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Historic Downtown Napa

In addition to being the center of a world-famous wine-making region, the city of Napa is a historic and culinary landmark in its own right. Founded in 1847, this beautiful community on the Napa River was a staging site for the Gold Rush of the late 1850s.

Although many of the city’s buildings were damaged or demolished in the earthquake of 1906, Napa’s historic downtown still exhibits reminders of the miners and merchants who helped establish the city as the economic hub of the Napa Valley, such as the historic Hatt/Napa Mill buildings, dating from the 1880s. Still among the most prominent structures on Main Street, the Mill now houses the elegant Napa River Inn: the only luxury 66-room boutique hotel located in downtown Napa, shops and delightful restaurants. The 2.5-acre Napa Mill is an entertainment Mecca featuring Silo’s Nightclub, Celedon Restaurant, Angéle and Napa River Inn.

Visitors are also sure to enjoy a performance at the newly restored Napa Valley Opera House or the Jarvis Conservatory. The Napa Valley Opera House, having undergone extensive restorations, reopened in 2002 as a versatile performing arts center with two separate venues. The first floor of the Opera House, the Café Theatre, offers a varied schedule of performances in a 180-seat caberet-style setting. The historic upstairs theatre, the 500-seat Margrit Biever Mondavi Theatre, presents international quality plays, musical theatre, opera, dance, chamber music, jazz and family programming. Whether it’s food, wine, beautiful scenery, relaxation or culture that you desire, the city of Napa has it all–including the pleasing year-round climate for which California is famous.

For these reasons, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the country’s largest private, nonprofit preservation organization, named Napa to its 2004 list of America’s Dozen Distinctive Destinations, an annual list of unique and lovingly preserved communities in the United States.

“The city of Napa has been overshadowed by the worldwide fame of the Napa Valley winemaking region,” said National Trust President Richard Moe. “We’re very happy to turn the spotlight on this unique community and make travelers aware of the rich variety of historic, cultural and recreational attractions it has to offer as a vacation destination.”