Retrofit Preserves 100-Year-Old Napa Valley Landmark

Freemark Abbey has been transformed to mark its 130th anniversary.

ST. HELENA, CA—The historic stone building at Freemark Abbey has been an iconic Napa Valley landmark for more than 100 years. Originally constructed in 1886, the Freemark Abbey building graces the bottle label. But it was its participation in the Judgment of Paris wine tasting of 1976 that placed Napa Valley squarely on the world wine stage.

The genesis of Freemark Abbey dates back five years prior to that, in 1881, when Josephine and John Tychson purchased 147 acres in the Napa Valley. Five years later, after John’s death, Tychson built her original redwood winery on the current site of Freemark Abbey in St. Helena. She earned a place in the history books as the first female vintner in California, making the winery that would become Freemark Abbey groundbreaking in more ways than one, GlobeSt.com learns.

Originally less than half its current size, the stone building at Freemark Abbey was built over time, as more temperature-controlled space was needed for wine-making functions and stone provided the perfect material for that. The original structure was constructed by the same hands that farmed the grapes and made the wine in the historical tradition of a barn-raising. The various stages of construction are evident in the different stonework and coursing patterns throughout the rambling structure, and in the hand-hewn quality of the stone and mortar walls. According to SB Architects’ project manager Jim Brenza, “Every elevation had its own logic, but no two were the same.”