{"nrhp_refnum":"93000664","name":"Oakville Grocery","other_names":["Oakville Mercantile"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"7856 St. Helena Hwy.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Oakville","county":"Napa County","state":"CA","lat":38.437399328000026,"lon":-122.40264158399998,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1993-07-22","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Commerce"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story false-front commercial building at 7856 St. Helena Highway in Oakville, Napa County, California, begun in the 1880s as a general store and remodeled in 1921 by contractor John E. McCarthy.","why_significant":"It is significant under Criterion A in the area of commerce as the only surviving early twentieth-century (1920s) mercantile in the locality. It was the sole mercantile in Oakville between 1915 and 1940 and offered postal, telegraph and telephone services along with daily necessities. Its interior retains a high degree of integrity and still conveys a 1920s general store.","narrative":"Oakville Grocery is a one-story, false-front commercial building on the St. Helena Highway in Oakville, in California's Napa Valley. Begun in the 1880s as a general store, it was remodeled in 1921 by contractor John E. McCarthy for owner Frederick Durant, who brought back modern ideas from San Francisco. The remodel gave it a stuccoed, stepped parapet reminiscent of Mission Revival and Craftsman styling, added side windows, and installed a modern refrigerator case. A stone cold-storage building from the 1880s remains attached at the rear, and a painted Coca-Cola advertisement marks the south wall. Between 1915 and 1940 it was the only mercantile in Oakville, supplying groceries, mail, telegraph and telephone service while the town's economy stagnated through Prohibition and the Depression. Locals also sold surplus eggs and chickens there. It was listed as the only surviving 1920s mercantile in the area, with an interior that retains its original floor plan and fixtures.","period_of_significance":"circa 1921-1940","architect_builder":"McCarthy, John E.","architectural_style":"Other: false-front commercial (parapet reminiscent of Mission Revival and Craftsman details)","criteria":["A"],"status_note":"Still operating as a store with a post office, as it has since the mid-1880s; exterior integrity is moderate and interior integrity high.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:27.857202-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/93000664.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000664/13617a8b74-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/93000664/13617a8b74-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Sanfranman59","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oakville_Grocery,_7856_St._Helena_Hwy.,_Oakville,_CA_10-9-2011_4-56-05_PM.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Sanfranman59</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oakville_Grocery,_7856_St._Helena_Hwy.,_Oakville,_CA_10-9-2011_4-56-05_PM.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123860070","wikipedia":null,"wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q133308654"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/napa-county/oakville-grocery-93000664/"}