St. Helena

St. Helena has long enjoyed its reputation as the heart of the Napa Valley.  Nestled in between the upvalley hills, our town’s intimate human scale lends itself to exquisite winery and dining opportunities.   You can book one of our charming lodging offerings, shop ‘til you drop, gallery hop, take a cooking class or put together an unparalleled group experience.  

Our visitors come often, stay longer each visit, and always come back for more.  The sheer variety of available visitor experiences beckons. Are you into history?  Enjoy our historic downtown walking tour.  Interested in olive oil?  Sample our world class olive oil producers; you can even take an olive oil tour to fabulous hillside properties. Fancy a train ride?  Take a ride on the Napa Valley Wine Train and dine and relax in style. If your body needs revivifying, visit our spas and health facilities. Planning a business meeting? Wedding?  Week getaway with family and friends? St. Helena offers venues in all shapes and sizes along with a veritable smorgasbord of amenities.  

Community Life: Community life in town revolves around our children, their schools, service clubs, active local interest groups and politics. With a total population in the upvalley incorporated areas of approximately 20,000 people, many residents have lived here all their lives. The majority of businesses, including wineries, are family owned and operated. Many St. Helena families have been in the area for generations. 

Small town community life abounds in the form of every night of the week  bocce leagues, an annual Easter Egg Hunt, Christmas decorations hung by the Chamber of Commerce, Kiwanians, and Rotarians on Thanksgiving morning early and followed up with superb locally made bloody marys, an annual Harvest Festival including a PET PARADE, a jewel-like vintage movie theatre and performing arts venues ranging from a country barn setting (the White Barn) to the world renowned Auction Napa Valley! The auction, put on by the wineries and the respected Napa Valley Vintners Association, is held at the stately Meadowood Napa Valley. 

St. Helena History:  The site that is now the city of St. Helena was once part of the range of a Native American people who called themselves the Onastis, the “outspoken ones.” When Spanish (and later, Mexican) soldiers claimed the region as part of their northernmost outpost, they dubbed these warlike folk the “Wappo,” from a word meaning “brave,” or “handsome.” 

The Mexican administrator of the territory granted most of the upper part of the Napa Valley to an English doctor with a penchant for drink, Edward T. Bale, in 1841. Dr. Bale bartered off portions of his huge land grant to American pioneers, who began arriving in 1844. Others followed, and in 1846, the area’s hearty emigrees participated in the Bear Flag Revolt, an attack on the Mexican headquarters in Sonoma that resulted in California being claimed for the United States, as part of the Mexican-American War. After successful adventures in the Gold Rush, two of these “Bear Flaggers,” David Hudson and John York, discovered hot mineral springs in a secluded glade in the foothills just west of the present town. They sold the property to two developers who established California’s first resort there, White Sulphur Springs, in 1852. On May 16, 1854, an Englishman, J. Henry Still, in partnership with a Mr. Walters, purchased from the Bale family 126 acres not far from the resort. Still built a small wooden home, added a general store to it, and offered to donate lots to anyone willing to help him start a town. There were takers, and soon homes and small businesses sprouted up around what is now the intersection of Pope, Main, and Spring Streets. Ironically, 1854 also saw the organization of the local chapter of the Sons of Temperance, an organization wary of the effects of drink. They called themselves the “St. Helena Chapter” of the Sons of Temperance, after the mountain at the head of the Valley, which is how St. Helena got its name. 

Most of the first settlers were farmers. By 1860, a few of these early St. Helenans had discovered that the soil was spectacularly suited to growing grapes. Dr. George Beldon Crane and Charles Krug pioneered the Napa Valley wine industry, which quickly made a major contribution to the town’s coffers. 

Battling an infestation of vine-destroying bugs and sharp economic downturns in the nation at large, the wine industry and St. Helena developed together. Wealthy lovers of good food and drink discovered the spa White Sulphur Springs and the pleasant little town nearby. Some built elaborate homes and stole away to their Napa Valley retreats on weekends. German, Swiss and French families also came in relatively large numbers. Some of these newcomers had winemaking and viticultural expertise; others were master stonemasons and quarried the nearby lava deposits to build structures reminiscent of the architecture of their homeland. By 1915, St. Helena was a popular tourist attraction: Europe, the easy way. 

St. Helena still drew tourists after January 17, 1920, the day the 18th Amendment became law in the United States, ushering in 13 years of Prohibition. So many people came to St. Helena to purchase bootlegged brandy and wine that Highway 29 became known as the state’s second-most traveled route. 

The wine industry slowly rebuilt itself, but the demand for premium wine receded during the Great Depression, and St. Helena dropped into the quiet, comfortable repose of a rural community, where everyone knows or is related to everyone else, and no heavy industry pollutes the environment. 

St. Helena awakened from its slumber in the early 1970’s, when Americans rediscovered the merits of good wine, clean air and untrammeled landscape. Thanks to rigorous efforts by its civic leadership, it preserves its historic blend: landscape a Wappo would still recognize, simplicity to warm the heart of a pioneer, elegant architecture to delight the European in anyone, and small-town coziness so American it should be bottled and sold.