DINNER AT THE MUSEUM
JULY 26, 2025; 5:30-8:30
Join the St. Helena Historical Society for our annual fundraiser, Dinner at the Museum. A full meal with Gerard's paella and salad and dessert from the CIA. Get there early for Napa Valley wines, tapas and Flamenco guitar. Look forward to our silent auction. Help keep the area's history alive.
At the Heritage Center, 1255 Oak Avenue | Tickets on Eventbrite. Or pay by check. Mail to SHHS, Box 87, St. Helena, CA 94574. Please indicate your preference for shrimp and chicken or vegetable paella.
Cutoff date for tickets: July 10: We will not be selling tickets at the door.
SPIRITS OF ST. HELENA CEMETERY DISCOVERY TOUR | SEPTEMBER 27, 2025
We'll be collaborating again with Patti Coyle and St. Helena Drama's student actors.
Who's it going to be this year? Our pioneer families. Look for names like Hudson and York. These are St. Helena's version of founding fathers. They came from other countries, then worked their way west. They came by boat or across the plains in wagon trains.
RUSTIC ROOTS: ST. HELENA BARN TOUR
MAY 18, 2025
This was a self-driving tour. Featured locations:
- Molinari Family Farm
- Meily Winery Barn on Pope Street
- Napa Valley Olive Oil Company
- Prager Winery & Port Works
The Star @ 150: 150 Years of Local History
October 10, 2024
We had a great turnout for a panel discussion from five former and one current Star editors. We talked about the importance of a small town's newspaper. And while so many new distribution channels are now available to us, St. Helenans still look forward to their weekly Star.
Thanks to Reid Sams, Dan Evans, David Stoneberg, Jim Gordon, and Jesse Duarte for joining us and sharing stories that document industry changes.
Watch the video on our YouTube channel
St. Helena Historical Society
SPIRITS OF ST. HELENA CEMETERY DISCOVERY WALK
Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024 | 1:00/2:30
Through Their Eyes: A Century of Veterans’ Stories 1845-1945
The Historical Society partnered with St. Helena Drama. We reenacted stories from the lives of heroic veterans buried in our cemetery. They fought in the Mexican-American War, Spanish-American War, the Civil War, World War I and World War II.
Watch the video and hear their stories.
A great turnout this year. These photos are some of the student actors and the audience.
St. Helena Historical Society's Summer Fundraiser
DINNER AT THE MUSEUM
Saturday, July 20, 2024 | 5:30-8:30
Tapas • Gerard's Paella • Salad • Dessert from the CIA • Napa Valley Wines
A silent auction and Flamenco guitarist
At the Heritage Center Museum, 1255 Oak Ave., St. Helena
Behind the Gates: St. Helena Garden Tour 2024
May 18, 2024 • 12-4pm
An afternoon touring nine historic St. Helena gardens
Tickets: $35-40
This was a joint production by St. Helena Historic Society
and Napa County Landmarks
September 24, 2023 • Tours at 1:00 and 2:30
Spirits of St. Helena Cemetery Discovery Walk
September 24, 2023 • Tours at 1:00 and 2:30
The St. Helena Historical Society hosted its 19th annual Spirits of St. Helena Cemetery Discovery Walk on Sunday, Sept 24. There were two tours, at 1:00 and 2:30. We collaborated with Patti Coyle and St. Helena High School’s drama students again. The focus was on Irish settlers who are buried in the St. Helena Public Cemetery.
“We wrote scripts depicting immigration stories of pioneer family names that you’re going to recognize, including Greer, Fealy, Tainter, Dowdell, Conn and Dwyer,” said Hansen. “This was a chance to learn about some of the challenges and hardships our early settlers faced when they arrived in Napa Valley and began creating new lives for themselves.” In the mid-1800s, Ireland was in the throes of the potato famine, and more than half of the population of the country emigrated to the United States.
Hilos Visible/Visible Threads Exhibit, October 2022
The St. Helena Historical Society partnered with the Napa County Historical Society to present a new exhibit, Visible Threads. Students and other groups created quilt squares that told their immigration stories or what it means to be Hispanic in Napa Valley. The quilt squares were about a person, a place or a thing that provided inspiration. With themes of family, unity, country, ancestors, faith and love, the art "untangles the invisible threads that tie us all together to make visible the individual stories of our community," quilt artist Arlene Correa Valencia.
Hilos Visible was a county-wide project
The project included contributions from students and other groups who told their stories with quilt kits that were available at local libraries. The exhibit was on display at both the Heritage Center Museum in St. Helena and the Napa County Historical Society through March 2022. For SHHS, part of Hilos Visible became part of our permanent exhibit showcasing the importance of the Hispanic culture in the Napa Valley.
Spirits of St. Helena Discovery Cemetery Walk
October 2022
After a two-year Covid hiatus, we hosted our annual cemetery tour. We partnered once again with the high school drama department, and our local students reenacted the lives of our early Italian and Italian-Swiss settlers. This included familiar old family names, such as Pestoni, Rossi, Mondavi, Forni and Romano.
Open House and Launch of History of Firefighting Exhibit and Lecture
May 1, 2022, at the Heritage Center
The History of Firefighting in St. Helena, with a presentation by longtime volunteer fireman Art Carr
- This event was SHHS's annual membership meeting.
- Wine and bites and opportunity to gather together with our community.
- Art Carr was the presenter, sharing anecdotes along with his collection of artifacts, including helmets that date back to the late 1800s.
Being able to respond to fires and building a fire department were important parts of the town's infrastructure
The first hose cart was purchased and arrived in the fall of 1878 and housed on Spring Street. A group of businessmen donated funds to purchase a fire bell which was installed in a 20-foot tower in front of company headquarters. The bell rang every night at 7:45.
By 1881, fire assets included a one hose-cart, six hundred feet of hose, hooks, ladders, lanterns, axes, etc. The Company numbered twenty-two members. There were ten (10) hydrants, and the head of water was strong enough to force a stream over the highest building in town. Hydrants were located six on Main Street, two on Spring and one on Charter Oak.
Dedication of the Birthplace of St. Helena
June, 2022
At exactly 10:04am on Saturday, June 11, Mariam Hansen, SHHS Research Director; Archie Eckles, E. Clampus Vitus; Anna Chouteau, City Council; Jay Smith, Owner, Sunshine Foods; and Stephen Taplin, SHHS President were busy dedicating the birthplace of St. Helena!
Spirits of St. Helena Discovery Cemetery Walk
September 2019
This event paid homage to the French who brought their culture to St. Helena more than 150 years ago. Winemakers on the tour included Jean Brun, Adrien Chaix, Henry Pellet, Germain Crochat, plus others who made a difference but were long forgotten,” explained Mariam Hansen, Research Director for the St. Helena Historical Society. Participants learned about the contributions of these immigrants to the development of St. Helena.
2019 marked 163 years since the first burial at St. Helena Cemetery. Our annual Spirits of St. Helena Cemetery Tour celebrates the listing of St. Helena Public Cemetery on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museum for a Day
Founding Families of Napa Valley
There are many multigenerational families that live in St. Helena. They are born here, grow up, marry and come back to raise their families right here in St Helena. In 2019, the Bedolla, Lincoln, MacDonald, McCormick, and Money families shared their family’s stories with us.
These are the histories of the Bedolla, Lincoln, MacDonald, McCormick, and Money families.
In 2017, the biannual event honored Hispanic families who have shaped the culture and history of St. Helena. Besides the family displays, attendees were entertained by Ballet Zenoalxochiti dancers and the Gastelum Family Band.
St. Helena Historical Society’s third annual History Becomes Art fundraiser was a tremendous success, thanks to artist participation and turnout from our community.
What: Original Art Auction with Devon Bell
When: A Saturday afternoon in March 2019, from 1:00-4:00
Where: The Gallery at Brasswood Estate
What made this event special: Artisan hors d’oeuvres , live music, local wine from Brasswood and other vintners
Help us raise funds to establish a permanent home for our collection. With such a facility, the public will be able to learn about the history of our area and enjoy some of the amazing historical artifacts that have been so generously donated to us over SHHS' 20 years.