Throughout Northern California wine country there are many postcards that preserve for all history our past winegrowing vineyards, large and small. Napa Valley’s Howell Mountain is no exception. In the early 1880s, Howell Mountain and its “thermal belt” reputation, along with a grape boom land sale, quickly attracted several pioneer winegrowers from the valley floor, including Brun & Chaix of Oakville Nouveau Medoc fame who set out a 120-acre vineyard and built a large stone wine cellar in 1886 on White Cottage Rd two miles west of Angwin near the mountain summit. About the same time, John Thomann of Sutter Home in St Helena bought land, set out forty acres in red wine grapes, and built a winery. Of course, Charles Krug, the wineman who validated the soils as being excellent for wine culture, had a 100-acre presence on Howell Mountain. Winfield Keyes, son of the founder of Edge Hill Winery west of St. Helena, planted one hundred acres to vines and built his attractive one-story stone Liparita Winery in 1880. But these familiar large-scale operations are not those we seek-out for our Vintage Tour as we explore several successful resort owners on the mountain who planted vineyards. The 1893 survey of the vineyards in Napa Co. counted twenty-six wine growers who had vineyards of 30 acres or less, sixteen near Angwin, another ten in Pope Valley. Our personable resort owners fall into this small, yet historically significant, category.
Steamer “Napa Valley” – 21 mph – Monticello Steamship Co. – 1910
The beautiful “Napa Valley” was the flagship of the Vallejo-based Monticello Steamship Co., providing passenger and car ferry service between San Francisco and Vallejo across the bay, a thirty-nine-mile trip connecting with the electric railway into Napa Valley for a popular “Napa Valley Route,” offering a fast, comfortable trip with lounges and dining. A modern and forward-thinking vessel for the time, she went into service in 1910, designed to carry 1,500 passengers and some twenty automobiles. Typical for the company, the “Napa Valley” (230′ x 50′) was fitted out, if not opulently, very comfortably — with upholstered bench seats, a full-service dining saloon, and an open upper deck fore and aft for passengers to enjoy the crossing outdoors on warm days. For many, a stay on Howell Mountain awaited.
Angwin’s Howell Mountain Resort – 1906
In 1866, three of the four young British-born Angwin brothers immigrated to America, first stopping in Sacramento, before settling near the summit of Howell Mountain in 1874. Rev. William Angwin answered the call from St.Helena Methodist Church, which led him to a distinguished lifelong career in the nNorthernCalifornia Methodist ministry. Younger brother James Alfred found work with the Central Pacific Railroad out of Sacramento. Older brother Edwin Angwin (1841-1918), for whom the town was named, purchased two hundred acres on a rolling, fertile plateau of Howell Mountain, married Miss Elvira Mendenhall, and became a farmer while he and his wife slowly developed a summer guest resort of cottages and tents. He set out a small ten-acre vineyard of Zinfandel and Black Burgundy vines. He did not see the need to build a winemaking facility, and most likely called on one of the nearby commercial wineries to process his harvest. Later, in the 1880s, to supplement their income from farming, grape sales, and logging trees, and to meet the demands of their growing, extremely popular health and pleasure resort, Edwin – an accomplished construction carpenter – built “a most perfect country hotel” (shown above) with a grand rock entrance. The handsome hotel could accommodate one hundred guests in comfortable, beautifully furnished rooms, while the spacious dining room seated 150.
Angwin, Howell Mountain, Near St. Helena – September 6, 1896
A splendid postcard find! “My Dear Elsa! Four in Hand we went on a morning drive. After a fine repast, we enjoy here on the veranda the mountain air. Everybody sends Greetings from California to Germany. Love, Your Papa.” Edwin and his wife operated their Angwin paradise for almost thirty years. Over time, more acreage was added for farming, vineyard, and resort needs, acquiring a total of fifteen hundred scenic and productive acres. The Angwin’s large farm, its orchards and vineyards, along with the resort’s many valuable structures and improvements, was greatly admired when they were ready to retire in 1909 and sell the property to the Seventh-Day Adventist Church for a college site, now the seat of Pacific Union College. Today, while the original Angwin Resort is but a historical plaque, its legacy survives in the community of Angwin, a unique part of the Howell Mountain AVA established in 1984. [Postcard Note: This plain postcard, whose message was written on the unadorned back, was issued and mailed by the U.S. Post Office. The first U.S. picture postcard to be printed as a souvenir was created in 1893 to advertise the Chicago World’s Fair, yet these cards could not be sent via U.S. mail since the Postal Service held a monopoly on postcards until May 1898, when Congress passed the Private Mailing Card Act, which allowed private publishers and printers to produce postcards, but they had to be labeled “Private Mailing Cards,” and not “postcards.” This law was rescinded in 1901, and the “Golden Age” of picture postcards was upon us.]
Toland House, Howell Mtn. Napa Co. – c1908
This quaint photo postcard produced in St. Helena by “postcard king” Joe Galewsky is the only known postcard view of Toland House, a bucolic summer destination for many Bay Area vacationers, and one of the first guest resorts on Howell Mountain. Located near what would become the town of Angwin at the junction of Howell Mt. Road, White Cottage Rd., and Deer Park Road, it was founded in “a modest way” in 1872 by young Mary Frances “Mollie” Thomas Toland (1849-1906) and her asthmatic husband, Frank Toland, two years after they arrived on Howell Mountain from Missouri. They purchased an 80-acre parcel of mountain land and cleared space for a family orchard, large vegetable garden, and a worthy vineyard. The “Home-Like Mountain Resort,” at a healthy fog-free elevation of 1500′ and only six miles from St Helena, was one of Napa County’s oldest and most popular resorts, known for its hospitality and good cheer — with an organ in the parlor and a regular summer boarder who always arrived with her violin. Following Frank Toland’s death in 1881, Mollie Toland continued to run the resort and tend the ranch. In 1884, she married Howell Mountain neighbor Thomas McQuie (1853-1928), who continued to host guests at Toland House until he passed in 1928. They are difficult to see, but small vines are growing up the foreground hillside, in front of the two camping tents.
White Cottages Resort Entrance, Howell Mountain – c1910
Situated on a winding White Cottage Road plateau, in a forest of pines and oaks at the head of a valley near the 2000′ summit of the mountain, yet only eight miles from St. Helena, White Cottages Resort was founded in 1900 by John Henry Goetsche and his wife Margaret (1861-1949). Both born in Germany, they met and married in Canada two years before they came to San Francisco in 1888. An expert mechanical engineer, it is fascinating to learn that he was employed by A. S. Halliday, the inventor of the San Francisco cable car, to lay the first cable car lines in the City. His consumptive condition led them to Howell Mountain, where they purchased 255 acres to establish their farm and summer resort accommodating sixty-five guests. They planted an orchard of fruit trees, kept a large garden, grapes on the vines, chickens in the barn, and wine on the table. This fantastic postcard scene was used on one of their printed advertisements, giving a perfect view of the resort’s location, accommodations, and beckoning forested hillsides in the background. Their hilltop vineyard is just out of view.
White Cottages, Picking Grapes, Near St. Helena – c1920
An outing in the vineyard was a popular activity. From the caption, these vines would be a table grapes, and guests were encouraged to help themselves. In September 1920, visitor Eleanor playfully wrote to her San Francisco friend, “It is nice and warm up here … you can see I am used as an advertisement for White Cottages. I am the one on the extreme right.”
A Typical Scene At White Cottages, Howell Mountain – c1920
To me, this “typical scene” has always begged for an explanation. Even in 1920, Howell Mountain Road was an unpaved, terribly dusty, steep, and harrowing drive. (The road would not be paved until the 1930s.) Have these vacationers just driven up the mountain, thankfully arriving at White Cottages, and having their photo taken by the resort host? Surely the mother-daughter duo did not drive the other auto? Perhaps the husband/father is taking the photo of the older couple? Maybe a family. Sadly, no message is written on the very rare postcard, so no news of their journey is learned. But I yearn to know. Mrs. Goetsche was a talented cook, and meals from her kitchen were famous, bringing guests back year after year. When her husband died in 1909, her nephew Charles Henne became a partner. The popular resort (sometimes also called The Howell Springs) was sold in 1932 to become a ranch home for Angwin pioneers Dick and Pearl Friesen.
Entrance At Woodworth’s Summer Resort, Near St. Helena – c1918
In 1874, pioneer Willard F. Woodworth (1825–1894) settled on the eastern side of Howell Mountain in Pope Valley, northerly from Angwin, and planted a small vineyard on his farm. Two years earlier, he had married Christina Steckmeyer Muller (1844-1922), the young widow of Frederick Muller and the mother of six Muller children, the oldest being twelve years old. This bit of information, dug out from the St.Helena Star archives, explains “who exactly were Woodworth & Muller,” who founded the original Woodworth’s resort at the beginning of the 1901 season. Accordingly, at the time of the 1894 death of patriarch W.F. Woodworth, the Woodworth family had grown by six more children, and living on “one of the prettiest places on the mountain,” opening a summer resort was a brilliant plan for additional income. Presumably, Christina Woodworth ran the operation. The 1910 Census gloriously shows three generations of the Woodworth-Muller family living at the farm-resort, the Muller family in charge of the resort, the Woodworth men running the farm already known for their vineyard, delicious tree fruits, and vegetable produce.
Woodworth’s Summer Resort, Cottage And Vineyard Scene – c1908
This early postcard image shows the beautiful setting of the mountain resort and vineyard of the Woodworth & Muller family farm. By 1893, the ranch had a twenty-five-acre vineyard planted to wine grapes – Riesling, Muscat, and Malvoisie that produced some sixty tons annually. As we have learned, despite the growth of new resorts and influx of agriculture, the road over Howell Mountain was unpaved and a perilous drive for all. The Woodworth-Muller wine-growing operation prudently transported their casks of wine only two barrels at a time down the steep grade. The barrels were unloaded at a designated spot, and the driver returned back up to the ranch for another load. Some Pope Valley grapes were hauled over the ridge to be crushed at the Howell Mountain Winery of Brun & Chaix, who advertised to the local wine growers there would always be a market for mountain grapes at their winery. Meanwhile, it was noted in the news that Georges de Latour had engaged several six-horse teams to transport high-quality Howell Mountain wines to his Oakville storage facility.
Woodworth’s New Hotel, Howell Mountain – c1918
In 1918, the Woodworth brothers, Albert and Arthur, purchased their step-brother Frank J. Muller’s half-interest in the summer resort, now to be called Woodworth Brothers. Frank and his wife, both now almost sixty years old (twenty years older than Albert, twenty-five more than Arthur), planned to buy a small farm and live in Calistoga. Soon after, the brothers cleared more land for another orchard and vineyard. A new three-story hotel was built on the edge of the forest, with a breathtaking panoramic view that stretched for miles. Equipped with thirty tents, several cottages, and the new hotel, the expansive retreat comfortably accommodated a hundred guests. Outdoor entertainments included tennis, croquet, a dancing pavilion and large swimming “tank.” Woodworth’s remained in operation for some forty years – from a single guest or two in their home to a state-of-the-art hotel – until they were closed by the Depression c1930. Shortly after, the families sold the property to the Alfred Lockman Dilly family, who were hoping to reopen the resort. But in mid-summer 1932, while working on the outside of the hotel, the cornerstone of the resort burst into flames and was a total loss. It sadly tolled the end of Woodworth’s famed resort.
Winter Cottage Scene At Woodworth’s Resort, Howell Mt.- c1910
This warming “quiet beauty of winter” and vineyard postcard scene is a rare, very temporary phenomenon on the mountain. The more common sight is maybe an annual light “dusting” of snow during the coldest months of January and February, but no one anxiously awaits significant snowfall for skiing or building snowmen on Howell Mountain.
Old Howell Mountain’s rugged crests, In pristine glories gleam; Its pines still stand as sentinels, Still flows its mountain stream.
Its vine-clad hills with beauty glow, Kissed by the sun’s bright ray; Around its teeming orchard boughs, The shine and shadow play.
Toland House, October 1904.
References & Notes
Katherine Van Arsdale, Angwin and Howell Mountain, 2021. (A good overall view of the history of Howell Mountain with only a brief coverage of the wine scene.)
Peninou, Ernest. History of the Napa Viticultural District, 2004. Online at “Wayward Tendrils Wine Book Collectors Newsletter/Journal.” Note: In Mr Peninou’s sketch of Brun & Chaix Winery both at Oakville and on Howell Mountain, he stated they built a narrow-gauge branch railroad from the main line up to Howell Mountain for hauling grapes and wine. Lacking any evidence of a narrow-gauge line on the Mountain, it is doubtful this was accomplished.
