 1 liked to tell of a talk he gave to an organization in Sonoma about, of course, the colorful history of this county's oldest town. When he finished, he said, a little old lady In the front row raised her hand, not with a question, but with a pronouncement. "That's the trouble with Sonoma," she said firmly. "There's just TOO MUCH history here!" Harvey, who knew that there could be no such thing as too much history, used to laugh over his encounter with the little old lady from Sonoma.

But her point was clear. Sonoma City, as it was known in the olden days, is an "original," dating to 1823, and can top us all when It comes to history. Sonoma's plaza, where the Bear Flag was raised in 1846, is surrounded by history. The landmarks some adobe, some wood, some brick, some original, most restored march around the four sides of the plaza, proudly showing their bronze landmark plaques. General Vallejo's barracks, Fitch's Adobe, the El Dorado Hotel, Vallejo's Casa Grande, the mission itself, the elegant facade of the Sebastiani Theater to name just a few.

But they lost one last fall when the 100-year-old Duhring Building at the southeast corner of the plaza burned to the ground. And, last week, Sonoma's recent history took another blow with the death of August Pinelli, the civic leader and merchant, whose business, the oldest continuing hardware business in California, was lost in that September fire. The pueblo of Sonoma had an energetic beginning in 1833 as a military post, both Mexican and American. And Sonomans still are energetic. They currently are conducting a fund-raising drive to restore the facade of the burned Duhring Building to its original state, which will involve paying the difference between the owner's rebuilding costs and the careful restoration that will bring the historic facade into the protection of the Sonoma League for Historic Preservation.

THE BURNED-OUT building behind a chain-link fence that is currently spoiling the parade of history around the plaza was approaching its centennial year when the destructive blaze (the fire chief calls it arson) began in a wooden shed at the rear of the brick structure. This southeast corner of the plaza, at the intersection of First Street East and Napa Street, has long been known as the "Duhring Corner," housing, for 65 years, the Mission Hardware business of the late August Pinelli and his partner Preston "Nig" Cornelius. Pinelli, who was 88 when he died last Thursday, had worked on that corner since the age of 14, when he began in the employ of F. Duhring General Merchandise. He started his own store, with partner Jep Valente, across Napa Street (in what later became Pete Boccoli's grocery store) and, in 1926, bought out the Duhrings, Cornelius replacing Valente in the partnership.

Pinelli, the son of an Italian immigrant who worked in the basalt quarries near Sonoma, was as much of a landmark on that corner as the building. He was mayor of Sonoma and, in what now seems ironic, had been an active volunteer and later a staunch supporter of the Sonoma Fire department. The second business in the burned building was Brundage's coffee shop, a very popular tourist stop. Prior to Sonoma's "tourist era," that space had housed Eraldi's Menswear. THE DUHRINGS were genuine pioneers, good examples of the well-born European emigres lured by the prospects of California gold.

They already were doing business on that corner, in an adobe structure, when the first plat map of Santa Rosa was filed. And W.J. Morrow, the merchant whose business they acquired in 1852, had been selling general merchandise to hopeful miners there when Petaluma was ALL open space and towns like Sebastopol and Healdsburg were only gleams in the eyes of westering Missourians. Morrow was one of the early entrepreneurs who came to Sonoma in 1848 and enjoyed the flurry of business that the Gold Rush created, even in this relatively remote outpost on the edge of the Mexican Frontera del Norte. There are tales told still about the reason the proprietor of the Blue Wing Inn, across from the old mission, liked to sweep the floors of his barroom himself after closing time.

He could sweep up another day's pay in the gold dust that came off the floor. Or so it's said. So, when I asked Frederick Duhring, the retired Los Altos banker who is the great grandson and namesake of the original storekeeper, how his ancestors happened to come to Sonoma City when they immigrated from Schleswig-Holstein in 1853, it is not VH90D FURNITURE ON SALE FOR 4 DAYS COUNT THEM FEBRUARY 24-25-26-27 MOST OF THE ITEMS MARKED DOWN WILL BE OVERSTOCK, DISCONTINUED, ONE-OF-A-KIND, OR PLAIN "LET'S GET IT OUT OF HERE" MERCHANDISE. THIS SALE IS CASH CARRY, FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED. surprising that he should answer: "Promise of opportunity." FREDERICK AND DOROTHEA Duhring were newlyweds when they came to Sonoma.

They were young, enthusiastic and well-educated. Dorothea was a talented pianist who had been a student of Franz Lizst. Among her treasured possessions, carried from Europe, were sheets of music with corrections written out in Lizst's own hand. Frederick ran the business he had bought from Morrow and served as Wells Fargo agent for Sonoma City. Dorothea taught piano to the daughters of General Vallejo, among her other students.

She was, for a time, on the faculty at Dr. Van Mehr's Academy in Vallejo's town house, where the Vallejo girls attended school. The Duhrings' son, Fred razed the old store in 1891 and built the building that burned last September, a fine building with brick arches and a hexagonal dome or cupola that survived the fire, albeit charred, and has been carefully stored in the city's corporation yard, awaiting restoration of the landmark. According to Sonoma architectural historian James "Beach" Alexander, Fred decision to build was made while his parents were on an extended trip to Europe. They were "surprised," said Alexander, on their return.

Duhring Jr. was a forward-looking man who became a civic leader as well as a prospering merchant. In the early part of this century he was very active in successful efforts to restore the Sonoma Mission. In 1886, according to Sonoma Index-Tribune files, Fred Duhring Jr. was the orator-of-the-day at the town's Fourth of July celebration.

THE DUHRING CORNER narrowly escaped in 1911 when a fire destroyed the rest of the block. In a dramatic move, firemen harnessed a team of horses to a one-story structure between the Poppe Building, which was aflame, and the Sonoma House Hotel next to the Duhring Building. They pulled the small building off its foundation and into the street where it fell down. But the act is credited with saving the corner and the houses behind it on Napa Street. The Duhrings sold groceries and furniture in addition to hardware, on what was one of the busiest corners in town at the turn of the century, said Sonoma historian Robert Parmelee.

The post office was across the street and there was considerable traffic. The last member of the Duhring family to live in Sonoma, said the present-day Fred Duhring, was his great-aunt Agnes Duhring Denny, wife of a Sonoma County superior court judge. She died in Sonoma in 1953. Los Altos resident Duhring, who is retired from Wells Fargo but owns his own construction loan brokerage firm, is the man who will rebuild the structure. He is more than pleased at the community interest in restoring the facade.

It has given him a whole new interest in Sonoma, he said last week. "I've never known people outside the store or been active in Sonoma affairs," he said. "This has given us an opportunity to really get acquainted." Too much history? In Sonoma, never! 1821PinerRd. Santa Rosa STORE HOURS Monday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday 528-7373 FOR A LIMITED TIME 120 DAYS SAME AS ON QUALIFIED PURCHASERS OF GENERAL ELECTRIC AND HOTPOINT APPLIANCES 30" self clean range 1 1g. and 3 small calrod elements Lift-up top Clock with delay start 00 399 Btwiu FABRIC I fX- sSl m) scrums PRESS JfEEjj SOQfllOO Model RB754 RANGES START AT $299.00 POTSCRUBBER DISHWASHER Temperature sensor 4 cycle 3 level wash Model WLW3500 30" 00 349 ELECTRIC COOKTOP Model GSD700 DISHWASHERS START AT $249.00 2lg.

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