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The Red Schoolhouse on Silverado Trail |
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On the list of things visitors remember from a visit to the Napa Valley, the red schoolhouse on the Silverado Trail near Yountville Cross Road is often mentioned. Perhaps it's the incongruity of this red clapboard building set amidst Stags Leap District vineyards. Or the fact that in an area where Tuscan mansions have begun to dominate, it has a quiet, elegant simplicity that imparts history, stability and permanence. The Yount School, as it was once known, was built by volunteers in 1889 on a one acre parcel donated by neighbors. It had two doors, one for boys, one for girls; inside, steps led up to the teacher's desk and a potbelly stove provided heat. Wood for the stove came from the eucalyptus grove behind the building, near the stable that housed the horses some students rode to school. |
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As the schoolhouse began its metamorphosis, a small kitchen, bedroom
and bathroom were added at the rear of the building to accommodate
the school marm. But by 1953 the days of the Yount School were at
an end, and it was sold at auction for $5,000. The bell was taken
down the night before and now sits, a bit of history, in front of
the Yountville Town Hall.
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In 1969 George and Alice Rothwell bought the property and it slowly entered into another life as a family home. One year a new kitchen was the project, another year it was bathrooms, or the guest cottage, or the barn. As their business, Antique Fair in Yountville, flourished, the house became a showcase for a never-ending stream of fine French antiques. Furniture, art and decorative objects made sometimes brief, sometimes prolonged visits to the house before being sold to customers from across the country who made pilgrimages to the shop (and sometimes the house) in the Napa Valley. |
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Today the house is truly a work in progress. A glassed-in solarium
is being finished now, a room to bring the outdoors inside. It borders
the pool that is a re-creation of one the Rothwell's fell in love
with while visiting the South of France during one of their frequent
buying trips abroad. Ukrainian master Pavel
Yarovenko has been instrumental in the latest work, creating
a fireplace and moldings that evoke the Mediterranean, and a master
bathroom that is indeed palatial. "To us, this is a magical place. It has its own climate, for
one thing. In fact, because of the wind currents our vegetable garden
lasts two months longer than ones just a mile away," said George
Rothwell. "The house survived the firestorm of 1981, which
was a miracle, and every season here is dramatic." In fact,
it was on the front porch of the schoolhouse that Rothwell conceived
of the Napa Valley Mustard Festival, the annual and now international
event that has just finished its ninth successful season. "We always find another project," said Alice Rothwell. "That is one of the reasons we love it here so much. There is always something new to plan or to do. We raised our two children here, and now we have grandchildren that love this house as much as their parents did when they were growing up. It has always been a treasure, always a work-in-progress, and we never know what is going to happen next. That, too, is part of the magic of this place." Antique Fair |
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