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 The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1992. It is significant for its association with Thomas Earl (1825-1893), a leading citizen in Napa for four decades. With The

2014 South Napa earthquake The 2014 South Napa earthquake occurred in the North San Francisco Bay Area on August 24 at . At 6.0 on the moment magnitude scale and with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (''Severe''), the event was the largest in the San Francisco Bay Are ...

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 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".

References

National Register of Historic Places in Napa County, California Italianate architecture in California Houses completed in 1861 1861 establishments in California Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in California Napa, California {{NapaCountyCA-NRHP-stub