PRESS DEMOCRAT - Opened in 1957, the Flamingo Hotel brought star-studded, Las Vegas glamour to Sonoma County.
Some may consider the 1950s to be a sleepy, bucolic time for Sonoma County — but not if noted developer Hugh Codding had any say in the matter.
Among Codding’s most famous local developments is the Flamingo Hotel, opened in 1957 in east Santa Rosa, located just a half-mile north of his Montgomery Village shopping center, built in 1950.
Inspired by the hotel of the same name on the Las Vegas Strip, Codding made plans for the Redwood Empire’s first “garden hotel” — a midcentury modern oasis for travelers and those seeking a glitzy vacation close to home.
In early 1957, the Flamingo Hotel Corporation signed a 25-year lease to operate Santa Rosa’s upcoming Flamingo Hotel, the largest single unit in the hotel group’s $5 million expansion program, according to a March 5, 1957, article in The Press Democrat. Owned by Garden Hotels Company (also called Garden Development Co.), other partners in the hotel project included Theron L. Hedgpeth, Richard L. Berkson, and of course, Codding Enterprises.
