{"nrhp_refnum":"78000725","name":"Greystone Cellars","other_names":["Christian Brothers Wine Aging Cellars"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"2555 Main St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"St. Helena","county":"Napa County","state":"CA","lat":38.514393608000034,"lon":-122.48504975799995,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-08-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"Greystone Cellars is a large stone wine cellar at 2555 Main Street, St. Helena, Napa County, California, built in 1889 and originally called the Bourn & Wise Wine Cellar. It was designed by San Francisco architects Percy and Hamilton.","why_significant":"The nomination argues it is the largest stone wine cellar in California and possibly the world, and an outstanding example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture in the West. It was also a pioneering effort to give small Napa Valley growers storage and cash advances on their wine.","narrative":"Greystone Cellars is a massive gray stone winery on Main Street in St. Helena, built in 1889 to designs by San Francisco architects George Percy and F. F. Hamilton. The building is about 400 feet long and was built of local volcanic stone with red stone trim and a slate roof. It was conceived and financed by William J. Bourn II, a prominent California financier, as the Bourn and Wise Wine Cellar. The cellar offered storage and cash advances to small local growers, an early effort of its kind in the valley. Its arched entrance, tower and rock-faced walls were praised as a leading West Coast example of Richardsonian Romanesque design. The exterior remains largely original, though the hillside tunnels collapsed after water seepage and the 1906 earthquake, and the front lawn became a parking lot. The original tasting and sales rooms survive. Later owners included Charles Carpy, the Visceglia brothers and the Christian Brothers, who acquired it in the 1950s.","period_of_significance":"1800-1899","architect_builder":"Percy and Hamilton (George Percy and F. F. Hamilton)","architectural_style":"Richardsonian Romanesque","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, in excellent condition, and used for wine aging and champagne production; the original 13 tunnels have collapsed and the front terrace has been altered.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:31.593495-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/78000725.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000725/981b2fd7e2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78000725/981b2fd7e2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 4.0","author":"Eugene Zelenko","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA-St._Helena-Greystone_Cellars-1.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Eugene Zelenko</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:USA-St._Helena-Greystone_Cellars-1.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123860026","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Culinary_Institute_of_America_at_Greystone","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5192950"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/napa-county/greystone-cellars-78000725/"}