What to See in Napa - Top Sights and Attractions

Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food & the Arts was a non-profit museum and educational center in downtown Napa, California, dedicated to wine, food and the arts of American culture. The center, planned and largely funded by vintners Robert and Margrit Mondavi, was open from 2001 to 2008. The 78,632-square-foot museum had galleries, two theaters, classrooms, a demonstration kitchen, a restaurant, a rare book library, and a 3.5-acre vegetable and herb garden; there it hosted wine and food tasting programs, exhibitions, films, and concerts. The main and permanent exhibition of the museum, "Forks in the Road", explained the origins of cooking through to modern advances. The museum's establishment benefited the city of Napa and the development and gentrification of its downtown.

Copia hosted its opening celebration on November 18, 2001. Among other notable people, Julia Child helped fund the venture, which established a restaurant named Julia's Kitchen. Copia struggled to achieve its anticipated admissions, and had difficulty in repaying its debts. Proceeds from ticket sales, membership and donations attempted to support Copia's payoff of debt, educational programs and exhibitions, but eventually were not sufficient. After numerous changes to the museum to increase revenue, Copia closed on November 21, 2008. Its library was donated to Napa Valley College and its Julia Child cookware was sent to the National Museum of American History. The 12-acre (4.9 ha) property had been for sale since its closure; the Culinary Institute of America purchased the northern portion of the property in October 2015. The college opened its campus, the Culinary Institute of America at Copia, which houses the CIA's new Food Business School.^[1]

The Capt. N. H. Wulff House, at 549 Brown St. in Napa, California, was built in 1885. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

It is a two-story wood frame Italianate-style house. In 1992 it was "virtually unaltered" since its original construction, and retained its architectural integrity.

It was deemed significant as one of few surviving buildings associated with Napa's maritime history. The navigable Napa River flows 20 miles (32 km) from Napa to the San Francisco Bay, and early in Napa's history was essentially the only way to transport produce and passengers to San Fran, and assorted goods and passengers back. River traffic did not decline until the 1920s. Captain N. H. Wulff was "one of the city's most important steamboat owners and masters during the last half of the nineteenth century. Because Wulff was engaged in carrying goods and passengers vital to the growth of the town, the building is also significant in the areas of commerce and transportation... Wulff had the house erected at the height of his career in 1885 and lived in it until his death in 1911."

The house was designed by William H. Corlett and built by Thomas Derry.^[7]

The Thomas Earl House, at 1221 Seminary St. in Napa, California, is an Italianate style house which was built in 1861. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

It is significant for its association with Thomas Earl (1825-1893), a leading citizen in Napa for four decades.

The 2014 South Napa earthquake caused severe damage to the house, which was built with "21-inch-thick walls using an early form of concrete that lacked the strength of modern Portland cement". Marc Porat and his wife Claire Tomkins purchased the damaged house in 2017, planning to convert it into a ten-room retreat center for use by corporations. Their original plan was to move the house 12 feet (3.7 m) east and renovate it, and that concept was approved by Napa's cultural heritage commission, planning commission and city council early on 2020. Experts later concluded that moving the house all at once could result in destruction of the historic structure. Working with architect Tim Deming, the owners developed an alternative plan to cut the external walls into sections for removal, restoration and reassembly on a new steel frame set on a new foundation over a newly excavated basement, a process called "panelization". Although city staff expressed concern about the process, the cultural heritage commission approved the plan in December, 2020. Porat promised that the "end product will be identical".^[9]