Yellow Diamonds on the Roof ?

  At the Sharpsteen Museum a few weeks ago, I noticed yellow “diamonds” on the roofs of houses in the diorama of “Calistoga’s yesteryears”. What they meant, no one there could tell me. My curiosity led me to ask a Napa architectural historian, Stacey de Shazo, who told me it was, as I suspected, purely…

The Importance of Grouting

The rains last week put a halt with work on the stone exterior walls. But today we made decisions on the type and color of grout for the exterior walls. Proper grouting is a very important to the stability, waterproofing and aesthetics of a historic building. It basically means filling in the areas around the…

The Francis House Will Become a Home Again

How many of you were born in The Old Calistoga Hospital?” Dwyer asked the audience at the Sharpsteen Museum last week, and about seven raised their hands. “It’s our intention to restore the structure to its original grandeur,” he continued. “The way James Francis envisioned it… as a home.” Dwyer said that he had just…