Chamber History
The Santa Rosa Chamber was born in the rubble left by the 1906 earthquake as the rebuilding of Santa Rosa began.
Our community was hit harder, per capita, than San Francisco and there was need for a business organization to lead the effort to re-create a vibrant economy for our citizens and our community. The Chamber was created to fill this need.
![](https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberQuakePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&bg=%23ffffff&fit=max&fm=jpg&position=50%2050&q=80&w=320&s=60c3c0516d61408d41d27b6d3f17b38b 320w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberQuakePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&bg=%23ffffff&fit=max&fm=jpg&position=50%2050&q=80&w=540&s=9f110dcb4939a8d5abebd5342e096699 540w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberQuakePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&bg=%23ffffff&fit=max&fm=jpg&position=50%2050&q=80&w=768&s=3d386998c696f0822ef8fba3970c5e01 768w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberQuakePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&bg=%23ffffff&fit=max&fm=jpg&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1024&s=c27a006870b7ff1f0d11571ea195ae70 1024w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberQuakePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&bg=%23ffffff&fit=max&fm=jpg&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1200&s=ba07cfd4e5ab999ccc6a994a5248cdd6 1172w)
Ever since then, our Chamber has played a dynamic leadership role in our community, not only helping individual businesses to be more successful but also tackling the challenges that confronted our community. And the list of our successes is impressive especially when viewed from the context of Santa Rosa today.
Working with Frank Doyle, co-founder and Board Chairman of the Chamber, we played a key role in the development of the Golden Gate Bridge. To quote Doyle himself, “They call me the Father of the Golden Gate Bridge, but the bridge would never have been built if it had not been for the work of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce.”
![](https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberBridgePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=320&s=74d3b58cad62605f1bb3da669a9f0620 320w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberBridgePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=540&s=134f24d8ba823bc419b014097ba77580 540w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberBridgePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=768&s=b39d99ed3847a4bf4d4bafc50b3cfcc4 768w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberBridgePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1024&s=c72b49af1766c073ba2502962cc692bd 1024w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberBridgePast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1200&s=ef3293af689e95412a6b92825ae7a807 1172w)
This was just one of the key infrastructure projects that the Chamber helped lead to form the backbone of this community. In 1929, the Chamber in collaboration with the City of Santa Rosa deeded, free of charge, land to the new Junior College District. That land has become the Santa Rosa Junior College Campus we know today.
Years later, the Chamber helped raise the funding that persuaded the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange to take on the operation of Memorial Hospital.
The Chamber played a critical role in numerous other community achievements that followed including the attraction of commercial airline service to the Sonoma County Airport, the widening of 101, funding for the SMART Train, extension of the Airport runway, and the reunification of Courthouse Square.
![](https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberHospitalPast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=320&s=0c421636d39a62110553c2ca5cc97a1a 320w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberHospitalPast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=540&s=b7c9ba335184c44b50f0118baf6381f8 540w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberHospitalPast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=768&s=ea2617eaf4c492e0264968667a15f907 768w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberHospitalPast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1024&s=7f88b7b090b804b3493f369c417ce27a 1024w, https://visit-santa-rosa.imgix.net/images/Chamber-Pages/ChamberHospitalPast.png?auto=compress%2Cformat&fit=max&position=50%2050&q=80&w=1200&s=c0a7ef42907d5f81756afd30188a6920 1172w)