Camelot
                                       by Jennifer Liss

Historical saga of an early
Napa Valley Pioneer
(reprinted from California Tour & Travel Magazine)
photo:Original Hillcrest, the home burnt down in
early 1960


Debbie O’Gorman picks up a butter knife from the communal, elegant dining table at her Hillcrest Country Inn Bed and Breakfast in Calistoga. As far as eating utensils are concerned, this is one special butter knife. Dating back to 1890, the knife’s handle is inscribed with the name “Alfred” for Alfred Tubbs, the senator, entrepreneurial genius, original owner of the famous Chateau Montelena vineyard in Calistoga, Tubbs Cordage and Debbie’s great-great grandfather. On the remaining 36 acres of the original 3,000 Tubbs-owned estate at the base of Mt. St. Helena, Debbie’s home and bed and breakfast, through objects such as the prohibition-era wicker kegs and one hundred and twenty year old butter knives, tell the story of one of the most influential nineteenth century families in Northern California.
 
THE SUCCESS OF ALFRED TUBBS
An 1889 sketch of Alfred Tubbs depicts a focused, handsome man with a confident and open gaze, in a full, trim white beard stylishly typical of his day. Alfred Tubbs arrived in San Francisco from New England on July 21, 1850. Within six years, Tubbs and his brother Hiriam launched the Tubbs Cordage Company, the first rope manufacturer in the West. Located at the intersection of Iowa and 22nd Streets on Potrero Hill in San Francisco, the opening of the company marked a crucial point in San Francisco’s transformation as a wild and lawless Western city into an important industrial and urban center. Tubb’s success in the rope business was just the beginning. In 1865 he was elected to the state senate where he served for a full term and then graciously turned down the invitation to run again. He played a key leadership role in several California benchmark institutions, from Stanford to the Fireman’s Fund to the Southern Pacific Railroad Company.

“First Alfred fell in love with the town of San Francisco,” Debbie explains, “and then soon Alfred fell in love with drinking wine with integrity.”  Alfred’s love of good wine and his entrepreneurial creativity and instinct led him to the undeveloped Calistoga region where he opened the unique Chateau Montelena. The vineyard would earn its place as one of the best in the valley.  He died in his San Francisco apartment at the Palace Hotel on December 26, 1896.



THE CREATION OF CHATEAU MONTELENA
AND THE HILLCREST HOUSE
Chateau Montelena was one of two Calistoga landmarks built under Tubb’s supervision. Guests traveled from San Francisco to attend grand storybook parties at the 32-room, 7-fireplace Hillcrest House, Tubb’s summer home and later the primary residence of his socialite and spunky son Willy Bray. Hardly practical for modern living, the Hillcrest House stayed in the Tubbs family until 1959 when Debbie’s mother sold it for $25,000, a sad quarter of what it cost to build it in 1880. The home with a lavish and festival reputation burned to the ground in a 1964 fire. A Napa Register newspaper photo from 1958 shows a five year-old Debbie in a blond ponytail watching her mother shoot pool in the old mansion. “My brothers and friends and I had wild times in the big house. I can still smell the darkness of it,” she says.
A few years after starting construction on the Hillcrest House, Tubbs selected the site for his winery on what is now know as Tubbs Lane in the peaceful and popular Calistoga Valley. The second half of the nineteenth century gave birth to the resort era in California. Beginning in the late 1850s vacation spas became fashionable for wealthy San Francisco families, with White Sulphur Springs opening as the first Calistoga spa in 1855. The first steam train traveled into Calistoga in 1869.
Using French-imported cuttings that thrived in the valley’s well-drained, stony, and loose soil, Tubbs created a legendary vineyard. He imported a French winemaker. He used local help to build the stone Chateau in French style. He arranged for stained glass and wood to be brought around the horn. The front of the winery was built North-facing, in shadow, and the rest of the structure was literally built into a hill. With solid rock exterior and a deep cavernous cellar, the Chateau took four years to build. The fall of 1888 brought the first harvest and earned the Chateau statewide recognition as of the finest buildings of its type in nineteenth century California.  


THE PROHIBITION YEARS
Prohibition, beginning in 1919 and ending in 1933, essentially derailed the California wine industry. Only 160 of California’s 700 vineyards survived prohibition. The devastating impact of both prohibition and the depression took its toll on Chateau Montelena as well. The vineyard passed into several different hands, prune trees were planted, and the Tubbs family fought alongside fellow winemakers to repeal prohibition. A photo of Chapin Tubbs’s electric car from the early 1930s shows bold “Repeal” stickers on the bumper sandwiching a “Tubbs” plaque. Even after the repeal, the wine industry was in shambles, and for close to thirty years the Chateau went into a virtual hibernation.
During that time Yort and Jeanie Frank, a retired Chinese-American couple from Southern California, purchased the Chateau. The Franks were realizing their dream of castle living. They even attempted to build a moat around the Chateau, but encountered a layer of impenetrable bedrock. The moat morphed into Jade Lake that still exists today, lined with yellow and white irises. The style of the Franks, including a bocce ball court, outdoor knight statues, and some Asian decoration and furniture, provide even more history to the Chateau legacy today.

THE REBIRTH OF THE CHATEAU
In 1972 James Barrett purchased the non-operational vineyard and breathed new life into the 120-acre estate that now produces 30,000 cases of award-winning wine each year. At a revolutionary formal wine tasting organized by Englishman Steven Spurrier in 1976 at the Inter-Continental Hotel in Paris, a Chateau Montelena chardonnay helped put California back on the map of quality wine. The wine world gasped as nine exclusive French judges awarded the top prizes to little-known U.S. wineries in the blind tasting. Thanks in part to Chateau Montelena, California was back in business, and as Jim Barrett boasted in at Time article for June 7, 1976, “Not bad for kids from the sticks.”
Aside from the heavy veil of wild vine, the Chateau appearance has changed very little. The modern vineyard, cellar, and tasting room are still housed on the castle estate built by the giant of the rope industry in the infant years of the California wine empire. The winery continues the reputation of consistent, valued wines. Photo at right taken from Hillcrest shows the view of the vineyards today.


THE HILLCREST REINCARNATION
While the original Hillcrest Mansion is gone, Debbie O’Gorman continues the legend with the scaled back Hillcrest Country Inn Bed and Breakfast. Near the base of Mt. St. Helena the bed and breakfast is a gallery of family heirlooms. The rooms are quaint and comfortable, a large clean pool is available for daytime refreshment, and a Jacuzzi overlooking the valley is a wonderful way to relax at night. Visitors hike, fish, and enjoy romantic views that alone are worth the stay. Time spent with Debbie and her family touring old photographs and memorabilia, takes visitors back in time to an early and ambitious Calistoga and into the rich past of the Tubbs family.