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Note: MYSTERY OF THE HOUSE ON SEMINARY STREET -- NAPA REGISTER
In the beginning the house at 1221 Seminary Street ws a 30 by 34 foot two-story box; not too imaginative in design. Now more than a hundred years later, that once unassuming box poses one of Napa's more interesting mysteries. Did Thomas Earl build it from concrete blocks in 1861... or does it date back 20 years earlier to the time when Nicolas Higuerra built the first true adobe house in Napa? No one knows, but Jess Doud, president of Napa County Historical Society, is determined some day to test a core sample of the two-foot thick walls. He hopes to prove that core is made of adobe and that Higuerra built it; Thomas Earl merely "improved" an already existing structure.
The outside walls of the house are covered with wood now, bay windows have softened the lines; a porch with Victorian uprights stretches across the front. Mr. and Mrs. Martin Beeler live there. The house is part of the estate of the late James B. Gardner, Mrs. Beeler's father. When the Gardners took possession in 1923 the changes were already made, including several rooms added in the back for the caretaker Thomas Earl hired to watch the home while he and his family went off to Europe one year. One source suggested the outside wood was added in 1906 after the earthquake cracked the adobe walls. Certainly the earthquake did damage to the four brick chimneys. They all came tumbling down. Mrs. Erwin Yount Dozier of San Francisco remembers it well. She was a child at the time visiting her grandmother, Mrs. Thomas Earl, in Napa. Mrs. Dozier still remembers the 'terrific noise" of the chimneys crashing through the porch, that April day in 1906. But in her ealiest recollections the house was "encased" in wood and she says now, "I could never understand why they would want to do that."
Early historical records note that "in 1861 Thomas Earl had the honor of erecting the first concrete house ever built in Napa. This was written in 1881 (History of Napa and Lake counties, California), 20 years after the Earls took possession of the property. The house at Seminary has walls 22 or 23 inches thick. Legends of the times indicate the "2nd house of Higuerra had walls 22 or 23 inches thick."
Coombs was one of the carpenters who helpe build the second Higuerra home. He received land instead of wages in payment.
Long before Jess Doud's consuming interest in the house, a certain G. W. Hendry from the University of California wrote to James B. Gardner noting that "tradition has it that is is made of adobe and dates back to the Meican period." He requested permission to "take a chip off the plaster covering" but the request apparently was either turned down or ignored. No further report surfaced. But the thick walls whether adobe or concret, kept the house a cool 75 degrees last summer while the rest of Napa sweltered in 119 degreee heat. Upstairs, however the termperature reads a chill 52 degrees in the winter.
There are 11 rooms with ceiling 12 feet high downstaris, 10 feet high upstairs. At one time there were shutters both inside and outside the windows set in those 22-inch walls. the orignial kitchen is now the Beeler dining room, but the original brick well stell provides water for outside irrigation. and Thomas Eal had a water tank on top of the house to provide the spray fo rhis shower. The Beelers both are long-term residents of the valley. Mrs. Beeler's family was one of the first in Napa, arriving in 1849 (George Gordon Gardner's first visit).
They have furnished the home with period pieces adding to the Victorian mood, but, says Mrs. Beeler, "I always wanted to have some little thing that belonged to the Earls."
GHOST STORY: Mary Al would feel cold draft smell cigar smoke on occasion. Teh dog once stood still petrified staring into space. Old man Earl?
James Buchanan Gardner died in the house when his cold turned into pneumonia. His son, James E. Gardner lived in the back part of the house with his family at the time. Beverly Gardner remembers her father James coming into their rooms looking very serious...she knew something had happened.
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