From Chicken in the Bowl to Boutique Hotel

As a sign enthusiast, I was thrilled to discover a photograph of the iconic Chicken in the Bowl sign in the Petaluma Museum’s collection. My excitement doubled when I realized that over twenty years ago, I had written an article for the short-lived magazine called The Petaluman about the very building from which it once hung.

Warren Barber of Barber Sign Company created the giant rooster neon sign around 1949 for the Hotel Rose Cort, which opened in 1939, replacing the former Hotel Redwood. The Hotel Rose Cort operated as as a residential hotel with twenty guest rooms—some with private baths, some without—along with two-room apartments. Rose Cherico, a dietitian from New York, managed the dining room. Charles P. Bascian ran the hotel. In 1949, Dalton Dray opened a cocktail lounge on the property known as the Rose Room

The building has an interesting backstory. At its core is half of the historic Isaac and Lydia Wickersham mansion, originally constructed in the 1860s at the corner of Sixth and D Streets. In 1924, Isaac and Lydia’s daughter, Lizzie Wickersham Maclay, and her husband, Thomas, sold the east wing of the old house to Thomas and Mabel Burger, who moved it to 508 Petaluma Boulevard South (then called Third Street), where they turned it into the Redwood Inn apartments. The Maclays then went about building a new house, designed by Albert Farr, which still stands today at 600 D Street and is commonly referred to as the Sanderson Mansion for its association with Aubrey and Doris Sanderson.

This photograph from the Sonoma County Library captures the building with the distinctive Barber sign prominently displayed. The image also reveals a dummy hanging from the roof. This effigy represented the frustration of football fans who, after the San Francisco 49ers suffered a devastating 56-7 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on November 9, 1958, hung a likeness of coach Frankie Albert from the hotel’s roof. After several days, “Frankie” was cut down and became something of a local celebrity, making appearances at the Colony Club, Longhorn Bar, and Offutt’s Café.

In 1966, the neon rooster which had become a landmark to some was removed. Simultaneously, the Rose Cort was renamed the Cort Room, and both the hotel and night club underwent a complete remodel. As Bill Soberanes observed in his “So They Tell Me” column in the Petaluma Argus Courier “a new era on Petaluma’s night club alley will replace one that is loaded with many fond and some very exciting memories.”

A year later, Mike Gilardi took over the Cort Room. Gilardi was alreay well known in Petaluma for his popular Gilardi’s Corner, located at the corner of Washington and Kentucky Streets, which had been demolished to make way for a parking lot to serve the “new” Bank of America.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the property cycled through various restaurants and cocktail bars while continuing to rent rooms on a daily, weekly and montly basis. A 1979 proposal to convert the restaurant into an office space received approval from the city’s planning commission but this change in use doesn’t appear to have occured.

The 1990s brought serious challanges. A number of building and health code violations were issued by the city and a lawuit was filed by tenants against the building’s owner in 1994. In 1995 the property was condemned.

This troublesome chapter ended in 2000 when Art Atherton and Marie St. Clair bought the property and transformed it into the boutique Metro Hotel and Café. Their investment, which included purchasing the neighboring Starne’s Market at 500 Petaluma Boulevard South, revived a Petaluma landmark that may have otherwise suffered the fate of demolition by neglect.

While the sign that inspired this story is gone, I appreciate the vintage style bulb hotel sign that now projects from the building, along with the many other improvements to a property whose future could have taken a completely different direction – one that wouldn’t have included preserving the character of this unique piece of Petaluma’s architectural heritage.