Hotels on Main Street Hotels on Main Street (October 26, 2001)

The original Rose Hotel, built in 1864 at 530 Main St., a site now occupied by Round Table Pizza, was actually started as the Pleasanton Hotel. It was renamed when acquired by Pleasanton pioneer Jason Rose, whose name also adorns Rose Avenue.

According to Pleasanton architect and historian Charles Huff, another hotel soon opened as the Germania at the corner of St. Mary and Main Street, where the Coast gasoline station now stands. It changed its name to the Pleasanton Hotel when Rose renamed his business. When the old Germania was torn down, the newer Farmers Hotel at the Arroyo del Valle and Main Street took the name, which is today Pleasanton's historic landmark building and restaurant at 855 Main St.

For a while there was another hotel - the Colombo - which consisted of sleeping rooms above different ground floor establishments at 537 Main St., which was built in the late 1800s. The hotel went out of business in the 1950s, later followed by the Castle Tavern. The ground floor business there today is retailer Kids Are People Too.

The old Rose Hotel was declared unsafe for overnight guests in the early 1950s, but its popular Rose Room lounge remained open until the property was acquired by the Bank of America and the building was torn down in 1958.