In this postcard story we visit Larkmead, established in 1892 four miles north of St. Helena, midway between Calistoga and St. Helena, whose vintage stone wine cellar is one of Napa Valley’s most beautiful. In the early 1870s, Dr. Charles Hitchcock (1810-1885) established a country estate on a 1000-acre parcel of densely wooded land in what is now Bothe-Napa Valley State Park. His family named it “Lonely.” Dr. Hitchcock, previously the Pacific Coast Medical Director for the U.S. Army at the S.F. Presidio, had accumulated a massive fortune in local real estate and became a highly influential figure in early San Francisco high society. His country home welcomed and entertained honored guests from the City, actively promoting Napa Valley as the ideal summer getaway for the wealthy. Following “Lonely,” the good doctor purchased a nearby plot of land to build a country estate for his daughter Lillie Hitchcock Coit (1843-1929) on the eastern side of the County Highway along the rail line. Lillie, a colorful character, “scandalous” according to her loving father, was the famous cigar-smoking darling of the San Francisco Fire Department who preferred trousers to fine dresses while freely gambling in male-only saloons. She bequeathed a sizeable sum to San Francisco to build a memorial to the city’s volunteer firefighters – Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill. Lillie named her 400-acre ranch and country home Larkmead, for the profusion of larks in the surrounding meadows. She planted a vineyard of 130 acres and constructed a small wooden winery, leaving a legacy for historic Larkmead Winery fine wine vineyards. (For a postcard Note on “Lonely,” see References at end.)