Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 713  

17) HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. . About six miles from Napa are the celebrated NAPA SODA SPRINGS. These springs, whose waters have been famous for more than thirty years past, are situated on the mountain side of the valley rendered almost classic by the pen of the tourist and the brush of the painter. Forty-five miles north of San Francisco, they stand at the head of a cafion in the mountains which form the eastern boundary of NapaValley, and six miles from NapaCity. From this point the artists Keith and Virgil Williams have so often transferred to canvas the natural beauties of the landscape that their pictures form the most attractive gems in some of our best art collections. The valley for twenty-five miles below, the bay reflecting the white-winged sails of its proportion of the world’s commerce, mounts Tamalpais and Diablo, forma panorama bf surpassing beauty and impressiveness. Among the attractions of the place we find groves of patriarchal trees,—the live oak, the black oak, festooned with gray Spanish moss or mistletoe, the eucalyptus, the mountain pine, while the Italian cypress adds an exotic charm to the natural scenery. The almond, the olive, and the orange give variety to the view, and testify to the semi-tropical mildness of the climate and the generous fertility of the soil. Numerous living springs of fresh water burst from the mountain side at such an elevation as to send the natural flow over the entire property, and throughout the year this water is as cold as ice. Along one side of the ground a mountain brook gathers the waters of adjacent springs, filling a natural swimming pond cut out of the solid rock, some 50 x 200 feet in size, and from six to nine feet deep, and also an artificial swimming bath, 50x 150, which is under cover and heated by steam. On the other boundary a rocky gorge forms the background of a niniature Niagara, with ninety feet of perpendicular fall. Stone quarried on the spot has supphed the material for building; an orchard in full bearing furnishes abundant fruit, and the choice vineyard has received numerous endorsements of the quality of its wine. But the feature which most distinguishes this favored spot, and makes it especially attractive, is its mineral springs, which are famous for their curative properties, the same elements being held in solution that give to the Carlsbad springs in Bohemia their rank among the first in the world. From more than twenty of these springs is produced the article known as Napa Soda. This water is bottled and sold just as it flows from Nature’s laboratory, and its long and continuous use attests its merit. A beautiful pagoda is built over one of the springs, the solid stone pillars and floor forming a most appropriate setting for the natural stone basin whence flow the waters which refresh, purify and regulate the system and restore its strength and energy. The Bellevue is a conspicuously situated stone house of ten rooms, with turrets, the main feature of which is the columns that grace the entrance, standing upon a broad and open piazza, from which is a perfect view of the entire lower half of Napa Valley, extending to the bay in the distance. These columns are copied from those in the Capitol in Washington, beneath the United States Marshal’s office, which were designed by the engineer Latrobe, the favorite architect of President Jefferson. They are what were known in that day as the “corn-cob capitals,” and consist of an imitation of corn stalks in the columns, with the maize or ears half exposed in the capital. The adoption of this design by Jefferson was in pursuance of his desire to establish a distinctively American order of architecture. He thought it'unworthy of America that she should depend upon foreign nations for her artistic adornments, and suught to introduce this new feature into the ornamentation of the public buildings. His patriotic attempt to revolutionize the artistic taste of the public appears to have been a failure, and the two cases mentioned are, perhaps, the only instances where the idea has been adopted.