During the urban renewal push of the 1970s, downtown Napa underwent a sweeping transformation marked by the removal of numerous historic structures—including the impressive Migliavacca Commercial Building, which once occupied the corner of First and Brown Streets. That distinctive stone structure, originally built in 1905 and damaged in the 1906 earthquake, was razed in 1973 to make way for contemporary redevelopment. In its place, the city created what is now Dwight Murray Plaza, named in honor of local surgeon Dr. Dwight Murray, and anchored by a 72‑foot clock tower set in a recessed amphitheater with a fountain. This plaza embodied the era’s modernist vision—even as critics later dismissed it as emblematic of the misguided “progress” that supplanted much of the city’s Victorian-era charm. Over the decades, the plaza’s clock tower and fountain were eventually removed and the site has remained in a state of planning limbo, emblematic of the ongoing tension between past and future in Napa’s evolving urban fabric.
Photos of Dwight Murray Plaza and Kohls, Downtown Napa:
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