The St. Helena commercial district, extending along Main Street between Spring Street on the south and Adams Street on the north, was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 23, 1998, by the U.S. National Park Service. Start your tour at 1200 Main Street.    

In 1903, Luther M. Turton of Napa built this Dutch Colonial style Noble-Galleron Building for businessman and undertaker, John S. Noble.  It was, for many years, a furniture and undertaking business.  Often the two businesses were located together, since it took the same skills to make tables as to make caskets. The front window of the store displayed furniture, as it would be set up in a private home.  The entrance was lit with electricity at night.  Noble’s desk was just inside the entrance where he could greet people and direct them to the appropriate part of the store. Inside was a reception room for ladies, a funeral chapel, a stockroom for caskets and coffins, a morgue in the rear, and a showroom for the furniture department, including pianos, sideboards, bedroom sets and decorative items.  An unusual feature was the concrete floor covered with linoleum.  Upstairs were galleries of items not on the floor display. The St. Helena Star newspaper, Allison in Wine Country (a clothing store), Coldwell Banker Realty, and Farmers Insurance are now housed in the Noble-Galleron Building.

The Daniel Otis Hunt Building was completed in March of 1892.  The Wonderful Drug Store was the first lessee and the most colorful occupant.  It remained on this corner for over 50 years. Owner George A. Riggins’ initials (GAR) and the name of his store are embedded into the sidewalk in brass letters. Some thought GAR stood for Grand Army of the Republic, a fraternal organization composed of veterans of the Union Army of the Civil War. This would not have been popular with the Southern sympathizers in St Helena. Later the Arighi Drug Co., the Vasconi Pharmacy, and several clothing stores occupied the space.  The tavern space was at different times a donut shop, a deli, a shoe store and a Mexican restaurant.  Upstairs was the Valley Hotel in the 1950’s and the Cornerstone Hotel in the 1980’s.  It is now offices. This Italianate building is constructed of native pitch-face stone mostly laid in irregular rows.  The storefront has been virtually unaltered since 1947.  Now Reeds Women’s Clothing and Cook Tavern occupy the building.

This single-story stucco-finished building was built in 1875. The ground floor has two entrances. The one on the left leads to the street level business. The one on the right leads to the second story of the building next door. The parapet (a low protective wall along the edge of a roof), which lines up with the one next door, is not original. The storefront appears to date from around 1940. In the 19th and early 20th century, this building housed a saloon. In the mid-1950’s, it was the Valley Coffee Shop. It is now Cook St. Helena.

This stucco-finished building was built circa 1920 and was remodeled circa 1947.  It is actually two separate storefronts.  During the 1950’s, this building housed a jewelry store, a dentist’s office, and an attorney’s office.  Fideaux, a pet boutique, and Erica Bowman, an acupuncturist, now occupy  the building.

This single-story stucco-finished building was built in 1920. It has a stepped parapet and a plain parapet. The windows on the right appear to date from around 1947. During the 1950’s, the building housed Peter’s Fountain. The building is now Wine Country Group Real Estate.

The Traub/Keller building was built in 1915.  The first building on this site was a small frame building, dating from the late 1850’s to the early 1860’s, and was used as a blacksmith shop.  It was later converted to a bakery and then H. Traub expanded it into a grocery. In 1924, new owners negotiated with Traub to erect a new building that would also house the Knox Meat Market (then in another building on Main Street).  The new reinforced concrete building was divided into two parts: a grocery and a meat market.  In the back, there were workrooms with a large refrigerator, vats for lard production, a smokehouse for curing hams and bacon, and a sausage maker. Later the business was sold to the Kellers and in 1965, Ernie Navone, an employee since 1949, bought Keller’s Meat Market.  He charmed many youngsters with a hot dog or a piece of salami while their mothers shopped.  It has been a restaurant but is now unoccupied.

The St. Helena Star was founded in 1874.  In 1900, ground was broken for this new building.  Scottish stonemason, R.H. Pithie, built the walls.  When the cornerstone was laid, a box was laid into the cornerstone and MCM (1900) chiseled onto it.  The owner’s wife struck the stone with a mallet, declaring that it was well and truly laid.

The two large arched windows were of French plate glass with an open arched entrance between them.  Inside to the left was the Star office of W.A. Mackinder.  The post office, with F.B. Mackinder as postmaster, was centrally located in the interior of the vestibule.  Back in the early days, herds of animals were driven through the streets.  One day a steer bounded into the newspaper office through an open door.  With great care, the staff managed to herd him back into the street.  In 2006-2007, the building was renovated and became the Caldwell Snyder Art Gallery.

The first Goodman & Galewsky (G & G) Theater was housed in Turner Hall where Lyman Park is now.  In 1913, the St. Helena Star announced the opening of F.T. Mooney’s new business building further south on Main Street. It was built of reinforced concrete with a frontage of 78 feet by 120 feet deep and was designed for theater purposes. The original theater boasted 400 seats and 150 opera chairs, a modern stage, and 2 standing sets.  Goodman & Galewsky leased the theater and it was open every evening.  In 1915, it was renamed the Liberty Theater and its first film was D.W. Griffith’s epic Birth of a Nation.  Showings of many other Griffith films were so successful that the 5-cent ticket price expanded to 10 cents, thus ending the era of the Nickelodeon Movie Theater in St. Helena.

Over the years, successive owners have renamed the theater as the Roxy and then the Liberty again.  In 1996, when Charlotte Wagner took over the lease, she performed a serious upgrade to the facilities and the equipment.  She renamed it the Cameo Cinema. When Cathy Buck assumed the lease in 2008, the Cameo entered the 21^st century.   It now offers a state of the art digital projection system and the Dolby Atmos sound system, providing a world-class movie experience for its patrons.  The Cameo Cinema is one of the oldest continuously running single screen theaters in the United States. On either side of the original theater was a room available for other businesses.  There are now four storefronts occupying this wide building. Over the years, occupants have been an electric company, a real estate and insurance broker, a bank, a telegraph office and a grocery store.  Now Daisy Clothing Boutique, Yvonne Rich Real Estate, Patina Fine Jewelry, and St. Helena Real Estate occupy the four storefronts.

This single-story gabled roof building was built in 1876. The awning obscures much of the stuccoed parapet wall and all of a clerestory band of windows, built above eye level as to admit light and/or fresh air. A new front door was added about 1960. This building housed The Elite Saloon through much of its early life. It is now St. Helena Real Estate.

This 2-story Italianate building was built in 1885. It has a brick.  It has a brick façade and side and rear walls of randomly coursed stone. This building was designed by San Francisco architect, Albert Schropfer, and built by George Kennedy for a cost of about $20,000. The front is combined pressed brick, iron and terra cotta with a roof of heavy tin. The St. Helena Star reported, "the building is as nearly fireproof as can be built." The three linked ovals on the pediment of the building stand for the I.O.O.F. motto "Friendship, Love, and Truth." The St. Helena International Order of Oddfellows (IOOF) Lodge was organized in 1870, with seven charter members: three farmers, two physicians, a viticulturist, and a cabinetmaker/undertaker. By 1879, there were almost 90 members, enough to allow them to buy the property on Main Street for a new lodge. The ground floor was split into 2 sections, with the St. Helena Star as one of the first occupants, sharing it with the St. Helena Library Association and Free Reading Room. Eventually, Steves Hardware & Housewares (now located next door) occupied the lower floor. Upstairs, the first renter was a dentist. Today’s tenants are AErena Art Gallery and Martin Showroom. The Oddfellows Lodge has occupied the upstairs for over 130 years

William T. Kibbler built this structure in 1886.  He had been a clerk at the Wonderful Drug Store, but he eventually moved to San Francisco. A later owner was John Stewart Noble, who, after immigrating to the U.S. in 1869, and while touring the country in 1875, took a side trip to the Napa Valley.  Although he was a tailor, he decided to become an undertaker and make more money.  Unfortunately, he suffered a severe attack of blood poisoning from embalming chemicals.  While recovering, he moved to St. Helena in 1891 and, after purchasing a local undertaking business, he built the Noble building at 1200 Main Street.

In 1906, Noble traded his home and his business for property in Chicago, which turned out to be an unfortunate decision. Lawsuits over the business deal sadly resulted in his divorce. Noble moved back to St. Helena and opened another furniture/undertaking business, this time in the Kibbler Building.  His second marriage to Emma Mooney, widow of F. T. Mooney, was short-lived since he was once again stricken with blood poisoning and died in 1923. The left photo shows the building as a hardware store decked out for July 4, 1916.  The first floor was a Safeway store from 1928 until about 1950. It then housed an appliance store and a small restaurant.  For many years the second floor was residential apartments and has also housed several hotels.  It is currently the Wydown Hotel upstairs, with Centerpiece Floral & Home and La Boheme Home Décor at street level.  

Joseph Kettlewell was a skilled blacksmith who arrived here in 1872 and began to establish a business.  In 1884, Kettlewell and his son built the present day brick building.  It included a general merchandise store on the ground floor and doctors’ offices above. The Kettlewell building became the largest 19th-century commercial building on Main Street. Other businesses have since occupied this building.  In 1905, G.W. Schmidt had a general store and farm implements line.  A furniture store and an electrical supply store have also occupied the space. Doctors’ and dentists’ offices were located upstairs. In 1967, the Vasconi family renovated the building and they are still in business here today.

The owner, Caroline Adsit, built this single-story building of native stone in 1884. When the building was finished, but empty, an "Old Clothes Ball" was held with a live band. The proceeds went to the local chapter of the Native Daughters of the Golden West. This building is unusual because the stone has been dressed rather than pitch-faced and is placed in broken rows on the façade. The building's two storefronts are similar and appear to date from about 1980. The elaborate parapet has a banded ornamental molding (cornice) and a band of small, square, tooth-THEN: The original storefront facade like blocks called a dentil course. At one time a plumbing business and a frame shop occupied the storefronts. Now Findings, a retail shop, and Olivier Napa Valley occupy the building.

This single-story building was built in 1888. It has a brick façade topped by a flat, decorated parapet. Below it are a slightly raised cornice and dentil course with ornamental floral panels between the dentils. The building once housed a general merchandise store, a 5¢ & 10¢ store, and a travel agency. Now it is Woodhouse Chocolates, a shop that specializes in delicious chocolate candy.

This single-story building was built in 1936. It has a flat parapet topped with narrow terra cotta bands.Two businesses share the building. The building housed a bakery for many years. It has also been a yarn boutique, a shoe store, a glove company, an insurance company and a barbershop. The bakery closed in 1942, due to lack of skilled bakers during the war. In 1944, Model Bakery moved into the building. Model Bakery (1357 Main) has two entrances and Dennis Rae Fine Art (1359 Main) has the third entrance.

In 1890, Charles Greenfield built his new building on Main Street. The contract was awarded to John C. Mixon & Son. The St. Helena Star reported on July 25 that someone had stolen Frank Mixon's (John's son) foot ruler as he was working at the Greenfield project. As it was a very good quality one, he looked everywhere for it. It finally appeared in the adjoining saloon, where it had been pawned for beer. Frank paid the barkeep 50 cents and got his ruler back. Before the building sold to the Bank of St. Helena in 1905, it was occupied by a dry goods store. The original bank building, located near the intersection of Main and Spring St., needed to be replaced, so Greenfield sold them his 15-year-old building for $10! In 1925, the Bank was sold to the Bank of Italy. It later became Bank of America. It is now The Saint, a wine bar, but the building has also housed St. Helena Olive Oil, Napa Valley Electric Co., a PG&E office, and several neighborhood bars. The fine quality of the bank safe is still evident today, as it remains on the premises by the back wall. Visitors can view the original pressed-tin decorated ceiling (now painted white) as well as the beautiful marble wainscoting with the stone walls above.

Owen Wade built this single-story stucco-finished building in 1890. William H. Smith moved St. Helena Pharmacy into the building in 1895 and later renamed it Smith's Pharmacy. The building was a pharmacy for over 100 years. Then it became Market, a restaurant. The stucco covers the original building finish, but much of the original decorative architectural ornamentation remains intact.

This single-story building was built in 1875. It has a flat parapet with a dentil course and a plain parapet wall. The building does not appear to have been altered since the installation of the storefront around 1940. Currently, the building houses two separate businesses: Bison, a clothing store (formerly a beauty salon in the 1950's and a real estate office in the 1970's) and Palladium Fine Jewelry, (formerly a barbershop in the late 1930's through the mid-1950's and an insurance agency in the 1970's.)

This two-story building was completed in 1892. It is called the Richie Block because M. G. Richie paid for the building and owned it. This building dominates the skyline of St. Helena's Main Street Commercial District. It was the dream of Captain Richie's stepson, John C. Money, a self-taught woodworker, and craftsman. He owned a sawmill on Main Street and it was there that he produced all of the intricate woodwork visible on the front façade of this Queen Anne building. The building cost $14,000 to build and the lot cost $8,000. The downstairs has always been used for commercial purposes, but the upstairs is a Masonic temple for the St. Helena Free and Accepted Masons Lodge No.93. Captain Richie, a Mason himself, had the structure built for the Masons, who still hold their monthly meetings here. Over the years, various stores such as Bell Brothers General Store, A. N. Bell Co., Kirkpatrick's, and Goodman's have occupied the space. In 1992, for the building's 100th birthday, the cornerstone was removed and a time capsule with letters, photographs, an 1892 issue of the St. Helena Star, and other memorabilia was discovered, inspected and returned to its place under the cornerstone. Several other businesses, including a bank, have also occupied space in the building. Pennyweight and Gathered St. Helena each occupy one of the street level spaces while the Masonic Lodge continues to meet upstairs. The other street-level storefront is available for lease.

This single-story building was built in 1875. The stucco finish may date to the 1920's. At 1317 Main is Salon St. Helena, but it was once a florist shop in the 1950's and a Cable TV store in the late 1970's. At 1315 Main is now Main Street Books, but it was once a shoe shop in the 1930's, a news agency in the early 1950's, a jewelry store in the late 1950's, and a fashion and dress shop in the 1970's, At 1313 Main is now Gillwood's Cafe, but in the 1950's, it was a liquor and wine store, and in the late 1970's, it was a plumbing business.

Born in Sweden, Swen Alstrom traveled and worked in several hotels in San Francisco. In 1861, he bought the White Sulphur Springs Resort in St. Helena. He lived there for 20 years, but in 1875 it burned down. He rebuilt it, but then sold it. In 1881, Alstrom built this 2-story Italianate style wood frame hotel building. It had a dining room and kitchen on the first floor and 28 rooms on the second floor. It is now called Hotel St. Helena. The hotel has been operating for 135 years! The Alstroms had 11 children. Mr. Alstrom died at age 60 in 1885. He was remembered as "generous to a fault." The stucco finish on the front elevation was applied when the front porch was removed in 1925. The street level has housed a clothing store, a real estate and insurance firm, a newspaper, and a bank. At street level are now Kokopelli Gallery, AF Jewelers, and Brav Fashion & Perfume. Hotel St. Helena continues to occupy a lobby at street level and rooms on the top floor.

In 1911, Abraham Goodman built this single-story building for his Goodman & Co. department store. It is constructed of concrete block on the facade and pitch- face native stone elsewhere. The front has a flat parapet that is stepped at each end. Beneath it are a bracketed cornice and a band of egg-and-dart molding. The awning masks a band of tall clerestory windows. The northwest wall faces a narrow sidewalk alley and is visible for its entire length. The building was once a dry good and clothing store and it now houses Padis Romance St. Helena, a jewelry and gift store.  The second storefront is now available for lease, since Coldwell Banker moved to 1200 Main Street.

D. B. Carver built this 2-story Italianate brick building in 1880 for his store. The second story was added by Carver as a meeting room for the Masonic Lodge. Notice the different color of the brick on the second story. A wide band tops the first story with two entries. The building has been used by a variety of businesses over the years. The storefront dates from around 1990, but no second-story alterations are apparent. The entry on the right serves a retail space formerly used for a shoe store, and now available for lease. The entry on the left leads to the former Masonic Lodge space above. It is now Christopher Hill Art Gallery.

The C. E. Davis buildings were built in 1875. Dr. Davis was born in New Jersey in 1832. Eventually he became more interested in dentistry, rather than medicine, so after completing his education in dentistry in Philadelphia, he moved to St. Helena in 1868, where he practiced dentistry for over 20 years. He invested his savings in real estate and, as the town grew, he prospered rapidly until he became one of the wealthiest citizens of Napa County. The property he bought with his earnings encompassed two buildings. At 1231 Main St. was the J. E. Straus store and then it became A & P Coffee. It was later converted to St. Helena Meat Market and that business remained there for 35 years. Inside the store were racks with hooks and wheels for moving sides of meat from the back door to the cooling rooms that were walk-in iceboxes. The large doors were insulated with cork. The attic spaces were filled with blocks of ice by way of small doors. Outside, in the back, was a brick smokehouse. The building had a wood ceiling and cement floors and was designed to let in natural light before there was electricity. At 1231 Main is one of the earliest brick buildings on Main Street. In 1978, the building housed the Little Dress Factory and in 1986, it became St. Helena Antiques. The building at 1225-1227 Main St. contains two storefronts of unequal width. At 1225 is Kings X Barbershop. That space has been a barbershop for many years. At 1227 Main was the Otto Behrns Grocery in the 1880's. Behrns sold to W. J. Giugni in 1911. Giugni Grocery eventually became a deli, as it is today.

The original building on this site was the National Hotel built in 1875. The current building is  20th Century and has a nearly symmetrical front that features a flat parapet and stucco finish. There are two storefront entries. The larger section to the northwest is made of stone, while the other section is wood frame. The building has housed a variety of retail businesses, including a hardware store. Pearl Wonderful Clothing, Flats, Acres, and Jan de Luz now occupy the four storefronts.

Abraham Goodman was born in Hungary in 1851. In 1879, Abraham moved to St. Helena and, after his merchandise business, "The San Francisco Auction House" grew, he built these two matching brick buildings. The first was built in 1890, and the second in 1896 for his "San Francisco Dry Goods Store." In 1891, Abraham moved back to San Francisco. His two sons, Jacob and Julius, continued to manage the dry goods store. In 1911, they moved the store to a new building at 1243 Main Street. The business eventually sold to the Rosenbergs in 1961, and then to Jack and Kathy Palus in 1981, who moved it to the Richie Block. Goodman's has now relocated to Calistoga. Around 1928, a restaurant occupied 1205 Main Street. In 1948, it became Ray's Place, a "working man's bar", and in 1987, it became and remains Ana's Cantina. In 1927, the 1201 Main Street store was a grocery business and in 1971, a new owner did an historic restoration. Now Napa Valley Vintage Home occupies the space.

St. Helena's iconic streetlights are known as electroliers. The 1913 St. Helena Chamber of Commerce Vintage Festival Committee met and decided to investigate the cost of installing street lighting from Sulphur Creek to York Creek along both sides of Main Street. The City Council agreed to the installation of 12 lights between Adams and Pine and reimbursed $400 of the total $1000 cost. The electroliers were installed in time to light up the pavilion for the Vintage Festival on September 6, 1913. In 1914, Napa Valley Electric Company won the bid for the installation of 37 more electroliers for $3,108. The Vintage Festival Committee donated $1,600 toward the cost. In 1959, PG&E made an unpopular proposal to remove the electroliers and replace them with 20,000-lumen lamps. The electroliers would be delivered to the salvage yard where people could purchase them. Irate citizens vehemently opposed this plan and, when John Aquila became mayor in 1962, he led a campaign to save, restore and modernize the beloved streetlamps. The light posts were moved 24 inches farther away from the curb to keep vehicles from damaging them. New mercury vapor bulbs in the top lamp doubled their brightness. Glass globes were replaced with plastic. Aquila located a foundry and casts were made to manufacture spare electrolier parts. John Aquila was named Citizen of the Year in 1981, largely due to these efforts. The lights now use compact fluorescent spiral lights, which are more energy efficient. The city corporation yard stores old and replacement electrolier parts in case the streetlights need repairing. Modernization was achieved without giving up the unique illumination these electroliers give to our streetscape.